The Review of the Kodak EasyShare Z650

This is a review on the Kodak newly introduced EasyShare Z650. The camera processes some features like: 10x optical zoom lens, 6.0 million effective pixels, Exclusive Kodak Color Science Image Processing Chip, 2.0" indoor/outdoor display, High resolution Electronic viewfinder, Manual and semi-automatic controls, High-speed, low-light auto focus, 17 scene modes, One-touch simple sharing, MPEG movie recording.

Top of the EasyShare Z650 Camera
The top of the Z650 is home to the main power/mode switch (record, off, favorites), the pop-up flash and its switch, the shutter release and three buttons for flash mode, macro/infinity AF mode and burst mode.

Display and menus of the EasyShare Z650 Camera
The Z650's user interface is as user friendly as you could ever hope for, despite the full feature set. The menus are written in plain English with large, easily understood icons, meaning the manual is rarely needed when exploring the range of features. There are even little on-screen 'tips' to tell you a little about each exposure mode as you select it. What you do get, once you've mastered the controls, is the capability to change a lot of settings without having to enter menus, simply by selecting and changing them using the joystick on the back of the camera. This approach means that experienced photographers have virtually all the control they need at their fingertips without once seeing a menu or leaving record mode.

Here's the display in fully automatic mode, with the information overlay turned on. You can see at a glance your exposure mode, AE compensation setting, flash mode, picture size/quality, remaining frames and AF mode. The blue brackets indicate the AF area (in this case we're using the 3-area AF). In P, A, S and M modes you get a lot more information - and more control. Moving the joystick highlights each of the available settings in turn (AE compensation, shutter speeds/apertures, ISO); press the joystick and push it up or down to make changes. You can turn this information off with the 'i' button if you find it distracting.

One of the Z650's new features is a live histogram (activated by pressing the 'i' button below the viewfinder). Half-press the shutter and the camera focus, indicating the auto focus (AF) point and auto exposure (AE) settings chosen.

As you switch between the various modes a brief description appears on-screen. When you get sick of this 'feature' you can turn it off in the setup menu. Turn the mode dial to SCN and press the menu button and you'll get access to 14 more scene modes. Here you'll find some pretty basic shooting options covering white balance, metering, focus, picture size and sharpening. In each case, pressing the joystick brings up a page of options with plain English descriptions, rather than incomprehensible icons. The last option in the list takes you to the setup menu.

Pressing the review button switches the camera to playback mode. Note that portrait images are rotated automatically. Pressing the info button toggles.

One strange feature is 'favorites': add an image as a favorite and next time you transfer your pictures to the PC a small (screen resolution) version will be copied back to the camera's internal memory so you can carry it with you at all times. Not sure how useful this is, but it's very 'Kodak'. Last but not least is the setup menu (reachable from both record and playback modes). Here you can set the date/time and change basic camera behavior, including date stamping, orientation sensor (auto rotate), sounds and volume and digital zooming. It is also here that you'll find the command to format the card or internal memory.

The Kodak Z650 is one experience you won't like to miss. Every buyer globally should read this review carefully and patiently before purchase.