Kodak Z915

This is a compact camera with a high zoom and usability features. And no, the price is not its biggest draw.

I am not sure what made me fall for it, the retro looks, the 10x optical zoom or the price—but when I held the Kodak Easyshare Z915 in my hands, I immediately thought, now this is a camera I want. But there was more to it. The 10x zoom and the retro looks were definitely the first pull. I loved the way the controls were laid out and the fact that the macro mode, flash settings and custom timer buttons were dedicated and on top of the camera with the zoom controls. The manual mode is very nice and usable (though you don’t get manual focus).

The video quality is limited to VGA (640 x 480) but it can shoot videos at 30 fps. It also supports QVGA format (320 x 240) at 30 fps, so that you can record videos in a small file.

I like the fact that Kodak gave a 3V DC adapter input on the side of the camera. This is good when you are using the camera directly to print pictures or using it connected to your PC to download pictures, etcetera.

The camera ships in three colours: red, blue and black; has a 10 megapixel sensor (maximum print size of 30 x 40 inch), takes alkaline AA batteries; and has an additional 5x digital zoom that boosts the camera to 50x zoom (though I won’t use the digital zoom). Optical stabilisation is built into the camera. The 2.5 inch high-resolution screen is brilliantly bright in outdoor light, and the controls are neatly laid out. I love Kodak for the fact that they’ve stuck to SD cards for this camera.

The Z915 supports ISO settings from 100 to 1600 (though higher settings were very grainy, but when you are shooting in dark places these tend to be handy). Weighing in at a cool 220 gram, this is one great camera if you are looking for a compact with a high zoom and usability features.

Sapra is The Big Geek at System3. He also blogs at TheBigGeek.com

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