Kodak EasyShare ZD710 review

Kodak EasyShare ZD710 Review

Reviewed by: Rich Trenholm

Reviewed on: 19 February 2008

Performance
The price of a longer lens can be some barrel distortion at wider focal lengths, when straight lines appear to curve towards the edge of the frame. The ZD710 barely exhibits this at all. Colour is vibrant, and skin tones good. Purple fringing on the boundary between light and dark areas was more of an issue than we'd like, but didn't impact too badly on prints.

The ZD710's burst mode offers the option of saving the first two or last two images from a sequence of images, which we didn't find especially useful.

This superzoom isn't the fastest camera out of the gate when starting up, taking 2 seconds simply because the lens has to spin out. Our model also seemed determined to pop the flash up when turned on, even if the flash had been disabled. Another minor quirk is that pressing the flash mode button doesn't pop the flash up; a separate switch opens the flash. These functions could have been integrated into one button for quicker and easier operation.

Image quality
Images are gritty from ISO 200 upwards, but it isn't until ISO 800 that images become unusable. As on most compacts, the maximum sensitivity, ISO 1,600, is pebbledashed by noise speckles. In low light the ZD710 copes reasonably well, with the long zoom holding up to fast shutter speeds for capturing action in darker situations.

Conclusion
The Kodak EasyShare ZD710 is a basic superzoom, but a well-designed one nonetheless. It is simple to use and presents a step up over most compacts in terms of manual control. In the superzoom stakes, cameras like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7 offer more bells and whistles. The ZD710's small screen, jerky viewfinder and clunky zoom may frustrate a seasoned photographer, but as a back-up camera -- or a first camera for would-be enthusiasts -- the relatively petite size and price and the simplicity of operation are endearing.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday