Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS

The camera has a 7.1MP sensor and incorporates full-fledged shooting functionalities, both for new users as well as people who want to get into serious photography. To begin with, it comes with a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon f/2.8–4.8 12x zoom lens with built-in optical image stabilization.

The camera has a lot of scene modes to select from, and at the same time offers full manual exposure controls. Apart from this you also have a high-ISO mode and a sports program mode.

The 2.5-inch LCD screen is large, and also good enough to be used in broad daylight. However, it’s capable of producing only 115k pixels and looks like there are a lot of tiny grains. You may have better luck with the EVF that pumps in 230k.

Also, exposure settings etc don’t often show up making it really difficult to assess picture composition. The camera boasts of a maximum ISO sensitivity of 1600, and functionalities encompasses a variety of manual settings.

The dial helps in controlling the shutter and aperture settings while in manual mode, and you can monitor the exposure level through the built-in metering system that is displayed on the bottom right of the screen itself. This is a brilliant concept, except that the metering system of the Z712 isn’t very accurate. The idea of the metering system is to combine the shutter speed and aperture size to get accurate exposure levels, which means you need to get the meter down to zero. However, often you will find the pictures are either over- or under-exposed.