Kodak Easyshare Z710 Review

Review Date: November 1st 2006

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Introduction

The Kodak Easyshare Z710 is a stylish bridge-style camera with a massive 10x zoom lens covering 38-380mm, 7 megapixel sensor, 2 inch LCD screen, and a full range of creative shooting modes, including fully manual. Other features of the Z710 designed to appeal to the photographer in you include three types of exposure metering, ISO 64-800, a fast aperture of f2.8 at the wide-angle lens setting, and an electronic viewfinder. If all that sounds too complicated, there is also the usual Kodak emphasis on ease of use, with a full range of auto and scene modes for the less experienced user. With a recommended retail price of £279 in the UK, the Kodak Easyshare Z710 attempts to bridge the gap between value and performance and appeal to those who want DSLR-like features without the DLSR price-tag. The Kodak Z710 also offers the added benefits of image preview on the LCD screen, the avoidance of dust problems via the fixed lens and video capability. So is the Kodak Easyshare Z710 ultra-zoom camera the perfect marriage of function, form and price? We take an in-depth look to find out.

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Features

The Kodak Easyshare Z710 has a 7.4 MP megapixel, 1/2.5 inch CCD that delivers 7.1 effective megapixels. There are a range of image sizes (3072 × 2304, 3072 × 2048, 2592 × 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 × 1200) which are recorded as JPEGs. The camera has a 10x zoom lens equivalent to 38-380mm on a 35mm format camera. There is also a 5x digital zoom should you feel the need to use it. The camera has 32Mb of built-in memory, of which 27Mb is available for picture storage - it is not supplied with either a SD Memory Card or MultiMedia Card.

The Kodak Z710 offers an Auto, P (program), A (aperture priority), S (shutter priority) and M (manual) exposure modes plus 17 different scene modes (sport, portrait, night shot, landscape, flower, backlight, candlelight, manner/museum, text, beach, snow, fireworks, children, party, night portrait, night landscape, self portrait). The maximum aperture is f2.8 (wide) – f3.7 (tele) and the shutter speed range is 8 secs. – 1/1000th sec. There are 5 ISO speeds ranging from 64 to 800 (ISO 800 available only at 1.9 MP image size) and an Auto option. There are 4 different White Balance presets to choose from (daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade), plus an Auto setting. The camera offers exposure compensation in ± 2 in 1/3 EV steps.

The Kodak Easyshare Z710 has a normal shooting mode, 10 second single Self-timer, 10 second two-shot Self-timer, 2 second Delay Shutter, and 2 Continuous modes (first burst or last burst) of 1.7 fps. There are 5 different colour effects available (High Color, Natural Color, Low Color, Black and White and Sepia) and 3 sharpness adjustments (High, Normal and Low). The Macro setting allows you to focus on subjects that are as close as 12cms at the wide-angle lens setting. The camera offers 2 auto-focus systems - TTL multi-zone AF and center zone AF - and you can choose from Single, Continuous, Macro or Infinity focus. 3 exposure metering systems are available - multipattern, center-weighted, and center-spot - based on a TTL-AE system. There is an AF assist lamp to help achieve focus in low-light situations and an AE Lock function when the shutter button is pressed halfway. The built-in flash offers 4 different modes (auto, off, fill, red-eye reduction), has a Guide number of 10.6 and the range at ISO 200 is 0.6m - 4.9m for 38mm lens setting and 2.0m - 3.7m for the 380mm lens setting.

To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor or the electronic viewfinder. The Kodak Z710 has a 2 inch LCD Display. The electronic viewfinder has 201,000 pixels. The Kodak Easyshare Z710 can record movies at 640 x 480 at 10.5 fps or 320 x 240 pixels at 20 fps, both with sound. Video is recorded in the Quicktime MPEG4 with audio format. The length of the video is up to 80 minutes based on memory capacity. A histogram is available in both shooting and playback modes. The Kodak Z710 supports the ImageLink and PictBridge printing standards, and it connects to a computer via USB 2.0.

The Kodak Easyshare Z710's dimensions are 97.8 (W) × 77.5 (H) × 72.6 mm (D) mm, and it weighs 285g without the battery and storage card fitted. The camera is powered by a rechargeable either one Lithium CRV3 battery or two AA lithium batteries. There is a metal tripod mount in the centre-left of the bottom of the camera in line with the middle of the lens.

Finally, the standard box kit contains a USB cable, CRV3 Lithium Digital Camera Battery, Lens cap with strap, Carry strap, KODAK EASYSHARE Software, Getting Started Kit and a custom camera insert for the optional KODAK EASYSHARE Camera and Printer Docks. Note that you can only store 12 images at the highest quality JPEG setting on the 32Mb built-in memory. You will therefore need to invest in some memory cards to store your images on.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Kodak Easyshare Z710 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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