Product Reviews

A super-zoom camera can transform the way you take photos. Rather than capturing a view as you see it, you can zoom right in to pick out an interesting detail or create a satisfying composition. They're great for portraits, too, allowing you to keep your distance and capture people going about their business rather than posing self-consciously for the camera.

Kodak's latest foray into this arena, the EasyShare Z612, is well specified with a 6-megapixel sensor, 12x optically stabilised zoom, 2.5" 230,000-pixel screen, electronic viewfinder and lithium-ion battery. This is great value for £217 including VAT. However, this means it has to compete with Panasonic's DMC-FZ7. The FZ7 matches nearly all these specs, though its 2.5" screen isn't as detailed at 114,000 pixels, and since our review in What's New, Shopper August 2006 its price has fallen to £213 including VAT.

The Z612 is more responsive than other Kodak super-zoom cameras we've seen. The lens leaps into position and can capture a picture within two seconds of powering up. Autofocus is quick,

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and we managed to take 10 pictures in 20 seconds, although from then on the capture rate fell dramatically. This is still a good result, but not as good as Panasonic's FZ7, which can capture a picture every second until the SD card is full. Both cameras have a 2fps continuous mode, but the EasyShare's is limited to 30 shots.

The controls are fully equipped for creative photography with aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure modes. An exposure value (EV) readout helps in manual mode, although it doesn't take the flash setting into account. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO and exposure compensation are accessed via a command dial, which is quicker than buttons when making large changes to the shutter speed. However, toggling it between its various uses is fiddly.

Kodak's optical image stabilisation is effective at reducing blur from camera shake, a common problem at extreme telephoto zoom settings. We managed to capture reasonably sharp shots at 12x zoom with shutter speeds as slow as 1/8 second. Reasonably sharp is as good as it gets with this camera; even in bright conditions there was a softness to the focus, particularly when compared to images from the FZ7. Otherwise, image quality was problem-free, with vivid colours and a well-behaved auto exposure, but flash photography looked cold, and low-light photography without flash was underexposed. Noise began to be an issue at ISO 400 but the ISO control doesn't go any higher.

This is the best Kodak camera we've seen, and more responsive than pricier Performance series models. It's unfortunate for Kodak that it's so similar to, but not as good as, Panasonic's DMC-FZ7.