Kodak EasyShare Z980 Review

 
Kodak EasyShare Z980 Image Quality
Photographs from the Z980 look good at first glance. The average Joe (or Jane) is going to be pleased. Smart Capture exposes typical scenes well, and scene modes work well in the situations they’re designed for. Colors are accurate and nicely saturated.

But looking more closely reveals an ugly surprise: The Z980 has an awful lot of noise (which, although technically different, looks a lot like what we called “grain” in the old days of film cameras). Comparing studio sample photos with other cameras I recently reviewed (Sony DSC-H50 and Panasonic Lumix TZ5), shows that the Kodak Z980 is markedly noisier, whether at ISO 100 or 1600. And the DSC-H50 and TZ5 both have similar specs and sensor dimensions. However, the Kodak does have one-third more pixels than those two cameras – 9.1 megapixels compared to the Z980′s 12. Smaller pixels usually mean more noise and that could be the problem. It remains to be seen how the Z980′s noise compares to similar superzooms like the Nikon Coolpix P90 and Olympus SP-590.

Some images also reveal problems that are probably related to the extreme lens length: chromatic aberration that appears as a blue glow on tree branches against a light sky, as well as softness and distortion in the corners. I also spotted some digital oddities, like occasional oversaturated reds and muddy, greenish blotches in shadows. Again, the average amateur probably isn’t going to notice things like these, but more demanding photographers will.

Finally, the Z980′s touted ability to capture RAW image files was a disappointment. In theory, shooting KDC RAW (Kodak Digital Image) rather than JPEG images should give you more color information and a wider dynamic range to work with when your editing your photos on the computer. This is an important consideration for many serious photographers. But in practice, trying to use Kodak’s RAW files turned out to be an exercise in frustration.

While I could successfully import KDC files from my memory card using the Kodak EasyShare Software installed on my computer, I couldn’t do anything with them once they were there. I couldn’t open them in Photoshop CS3. Adobe does have a Camera Raw update for Photoshop CS4 that supports the KDC RAW files. But if you don’t have Photoshop CS4, that’s not much help. I couldn’t edit the KDC files in the Kodak software, either – I got an error message when I tried. Furthermore, I couldn’t import KDC files from my hard drive into the Kodak software.

To try to solve this mystery, I used the 24/7 Live Chat customer support offered on Kodak’s Web site. I spent one hour and two minutes trying to get answers from a representative who a) did not seem to speak English as a first language, and b) seemed to be preoccupied with something else – probably about 20 other chats. With agonizing detail, the chat’s timestamps showed that I typically waited anywhere from two to nine minutes for her to respond to my brief replies. Eventually, she did confirm that Kodak’s software does not support Kodak’s own proprietary file type. Outrageous.

Click on thumbnails to view sample photos.

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