Kodak Pixpro Az401 Bridge Digital Camera- 16mp 40x Optical Zoom Review

A 40x zoom lens for just $169.99 is an enticing prospect, and one that will describe budget-minded photographers to the Kodak Pixpro AZ401. Only the camera itself captures disappointing images—aside from the zoom capability, a practiced smartphone delivers crisper shots, and shaky prototype stabilization makes it difficult to frame shots when zoomed all the way in. If you're in the market for this type of camera, do yourself a favor and spend a bit more on something improve. The Canon SX530 HS ($379.99) is more expensive, simply delivers much amend image and video quality, and the convenience of in-photographic camera Wi-Fi. If you're on a budget, forgo the ultra-zoom for something more than reasonable, like the 10x Catechism Elph 190 IS, which sells for about $160.

Design

The AZ401 ($119.00 at Currys) , available in a ruddy or black terminate, is, as you'd expect for the cost, mostly plastic. Simply information technology does have a metal ring around the lens. The body measures three.2 by 4.5 by 3.iii inches (HWD) and weighs 15.four ounces. Information technology'south definitely non pocketable, but it can fit in a small pocketbook with ease. In that location's a congenital-in wink, just no accessory shoe.

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The marquee feature is the 40x zoom lens. It covers a 24mm (full-frame equivalent) angle at its widest—making it more than versatile than models that get-go at 28mm. The maximum zoom is 960mm, allowing you to lock on to distant subjects. Merely the AZ401's stabilization isn't as good every bit some other ultra-zoom models, so yous'll have to be very careful and still in order to agree your framing when working at the most farthermost zoom level. To get an idea of the range of coverage, have a look at the broad shot above and the zoomed-in shot below, both taken from the same position.

Despite being priced for entry-level photographers, the AZ401 has a adept amount of manual command capability. You can, of form, go out it in total automatic way and let the camera make up one's mind which settings to use. Only if y'all want to delve into more avant-garde waters, at that place's a Mode dial on summit, along with Drive and EV adjustment buttons, the shutter release, zoom rocker, and On/Off switch.

Rear buttons include Brandish Info, Card, Play, Tape, and Set. At that place's as well a 4-way command pad to adjust the focus mode, enable macro shooting, conform flash settings, and ready the self-timer. More avant-garde settings, including the metering pattern and continuous focus mode, are accessible via the on-screen card. The 3-inch LCD doesn't support touch input, but is decently well-baked at 460k dots. It can be viewed clearly from an askew angle, and I had no issues using information technology outdoors on a bright 24-hour interval.

The photographic camera doesn't back up Wi-Fi, so there'due south no piece of cake mode to transfer photos and videos to your smartphone. It has a unmarried retention card slot that works with SD and SDHC cards upward to 32GB in chapters. There are two connectedness ports—micro USB for data transfer and micro HDMI to connect directly to an HDTV.

The AZ401 is powered by four AA batteries. Casual users who don't want to worry about keeping a bombardment charged will capeesh this, though bombardment life is frustratingly short. Kodak states that you'll get 280 shots per CIPA standards, but I went through a gear up of alkaline cells after merely 60 pictures and a few short video clips.

Performance and Image Quality

The AZ401 is irksome. You can turn it on and burn off a shot in about 3 seconds, but your image will exist out of focus. Waiting for the camera to acquire an initial focus lock extends start-up time to an average of iv.9 seconds. There'due south a continuous drive way available that shoots at 3fps, merely image resolution drops to 4MP when it's enabled. If yous endeavor to shoot full-resolution images in rapid succession in single drive mode, look to look virtually 1.ix seconds between each shot.

The autofocus system is simplistic. Past default it locks on to a center target only, just y'all can adjust information technology to look across the image frame for focus, or to identify and runway moving subjects. In lab testing, the camera requires about 0.iii-second to lock onto a discipline and capture an image. In the field, I found the focus system to exist frustratingly inconsistent. I missed several shots due to the focus organization missing its target. In ane sequence, I simply could non get it to lock on to a very patient sandpiper, sitting perfectly all the same on a railing. I used the center point simply setting and put the target directly on the bird, merely the camera consistently focused on the greenish foliage, well behind the intended subject.

I used Imatest to check the sharpness of the AZ401'southward lens. It notched i,805 lines per flick superlative on the standard center-weighted evaluation. That's just above the 1,800 line cutoff for an passably sharp image. The Canon SX530 HS does a bit amend, scoring 2,071 lines on the same exam.

I didn't have enough space to test the camera's lens when fully zoomed, but did run tests at around v.5x (130mm), where it'southward a fiddling softer at 1,774 lines, and at about 10x (240mm), where it notches 1,954 lines.

The lens delivers pretty solid results, but the 16MP CCD image sensor suffers in moderate to dim light. The lens is decently bright at its widest setting, f/three, but the aperture narrows to f/6.8 when zoomed all the style in. That means you lot'll end up using higher ISO settings—a mensurate of how sensitive the sensor is to incoming light—when non shooting nether bright sunlight.

The AZ401 curbs noise through ISO 1600, keeping it nether i.five per centum, but does so at the price of image item. In reality, you get crisp results at the lowest ISO eighty setting through about ISO 200. At ISO 400 we run into serious blur introduced, killing fine detail. It increases at ISO 800 and 1600. The camera can also shoot at ISO 3200, simply image resolution drops to 4MP and detail is nonexistent.

The CCD sensor certainly comes into play hither. Modern smartphone and pricier point-and-shoots use CMOS sensor engineering science, which is better in dim lite. The SX530, a CMOS camera, delivers more than usable results through ISO 800.

The use of CCD tech also limits video quality to 720p. The overall quality is not keen, as you lot can run across from a short exam clip. The camera has a difficult time maintaining focus (though that won't be the case for every scene), quality is generally soft, and at that place are occasional odd flashes of color. Audio quality is solid, except when y'all adapt the zoom as the sound of the lens moving in and out overwhelms the sound track.

Conclusions

The Kodak Pixpro AZ401 is a siren, luring you into shore with a low price and intense zoom range. But don't exist fooled by its song. Image quality isn't swell, and while it offers a lot of zoom power, you'll detect it very hard to frame shots at 40x given and so-and then quality of the AZ401's image stabilization organization. If yous desire a long lens compact, the Canon SX530 HS is a solid option, admitting one that's more expensive. In the budget realm, have a wait at Canon's Elph 190 IS, which sells for a fiddling bit less than the AZ401, and still has an ample 10x zoom. Our Editors' Choice superzoom is a pricier model, the Canon PowerShot SX60 HS, merely offers much, much meliorate operation than the AZ401.

Kodak Pixpro AZ401

Pros

The Bottom Line

Kodak's Pixpro AZ401 photographic camera gives you a lot of zoom power for not a lot of money, merely image quality and operation are disappointing.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/kodak-pixpro-az401#:~:text=The%20Kodak%20Pixpro%20AZ401%20is,the%20AZ401's%20image%20stabilization%20system.

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