And so it begins...Kodak Z980 with 24x zoom

[bascom]

The first new camera announcement of the year is from Kodak today with the 24x zoom Z980, the new ultrazoom king (in terms of zoom buy maybe not quality). I wonder how many other companies will release 24x ultrazooms this year?

[sw2cam]

That news didn't come out today .... it's been posted on many sites for some time.

[AndyfromVA]

The Z980 looks exciting, but I have concerns.
1. How much distortion will be present in that huge lens - barrel, pincushion, chromatic aberration?
2. How sharp will the picture appear at the extreme long end?
3. Will the camera have long buffer-clearing periods after a few shots like Kodak's other ultrazooms?
4. Will the camera operate quickly?
5. Will the pictures be subject to only moderate compression, unlike many Kodak cameras?
6. Will the pictures be extremely noisy at high ISO's?
7. Will the camera have autofocus problems?

We'll see.

[bascom]

That news didn't come out today .... it's been posted on many sites for some time.
I didn't say when it came out, but it was first posted here on Jan 5 and I think the Kodak announcement was Jan 4. So it is quite recent news.

[speaklightly]

For now, at least, it is certainly a "pig in a poke." We really won't know very much until we see the review. They finally did bring back the hotshoe and the P-20 Flash, that was nice. Now we will just have to wait and see.

Sarah Joyce

[bascom]

the 24x zoom Z980, the new ultrazoom king
That didn't last long. Two days and along comes Olympus.

[sw2cam]

Ohhhhhhhhh my how exciting.