Kodak EasyShare Z5010 sample pictures

Check out an examination of picture quality from Kodak's budget-friendly 21x zoom, the EasyShare Z5010.

Joshua Goldman

July 16, 2012 12:45 p.m. PT

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ISO comparison

The Kodak EasyShare Z5010 is capable of taking some very good photos, but it is not without limitations. Basically, if you view its 14-megapixel pictures at larger sizes, 80 to 100 percent, you'll see a good deal of noise and artifacts, and subjects look soft and lack fine detail. That's even at its lowest sensitivity of ISO 64. This is only really a problem if you frequently enlarge and heavily crop your photos or are making prints larger than 8x10.

At smaller screen and print sizes, photos taken with plenty of light look good. The results drop off considerably as you go above ISO 400, which is typical for this class of camera. I wouldn't recommend this camera for regularly taking low-light photos without a flash or with the lens extended indoors. But again, outside with good light you'll get good results. (See the last six pictures in this slideshow to see some samples taken with the telephoto lens.)

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Macro at 100 percent

The Z5010 can focus as close as 3.6 inches from a subject in macro mode. This is a 100 percent crop from the inset picture, and, well, things just don't look good. But at smaller sizes, the results are definitely usable.

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Macro at 50 percent

Scale your close-up shots down to about 50 percent and fine details will look much better.

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Color

If you like your colors vivid and bright, but still natural, you'll like the results from the Z5010.

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Color modes

The Z5010 has a selection of color modes available in Program and Manual shooting modes: Vivid Color, Full Color, Basic Color, Black & White (pictured), and Sepia.

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Zoom range

For it's price, the Z5010 has an impressive 21x zoom range, going from an ultrawide-angle 25mm (top) to 525mm (bottom).

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Lens distortion

Kodak does a good job of processing out distortion at the wide and telephoto ends of the lens (top and bottom, respectively). There is a fair amount of fringing around high-contrast subjects, though you likely won't see it until you view photos at larger sizes. (Go back to the second slide and you can see what I mean.)

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Manual mode

For people who like a little more control over results, the Z5010 has full manual control over shutter speed and aperture. Shutter speeds range from 16 seconds to 1/1,250 of a second. Apertures are limited to two stops per focal length.

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Perfect Touch

Kodak's Perfect Touch processing is used on most of the camera's automatic shots, which helps improve color and exposure. Should you take a photo in Program or Manual and want to apply it, you can do so in the camera's playback editing options.

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Photos at 525mm (ISO 64)

This and the five slides that follow are all pictures taken with the lens fully zoom in to 525mm (35mm equivalent). There is a link below each picture allowing you to view the photo at full size. Note, these are large files and can take several seconds to fully load.

View picture at full size.