Kodak EasyShare Z650

Performance Assessment
We had the opportunity to shoot with the EasyShare Z650 at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Though shooting in a convention hall doesn't yield the precise data that controlled testing does, we can draw some reliable inferences from the shots of our fellow convention-goers at the Kodak booth.

First, the Schneider-Kreuznach lens is sharp throughout its zoom range, which runs the equivalent of a 38-380mm zoom on a 35mm camera. Like most long zooms, it shows significant barrel distortion at the wide angle end of its range. This distortion makes straight lines curve at the edges of the frame, and is strong enough to be noticeable in pictures of buildings or other square-cornered subject matter.

The distortion settles down at the less wide angle settings but we note color fringing throughout the range, giving objects toward the corners of the image both a red edge and a blue edge. The color won't always be noticeable in every shot, but in enlargements of images with contrasting objects toward the edges of the frame this will be clearly visible.

Speed / Timing
The EasyShare Z650 is a slow camera. It takes a few seconds to start up, and in single-shot mode, it takes a couple of seconds between shots. Shutter lag for compact cameras is seldom great. With the EasyShare Z650, it's important to anticipate the action a bit, and press the shutter slightly before the moment to be captured.

Noise
We shot a few different subjects with the EasyShare Z650's manual ISO settings, and examined the images for noise. At the lowest settings, 80 and 100, the EasyShare Z650's images are very clean for a camera with a 1/2.5-inch CCD. As we bumped up to ISO 200 and 400, noise levels rose, but not above acceptable levels. We expect that an image shot at ISO 400 would make an attractive, clean-looking 8 x 10 print. Color noise will be noticeable in dark areas, but not as much in light and textured areas, however, these are only preliminary estimation - full testing will be conducted when we get a production and conduct our full review.

Color
We found the color rendition of the EasyShare Z650 pleasing. It may be over-saturated, but if it is, it seems relatively balanced – greens and blues have the same sort of punch that the reds and oranges do. It's typical of snapshot cameras to bias toward red, orange, and yellow, because those are vital to healthy skin tones. The EasyShare Z650 handles skin well, and even maintains detail in highlights on skin. We were impressed with the subtle variations in skin tone that the EasyShare Z650 captured.

Sharpness
Preliminary observations of the Z650's Schneider-Kreuznach Varigon lens showed good sharpness at both wide and telephoto settings. We noted very fine detail from center to edge. Without controlled testing this is a subjective report, but we note that the camera's noise control and JPEG compression are engineered well enough such that they don't seem to harm the camera's resolution. There's enough resolution to show individual eyelashes on a person photographed from the waist up.

Value
The EasyShare Z650 will be introduced at a suggested price of $350. At 6 megapixels, with a 10x zoom lens and appealing image quality, the Z650 should be a good value – we hesitate somewhat in this endorsement however, because we haven't yet run our controlled tests on the images.

The EasyShare Z650 lacks two important features for a camera with a long zoom and manual controls: image stabilization and custom white balance. The EasyShare Z650 would perform better in many common shooting situations if it had those features. From a competitive standpoint, the EasyShare Z650 suffers, because there are comparably-priced cameras with both features. The ones we've tested, however, had disappointing image quality.

As a value proposition, we expect the EasyShare Z650 to compare well with the competition, primarily because of its image quality and ease of use.

Who It’s For
Point-and-Shooters - The EasyShare Z650 is expressly designed for point-and-shooters who are looking for something extra. Eager beginners, and even those beginners who have no ambition to learn much about manual camera operation, will be satisfied with it.

Budget Consumers - The EasyShare Z650 makes less of a case for budget consumers, who could get most of what the camera offers for less money by settling for a shorter zoom.

Gadget Freak - This crowd will miss the appeal of the EasyShare Z650, which isn't nearly cutting edge enough for them.

Manual Control Freaks - The EasyShare Z650 would be a good bet for this group, if it had a custom white balance. This group would be more likely to do without manual focus, which is usually pretty unsuccessful on cameras in this range.

Pros / Serious Hobbyists - Again, we think the EasyShare Z650 gets almost everything right for this group – many pros like to have a little camera for casual shooting -- but the lack of custom white balance is a missing feature many of them won't tolerate.