Kodak Easyshare Z710 Review

The new Kodak Easyshare Z710 was officially unveiled at the Photokina show in Germany last month. We’ve got our hands on this latest ultra-zoom camera from Kodak, which features a 10x zoom lens equivalent to 38-380mm. With a recommended price of £280 / $300, the Kodak Z710 is cheaper than most of its main rivals, but can it deliver the goods? Find out by reading our latest in-depth review.

Website: Kodak Easyshare Z710 Review

Published: Friday, November 03, 2006

Reader Comments

1. Looks like a pretty cool camera. On the one hand I don't like bulky cameras, but I love the quality. I read some digital news on http://www.lammazing.com and it said that Kodak is getting better by the day. So I think I just might go with it...

   Nicole at 10:34pm on Thursday, November 02, 2006

2. This review slightly put me off the Z710.
   Picture stabalisation has to be a bonus, might look at alternative Kodak / Panasonic.

   Malcolm at 02:53pm on Saturday, November 04, 2006

3. Awesome camera........

   Julie Amundson at 03:45pm on Wednesday, November 29, 2006

4. An excellent beginners or kids camera as it is so easy to use with some quite advanced features (eg the histogram and PASM modes). It also has a handy grid to remind you to use the rule of thirds in composing shots.
   
   It is a LOT cheaper than the competion with similar specs. (7.1Mp, 10X optical zoom and SLR style body) The use of the most common generic and cheapest SD card and AA batteries (recommend NiMH rechargeable) also helps with cost savings over other cameras which may use weird proprietary and expensive memory and battery configurations. If you want a better quality camera you will pay a very steep premium for another brand (double the price or more)
   
   Have cropped and blown up photos to A4 size and they are great quality with little noise, great sharpness and colour.
   
   Here are some suggestions to overcome some of the "faults" pointed out in the review (which are also present in other much more expensive brands);
   1)Use maximum 7.1 MP picture quality setting
   2)Set sharpening to High
   3)Set colour to High
   4)Use PASM mode which allows access to all menu options (for advanced users) while retaining auto simplicity (for others)
   5)Use a tripod or mini tripod (this is much better than any optical or digital image stabilisation)
   6)process downloaded photos in an image editor (eg Paint Shop pro or Adobe photoshop elements) and use 5 functions:
   a)crop
   b)one step photo fix
   c)contrast and brightness (usually increase both )
   d)colour saturation (usually increase)
   e) colour RGB- decrease yellow as for some reason yellows are often over saturated
   7)Indoors or at night use night mode without flash (to overcome dark or dull pictures)
   
   I also own a canon 35 mm SLR and this Kodak digital produces equally good or better pictures with the bonus of digital editing possibilities. The Kodak is so simple to operate my 7 year old daughter can use it no problems to make great photos.
   
   In summary a great little (like a mini SLR) camera for a very low price.

   mark ronberg at 12:39pm on Tuesday, November 27, 2007