Kodak EasyShare Z740 Digital Camera - Cheap and It Shows
Written: Aug 15 '05 (Updated Oct 18 '05)
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Battery Life:
Photo Quality:
Shutter Lag
Pros: Low price for a 10x optical zoom, good optics, features, AA batteries, filter adaptor
Cons: Slow operation, annoying joystick, heavy and bulky, no image stabilization
The Bottom Line: The Kodak Z740 is a good budget mega-zoom camera. It does its job well enough, but if you intend on shooting a lot of pictures at high...
dkozin's Full Review: Kodak EasyShare Z740 Digital Camera
The mega-zoom market is hot. The cameras that feature high optical zoom numbers (e.g. 10x or 12x) are very popular. I decided to get the popular Kodak EasyShare Z740 to see how it stacks up against competition.
The Z740 is relatively cheap comparing to the cameras I used recently: Panasonic DMC-FZ5 and Canon S2 IS. I bought mine for $264, whereas the FZ5 cost me $383 and the Canon S2 IS was $448. Do you get what you pay for? Let's find out.
What is Kodak Z740?
The Kodak Z740 is a 5-Megapixel digital camera that has a 10x optical zoom (38-380 mm equivalent focal length), stores images in the internal 32 MB of flash memory or on the SD/MMC memory cards. It has a USB port for transferring your images to your computer or printers and a EasyShare dock connection.
The camera runs on 2 AA-type batteries or a single larger disposable battery (supplied). The camera has an adaptor that lets you use 55mm filters, that can also serve as a miniature lens hood. The camera has automatic, scene modes and manual modes such as Aperture, Shutter Priority and Manual.
The camera has ISO range of 80-400, shutter speed range 8-1/1,700 sec. (more on it later) and aperture ranges of f/2.8-8.0 at wide angle, f/3.7-8.0 at telephoto.
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Build Quality and Ergonomics
The camera is hefty, and the case is made of plastic that seems relatively durable. The fit and finish are less refined as the cameras by major competitors. The plastic is not smooth and has rather large-grained irregular texture. The memory card door is slightly flimsy.
The camera has a convenient handgrip and the shutter release has reassuring feel to it.
The camera uses a small joystick for menu navigation and as an OK button when pushed. I dislike it. It is difficult to be precise with it and sometimes it misunderstands your intentions. It is especially bothersome when you have to change something in a hurry.
The menu system uses large icons and is relatively easy to use, but there are short delays in its operation (nothing major though).
The camera lets you select parameters (aperture, shutter speed, etc.) directly on the screen in the manual modes (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual) as well as exposure compensation without using menus by just using the joystick. I like the concept, but the joystick itself could be better executed.
Blurry Pictures
The camera has a 10x optical zoom lens, which means you can zoom in 10x without loosing any resolution. This is good news. The bad news is not all potential buyers of monster-zoom cameras know that if you this kind of magnification, you cannot get sharp pictures at full magnification (telephoto) if the camera is handheld and the subject is not brightly lit.
The Z740 has a zoom, equivalent to 38-380 mm, which means at full telephoto shooting handheld, the shutter speed should be no longer than 1/500 or 1/350 sec. (if you hold camera very well). I discovered that in bright daylight, focusing on the relatively bright building at full telephoto, the camera needed to use 1/350 sec. shutter speed (at its widest aperture of f/3.7 but lowest ISO of 80), which caused images that were usable at small print sizes, but looked slightly blurry at full resolution.
In less that bright daylight, the shutter speeds needed will be slower, which will cause more blur.
This means you have use a tripod to get sharp pictures at full telephoto, or use higher ISOs (ISO 100, 200 or 400). The problem with tripods is the fact that you have to carry one around and attach the camera to it, which is not always practical. The problem with using higher sensitivity (ISO) is image noise, which gets pronounced at ISO 200 and pretty bad at ISO 400 (only suitable for 5x7 or smaller).
The bottom line here is if you want sharp pictures at telephoto in all lighting conditions and you do not want to lug a tripod around, you need a camera with an optical image stabilizer. This is the reason Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Konica-Minolta and others use optical image stabilizers in their monster-zoom cameras. And that is one of the reasons those cameras are more expensive than this Kodak Z740.
I use a Panasonic FZ5 (12x optical zoom) and it lets me take pictures at full telephoto at speed as slow as 1/100-1/60 handheld with no blur.
Aside from this issue, the camera produces sharp pictures throughout its zoom range with only slight blurring in corners at telephoto end.
Disappointing Shooting Speed
The camera is very slow in processing images and writing them to a memory card (or to internal memory). The same happens with a regular-speed and a fast SD memory card or when writing to the built-in flash memory. I used both a fast Kingston Elite Pro 512 MB SD Card and a regular-speed Kingston 512 SD Card.
After I take a picture, I can take the next one 3 seconds later, but since the first picture is still being written by the time the second is taken, the camera does not let you to take consequent pictures until about 7-8 seconds later. I consider this kind of speed horrible.
Not only the camera slows down to one photo every 7-8 seconds, it does not indicate you it is ready for the next shot in any way. The screen also goes blank or turns blue and shows you an hourglass icon (please wait) sporadically. And once you are done taking pictures, the camera continues to write them for the next 15-20 seconds.
The camera has a burst mode and advertises it. In this mode, I was able to take five photos at two per second (which is good), but then the camera slowed down and was only able to take pictures at 8-10 second intervals. And it takes it 25-38 seconds (yes, thirty-eight seconds!) for it to clear the buffer and write all images onto the memory card or internal flash memory.
This means that you cannot turn the camera off during these 25-38 seconds - you see the selected mode icon flash in green, but the camera is not off yet. And of course, you should not attempt to remove the memory card while it is being written to or you will risk corrupting the data on it.
Focusing
The camera focuses fast in good light and/or up close. But in low light at distances more than 1 meter (3 feet), it took more than a second to obtain the focus without the AF light. With the AF light, the camera focuses fast at up to 8 feet.
The focusing slows down at telephoto, but not to a point of being annoying. Other mega-zoom cameras I tried focus fast however with Panasonic FZ5 being the fastest, obtaining focus almost instantaneously.
Shutter Lag
The camera takes the picture almost instantly if prefocused. Including autofocus, the shutter lag can be as short as less than a second to a couple of seconds if the camera struggles with focus.
Zooming
The camera zooms somewhat slowly (about 3 seconds from end to end), but the zooming is precise and has more than 20 steps, letting you frame the shot the way you like it.
Startup and Shutdown
The camera takes about 3 seconds to start up and extend its lens. The shutdown takes also about 3 seconds, but if the buffer is full, it may take up to 38 seconds for the camera to flush it to the memory.
The camera has a mode switch (on/off/favorite) that, when moved to On position, makes the flash pop up, which I find a little annoying.
Manual Control
You can control the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance and more in the camera's different modes (A, S, M, etc.) For some reason, even though the camera is rated as being able to deliver 1/1,700 sec. shutter speed, the fastest speed I could use was 1/1,000. Perhaps the 1/1,700 speed is not available with some aperture settings, but in any case I find it deceiving that I was not able to use this shutter speed even though it was supposed to be available.
Battery
The camera uses two AA batteries. I used my Panasonic 1600 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries that lasted for more than an hour of shooting, reviewing and deleting images with no sign of depletion. I suggest you get an extra pair of AA batteries if you intend on shooting more than 200 pictures.
LCD and Viewfinder
The camera has a 1.8-inch LCD screen and an electronic viewfinder (EVF). Both offer close to 100% coverage, are fluid and have decent resolution. They are fluid even in dark environments and gain-up (increase brightness) in the dark, helping you frame the shot better.
Computer Connectivity
I did not have to install any drivers on my Windows 2000 SP4 computer and could use the supplied USB cable in a matter of seconds. The transfer speed was reasonable at about 800 KB/sec.
Resolutions
The camera lets you select between several resolutions: 5MP, 4.4MP (3:2 aspect ratio, perfect for 6x4 prints), 4MP, 3.1MP, 1.8MP.
Movie Mode
You can select one of two resolution modes: 640x480 and 320x240. The video at 640x480 was jerky (low refresh rate or 13 fps), whereas at 320x240 it was more fluid (20 fps), but still not to the digital camcorder level. The zoom does not work in movie mode (supposedly to avoid noise of the zooming motor).
Image Quality
The camera has a wide range of adjustments, but out of the box produces images that are sharp, have good contrast and are richly-saturated (sometimes too much for my taste). You can easily change the saturation by selecting Natural saturation.
The lens produces some chromatic aberration (not much), that I don't find too bothersome. The lens also has some blurring in corners at telephoto, but nothing too noticeable and not more than the competitors.
See the sample images on my web site at the following address: http://www.review-shop.com/Kodak_Z740/Kodak_Z740_Samples_1.html
Competition
The mega-zoom cameras I have recently seen were Canon S2 IS and Panasonic FZ5. Obviously at $100-180 more than the Z740, they are not similar in price. But they do provide much more: optical image stabilization is essential if you intend on shooting handheld at large zoom levels. They also provide 12x optical zoom versus 10x of the Z740. And their operation is much faster.
Pros
Low price for a 10x optical zoom. Good optics, features, fast lens (f/2.8 at wide angle, f/3.7 at telephoto), uses two AA batteries, filter adaptor supplied, built-in 32 MB memory.
Cons
Slow operation, annoying joystick, heavy and bulky, slow focus are telephoto or dim light, no image stabilization.
Bottom Line
The Kodak Z740 is a good budget mega-zoom camera. It does its job well enough, but if you intend on shooting a lot of pictures at high optical zoom levels with no tripod, a camera with an optical image stabilization (e.g. Canon PowerShot S2 IS or Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5) may be a better choice, at $100-180 more. They also have larger screens and much faster operation.
And if you don't need the full 5-Megapixel resolution, you can get Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4 (12x optical zoom, 4 MP, good for prints up 8x10), that has an optical image stabilizer and faster operation and sells for only $35-40 more.
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