Poor old Kodak. Not only has the company that once dominated amateur photography had to watch consumer electronics manufacturers muscle in on its turf, it's now losing yet more ground as photographers migrate to digital SLRs.
The Kodak P712 is a brave attempt to fight back, combining some of the creative features found on today's budget D-SLRs, with a long lens and some consumer-friendly functions like image stabilisation and movie capture. For a start, the P712 lacks the super-sized ugliness of some predecessors.
Weighing in at nearly half a kilo, its black plastic case is never going to be pocket-sized but it is light enough to sling round your neck, and tough enough to withstand typical tourist knocks. Controls are well laid-out, although some buttons are small, and the zoom lever is too close to the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) for comfort. The 2.5-inch LCD is superficially impressive, rendering colours with a bright, natural clarity. However, it does lack sharpness and positively sulks in low light.
The EVF is a better choice all round, especially as it extends the P712's average battery life. The display has a useful on-screen menu that enables you to adjust key functions (aperture, shutter speed, ISO and exposure or flash compensation) via a speedy jog dial. This dial also works with the dedicated buttons for drive, metering, focus and flash functions, although weirdly not with the main menu screens.
The long zoom, which is the centrepiece of any 'bridge' camera, is as infuriating as it is liberating. On the plus side, its 12x reach is really useful, especially as the image stabiliser is excellent - easily a match for the classleading systems from Canon and Panasonic.
Booming camera
Distortion and fringing, while visible, are well controlled. But the Schneider-Kreuznach optics are probably the noisiest we've ever used, squeaking and whining throughout the range, and it can be slow to respond. Speed is a problem for the Kodak across the board. Powering up takes around five seconds and processing times are truly lethargical: six seconds for a JPEG and up to a minute for TIFF and RAW files. Burst mode captures up to five frames at 1.5fps, although at least the reliable autofocusing is near instant.
