Customer Reviews

Kodak EasyShare Z980 12MP Digital Camera with 24x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0 inch LCD

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I recently received my Z980. I am a professional, but was looking for a quick-cam as a backup. This unit takes excellent pictures in all modes. I like the RAW format, as it edits easily on my computer. The camera is very light, so tripod mounting is a must for any telephoto use. In lower ISO ranges, noise is minimal. In high ISO, photos are still quite useable!

The only drawback is the memory card/battery door. It is really a pain to close. I don't know how well it will wear, therefore the 4-star rating rather than 5-star. Filters would be another nice option! (What about it Kodak?)

I bought this through Amazon and it was shipped by Adorama. Shipping and packaging was excellent. If you want an excellent DSLR substitute, this would be a good choice. The only caveat is READ THE MANUAL. This is a complex camera, and you must read the manual to get the full use from it.

**** Update 12/24/2009 ****

After 8 months of using this camera, I find it to be quite versatile, and find myself using it for all but extreme telephoto shots (you just can't beat a EOS 40D with 1200mm tele on a solid tripod). The battery door issue I mentioned earlier has proven to be not an issue at all. Low light photos are excellent, but only in manual mode and using an external light meter (or trusting many years of experience using E400 film in low light).

I recommend this camera for anyone getting into more advanced digital photography. For pros, give it a try. Depending on the type of photos you take on the job, you may find this quite useable. For nature photographers, like myself, its a whole lot lighter to carry in the field! Get a good, lightweight tripod, and you are set.

UPDATE DECEMBER 2009
Kodak now say that their Model AV-8 USB Cable will work to hook this camera up to your TV via RCA connections. I just bought one to try out and it works. It is only SD quality, NOT HD but still better than nothing. Meantime, my camera is working very well. Battery life is very good and I plan to keep this camera ofr a couple of years!

Original review
First off, the quality of the photos I have taken are excellent which is what a still camera should be capable of. The pictures have rich vivid colors and are real eye catchers.

It has plenty of nice features and the zoom works very well. It is pretty easy to use, has a nice large LCD screen and has a hot shoe, grip accessory and extra shoot button for upright photo taking.
The quality of the HD video is better than expected but I am very disappointed no AV cable to hook up to your TV is included (a call to Kodak revealed that it is not even available as an accessory)

The camera itself seems fairly well made, but as others have notes, the battery compartment door feel flimsy though it has three locking metal tabs inside which should support it.

I noticed a slight noise coming from the camera, Kodak's live help informed me this is normal on "continuous" AF setting. I put it on a different setting and it went away. Kodak assured me this is normal.
Also the digital zoom is not available on Smart Capture setting (same for some menu settings)
The lens cover appeared to be loose fitting at first glance but it seems to be designed this way to prevent damage to the zoom when switching the camera on.
I charged the batteries before using it the first time and now about 150 shots later it still has plenty of charge.
I am pleased enough to have decided to replace my DSLR with this because I am fed up with carting all my bulky equipment around and this will suffice for pretty much all my needs.
The included software is bare bones, I prefer to use Photoshop Elements,

My Pro's
Excellent picture quality
Fantastic zoom
Nice upright grip and side shoot button.
Very good HD video
Good low light capabilities
Easy to use.

My Beef's
No AV to TV cable!!!!! and nothing available (per Kodak)
16 hours to charge batteries! ( better is available on their web-site for more bucks, and, no doubt, in any big box store, but make sure you buy the right batteries!)
Cheap neck strap (The real thing is about $20 on their web-site, what a nerve!)
Lack of decent manual

Summary.
The only major "Con" for me is the lack of AV to TV cable but there way more pluses than minuses. I will update this review as I see fit.
Bottom line, you get great photos, it's easy to use, great video and super zoom in an all in one camera. The bonus hot-shoe and side grip/shoot button are icing on the cake.
If you want plenty of features in an easy to use camera, this would be a good candidate for you.

I bought this camera for my wife for Mother's Day, and she is thrilled with it. I have been a semi-pro photographer since 1985 and have owned and used dozens of cameras since that time, including Olympus, Konica-Minolta, Canon, and Nikon high-end non-SLR digicams. The quality of the images produced by this camera is excellent and will meet or exceed the requirements of any photographer except in a few extreme cases of weird lighting. multi-shot action shots and other circumstances not normally encountered by non-professionals. I have three gripes with this camera: By far the most serious shortcoming is the lack of threads on the front of the lens mount to allow a filter to be attached. This lack has nothing to do with image quality, but being able to attach a clear, UV, or skylight filter is extremely important to protect the lens from damage due to scratches, bumps, dust, etc., not to mention fingerprints. The second problem with the system is the lack of a custom white balance control to permit precise color adjustment. In most cases, white balance can be adequately adjusted by post-processing with an image editor such as Photoshop or Aperture, but nothing beats having proper light balance to start with. Finally, I find the lack of camera Raw support for Macintosh computers to be a real problem for me, although most people do not need this feature and care not at all about it. Both I and my wife found the vertical hand grip to be superfluous because we are experienced in adjusting to holding the camera in either horizontal or vertical position, and all the extra grip does for us is to add extra weight and complication. Contrary to some other reviewers' evaluations we like the rechargeable AA batteries and always keep a charged spare set of batteries in the case with the camera. The batteries that came with the camera hold their charges well, although I use a better charger than the one that Kodak sells with the system. Finally, the Hot Shoe is an absolute plus and puts the Z980 way ahead of all the other super-zoom digicams currently on the market. The ability to add external flash capability to the camera is an absolute requirement for any photographer who aspires to creating the highest-quality indoor photographs.

Being a diehard Canon fan, the last two cameras I've purchased have been Kodaks why?

Kodak 'Perfect Touch' technology, SMART Capture mode and HD Video. This camera takes some stunning photos and includes a great feature set for the money!
It has a true 'lcd' viewfinder. I had not realized how much I actually *missed* using a viewfinder from my film camera days.

Having a 24X zoom is incredible, for kids sporting activities, getting photos of wildlife etc: It's an incredible creative tool to have when you are out taking photos!

Camera controls are well laid out, menus are intuitive, and the in-camera panoramic mode is very good. One of the few cameras that will stitch the photos 'in camera' for you!

The only negative I have is the lack of a 'custom' white balance. This is a minor issue, as the built-in white balance settings seem to be quite good.

I have been impressed with this camera. I ended up purchasing it direct through Kodak's online store, but there are many avenues available.

It's a shame that Kodak does not get the airplay as some of the Japanese Mfg's. Their cameras are really nice for the money!

You can use Quicktime Pro (on the Mac or PC) to edit the movies. You can download the version from the Apple website quite inexpensively.

Overall, I am very impressed with this camera. As an owner of canon powershot "G" series cameras for a long time, this is saying something.
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Kodak EasyShare Z980 12MP Digital Camera with 24x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0 inch LCD
Kodak EasyShare Z980 12MP Digital Camera + 8GB Deluxe Accessory Kit
Kodak EasyShare Z980 12MP Digital Camera + 4GB Accessory Kit

As everyone else have pointed out in their reviews, the Z980 takes stunning pictures quite easily.

This review will be less of a feature exploration and more of a tip for Z980 users regarding how to get hundreds of more pictures than the stock Kodak rechargeable batteries. In short, get a SMART charger such as this one: Duracell Mobile Charger With 2AA And 2AAA Pre Charged Rechargeable Nimh Batteries, CEF23DX4N, and Eneloop AA (or Duracell Pre-Charged) batteries.

What kept me from giving a 5-star rating is the fact that Kodak broke compatibility with the previous Z Series batteries, the KLIC-8000 and CRV-3. I could take about 200 flash-photos with CRV3s and over 300 with KLIC8000s, and both are cheaply available on Ebay. In upgrading to the Z980 I can no longer use my collection of batteries and chargers that accumulated over the years after owning several Z Series Easyshares. All it would have taken Kodak to make this camera compatible with the KLIC8000 styles batteries is a rearrangement of the battery compartment, which infuriated me originally after I realized that the included Kodak AA batteries could only take about 40-50 flash-photos before losing their charge! Sony CycleEnergy AAs were even worse, which brought me to Eneloop. Four 2000mAH Eneloops take a lot of pictures. I tested a set out and gave up after 400 flash-photos on full power (set in P mode by increasing the flash charge). After 400 photos, the camera's battery meter read half-full. Update: Duracell Pre-charged AA batteries are giving me the same performance as Eneloops.

Unfortunately the Z980's included charger uses a dumb timer, and is a poor choice for charging batteries. Look for a charger that is smart (knows when to stop charging) and charges individual cells (not pairs); these types of chargers won't destroy your batteries. The Duracell Mobile charger that I linked to above is a very good choice in that it is smart, charges individual cells, is cheap, and has a status LED for each cell.


Update: I docked two stars because of the proprietary raw format (Kodak's own KDC filetype) that the Z980 uses. KDC is an antiquated non-standard filetype, and few programs can work with it. Anyone who needs a real RAW-capable camera definitely should look elsewhere.

I just bought this camera with the 8 gig accessory package from this website via a 3rd party vendor...I like what I see so far...it's a nice, powerful camera with the cool add-on bottom for vertical pictures...the LCD screen is crystal clear and bright...the zoom is nice - but strangely not as far as I thought...the Kodak online video of the z980 made it seem like you could see miles away up close with this lens...not really. But it's a definite upgrade from my tiny pocket cam's with a measely 3x zoom. Now I can take pictures of my kids playing sports up close...and don't need to spend thousands like my friends for the bulky DSLR's...it's a good compromise from one who used to use the pocket cameras but was hesitant to go the DSLR route...on the downside, the camera feels a little light and cheap? I fear it may break if I ever drop it. But my muscles might thank me in the long run of not having to deal with the heavy weight of those other cameras. Overall, I'm optimistic with this camera and look forward to up-close pictures with that 12 MP clarity. Cool!

All I got to say is. WOW, def worth the price. Zoom is phenominal and picture clarity is top notch. Some people complain abotu the SD card not being accessible without unlatching the battery door, I feel that is a safety measure incase the spring decides it wants to shoot out your card while your not looking. It has happened to me with my cell phone a cuple times.

I have noticed one thing, it may because I'm new to this type of camera, but the night pictures are kinda pixelated. I may just not be using the right setting, or may need a little tuning.

Some want to gripe about the Manual it comes with. It is a basic manual, but the menu it gives you is pretty self explanitory and easily navigated.

Batteries last fairly long in it, i tool several hundred pics before needing to recharge.

One thing that i DO NOT LIKE is the battery charger does not turn off when the batteries are charged. I had forgotten about them and they sat on there all day, maybe a day and a half, hopefully they arent ruined.

I bought the Kodak Z980 because my previous Kodak digital had only 5.1 MP and I could see a little pixelization in 12 x 18 enlargements. Kodak offers amazing value on their digitals, plus excellent documentation/instructions, plus easy-to-reach unlimited phone tech support. I initiated my new Z980 yesterday at a Hollywood Bowl event, and the full 24X optical zoom used without tripod was impressive, helped by the excellent image stabilization. Also great low-light sensitivity with the correct settings. I took over 300 photos (using eyepiece) and still have about half a battery charge left. E-Z in-camera panoramic stitching is fun. In short, I think it's a wonderful value. Ignore any friends or store employees who doubt this can be true.

Kodak tried to enter the world of "close to DSLR" cameras with this one, and it was a nice attempt. I LOVED this camera for the first two months and then I started to notice picture quality wasn't the same as it had been. 90% of the pictures looked like the subjects were in motion with what I called a "comet tail" behind them, or the hands, feet and hair of my children became transparent. Heaven forbid something actually was in motion! The flash also became very picky about when it would go off. Even in "manual" mode with the flash set to constantly fire, it would only go off about 20% of the time, making for HORRIBLE and sometimes even unrecognizable pictures. We called Kodak and the tech. support people treated me like I was an incompetent idiot, telling me to first remove my memory card because the problem must be with the non-kodak memory card... and then it MUST have been my non-kodak batteries that were currently in the camera... and then it MUST have been because I wasn't pressing the correct button. I was instructed to turn the camera to smart capture mode and turn the flash to a constant setting. That's not an option in the Smart Capture mode by the way, and when I told them that, I surely was doing something wrong until I rambled off the flash mode options and it still wasn't an option. It became clear that I knew more about this camera than the guy on the other end of the phone. We sent the camera in for service. The day we received the camera back, I pulled it out of the box, switched it to manual mode, turned the flash on and only 2 out of the first 5 pictures did the flash fire on. Sooo dissappointed! We called Kodak back and the first person I was speaking to asked if he could transfer me, I said sure, expecting to talk to his supervisor and he just did a lateral transfer so he didn't have to talk to me. The next guy did transfer me to a supervisor, who was unbelieveably rude and mouthy. He interruped me repeatedly and wouldn't let me speak. My husband came home and called, got another supervisor who told us this model had been discontinued and was a "special addition" (1 says yes 2 say no, at kodak...? who knows?- That tells me they know there are problems with this camera). They wanted us to send our camera BACK in for repairs (what makes you think they'll fix it this time if they didn't fix it last time?) and if they couldn't fix it they were going to send us a 'refurbished' model. They were going to have their manager call us within 48 business hours... a week later we called them. They wanted us to send it back again, we wanted a refund. The product is defective and the customer support was less than desireable. Thank goodness for Wal-Mart, we were able to an exchange for a 'brand new' camera that we got home and took out of the torn box, to open the camera to find the straps already attached, lens cap already attached and took some pics, and the flash didn't work on that one either! We ended up getting a refund from them Wal-Mart. God bless 'em... it wasn't their battle, but they corrected it. I will never buy a kodak again after having owned 4 of them. Never again simply because of the customer service and their inablility to admit they fell short on this model and refund the money.

I don't ever review items I buy on Amazon, but with this one, I feel I should. So here goes...
I like this camera...I think. I have only purchased Kodak digital cameras since 2002. My last one was the P850 which had some really good characteristics to it. I was certain my next camera would be a Canon or Nikon dSLR, but when I compared everything, I ended up with the Z980. There are some features about it I really like. The 3" LCD screen is fantastic. The picture quality seems to be really good. I have taken some great shots of my kids. 12MP clarity is unbelievable. The lenses seem really solid and the zoom (624mm!) is out of this world. Kudos to Kodak!
But, and there's always a but, like the other reviews have stated the SD slot is hidden inside the battery cover door, so no switching cards on the fly. The camera takes AA batteries (rechargables are included as is a plug in charger). Battery life seems to be decent with them. But you can't use your Kodak dock as with every other Kodak I've owned. The battery door is a bit difficult to work and I too am worried about this door's life span...
The camera is much larger than my P850 but strangely lighter in weight? The screw on base is odd, but does help when taking vertical pictures. The vertical shutter release is interesting...not in a good way, not in a bad way...it's different.
When you weigh out the pros and cons of this camera, like I said, I like it...I think.