Product face-offs
| Sensor | CCD 6 mégapixels (1/2.5'') |
| Zoom | 12x (F2.8 - F4.8, 35 - 420 mm) |
| Optical stabilization | Oui |
| Internal/external memory | 32 Mo / SD |
| Sensitivity | 80 - 400 ISO |
| Video mode | 640 x 480 pixels / 30 fps |
| Power source | Batterie Lithium-Ion |
| Dimensions/Weight | 104 x 74 x 69 mm / 312 g |
As you can see on this photo of the Z612‘s screen while shooting our test scene which is suitably lit, the camera in Auto mode chose a sensitivity of 160 ISO and an exposure time of 1/10 s. Normally, on stabilized products, for example, Canon and Panasonic compacts, the photo should have been sharp at 1/8 s. The Z612 is not as gifted, and already at 1/15s one photo out of five was sharp. At 1/10, if you don’t brace yourself against a wall and hold your breath, you have little chance of having something that is actually printable.
Test date: 2006-07-13
This great potential is confirmed on almost all points; precision of images is good, the automatic white balance is efficient and reproduces both indoors and outdoors true colors (sometimes slightly overexposed, but overall it’s good), and the camera is fast to focus and between two photos. Only the start up time drags a little at 2 seconds. The last point is stabilization, which was disappointing. Was this just bad luck? We expressed this to Kodak, who was surprised, because they said other journalists really liked it-even when some testers precised that Panasonic surpasses them in efficiency. We wouldn’t go this far and whatever the mode (in simple or continuous shooting) we don’t notice its presence. With and without stabilization, photos were sharp starting at 1/25 s. In "Simple" mode at 1/15s we rarely got this result and the amount of discarded images was significant. You will have to take five times the number of shots to get one good one.
Nice photos, superb videos
In fact, to have sharp photos indoors we couldn’t go under 400 ISO. Luckily, compared to the previous generation (that of the P850) Kodak noticeably reduced noise levels. This compensates for the poor efficiency of stabilization.
The last impressive point was its video mode. Here, stabilization is more noticeable. Even at maximum zoom range, the image trembles very little and remains nice. Fluidity is very good and colors are bright. Sound recording is surprising for a bridge camera except in the one case when we zoom. Kodak probably muffles the sound so that the sound of the zoom cannot be heard. This results in a strange effect as you can see in this video (this clip can be used to evaluate the camera’s stability, colors and sound but not for sharpness, because Youtube degrades it so that the file is not as heavy).
- Active optical zoom in video mode
- Nice colors, automatic white balance well done
- Nice sharpness in photos, very nice videos, good sound
- Optical stabilization
- Moderate noise, less than with the Panasonic FZ7
- Plastic body
- Optical stabilization minimally effective in photos, more noticeable in video with maximum zoom
- Sound is almost cut off when activating the zoom in video
