Fed up of using my cell phone camera with limited creative control, I finally decided to buy a littlemore expensive camera.
Altough I would anytime like to get my hands on a DSLR, however was out of my budget. An more obvious choice for me was to buy a prosumer/bridge (between DSLR and point-and-shoot) camera. Since then I’ve been hunting for the ’one’ that fit my needs, and more importantly, my budget.
Thats how I landed on the Z1015 from Kodak. Priced at 15k from Croma, it was the perfect camera for my needs as well as my pocket.
Some of the camera features are as follows:
-15X optical zoom lens (SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON)
-f/3.5 28 mm wide-angle lens
-10 MP
-0.20 sec. picture-capture speed
-high ISO up to 6400
-HD video capture
-Manual control in Aperture, Shutter speed, Exposure etc
-Check out rest of them here https://kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=13040&pq-locale=en_US
For a mere 15k, this a feature packed camera. The camera also has an optical stabilizer, for takingsharp pictures at high zoom even if your camera is shaking a bit. With manual modes (PASM), you can control every aspet of your picture. On the other hand, you can also use it as a point-and-shoot camera.
Just click the button, and the camera will do the rest. It has both a viewfinder and a LCD screen and lets you view videos, slideshows etc. Bundled is a 2GB SD card. I was able to fit more than 600 pictures at 8MP in the card. Battery life is decent and acceptable, since these cameras are power hungry.
Altough it is always recommended to buy a spare battery. You can charge the battery while it is in the camera through a bundled cable. Again, it is recommended that you buy (sigh) a separate charger.
Now its time for the drawbacks. The camera startup is a little slow. Also, when the camera starts, the lens protrude even if the lens cap is on, and the lens cap simply is ’thrown’ off the lens.
This may damage the delicate lens mechanism, because you are likely to forget to remove the lens cap before turning the camera on. I do. The zooming mechanism is sluggish and is not responsive, especially when you are zooming out and you release the zoom button.
All things said, for its price, this is a very excellent buy. No other product features the same functionalities at this price. Although not at all meant for professionals, if you are new at photography and want a decent camera with manual control over various picture parameters which will go easy on your pockets, this is it!
Here are some pictures taken with this camera:
https://flickr.com/photos/amey0123/