Not Ready For Prime Time

Author's Rating:

Pros: A host of manual options and decent image quality. Uses cheap AA batteries.

Cons: Feels like a toy. Defective video, massive video files,  poor panoramic stitching.

The Bottom Line: 
While I liked the advanced features and options, use of AA batteries, the z915 feels cheap. It fails my needs in two key ways: poor video and poor panoramic stitching.

Author's Review

I was going on vacation in mid-September and wanted to get a camera that could fit in my pocket to replace my aging 5 megapixel/4x zoom “point & shoot” Kodak CX7530. I wanted at least 10 megapixels, manual options, 10x optical zoom, image stabilization, and 30fps video. It had to use AA batteries and SD cards. I really dislike this trend towards expensive proprietary batteries with limited charging options.

I bought the Z915 with some reservations. The camera just felt cheap… especially the main control knob. But Target had a generous 90 day return policy and while I frown on extended warranties, I got one for $20 just to be on the safe side. Sadly, the Canon model I was most interested was $50 more. I paid $200 for the camera to find Kodak dropped the price to $179 in October. It comes as no surprise that I see it offered on-line for as little $135. Yet as of 11-30-09 Target was still selling it for $200!! Shame!

The camera was a vast improvement over my 5 year old camera. It offers numerous manual options that I longed for. I loved the 10x zoom. The image quality was good as was the video… at least compared to the old camera, though there was a problem. The Z915 seemed to offer value for the money… seemed.

Performance wise I did notice chromatic aberrations but without other cameras to compare, I expected this in a $200 camera. The video seems to be motion-jpeg and this creates massive video files… about 90-100megs per minute! Kodak isn't the only company to use move to this format. I've read it makes cameras cheaper to produce. The video can be grainy under all but the best of lighting conditions. Since these video files consume an immense amount of space on my PC, I compress them all to H264 video results in a file about 15% of the original size. Another problem, when reviewing the video on the camera it's almost impossible to hear the audio even at the max volume setting. Since my card reader on my PC does not handle SDHC cards, I'm forced to read files from the camera. But my PC can not detect the camera without the Kodak software which I'd prefer not to use. Even then I can't just move files as if the camera were a drive. I have to copy them from the camera.

But the real reason I returned the camera were the problems with the video autoexposure. Moving from light to dark scenes a bright flash would occur in a single frame. Moving from dark to light a dark frame would occur. The camera would pick up a clicking sound when this occurred. Kodak said it was a defect and to return it. The second camera had the same defect. I have no desire to get a third.

The panoramic function also did not work well. It was very difficult to line up the second and third images… and even under the best of circumstances, there were always errors in the stitching. Here I thought I could avoid the trouble using Photoshop to stitch panoramics only to find the feature did not produce quality results.