Among a certain techno-savvy crowd, the touch screen interface epitomizes "cool." With this in mind, Kodak is among a handful of manufacturers who have decided to go the touch interface route for their premium ultracompact cameras. In Kodak's case, the camera is the Kodak EasyShare V1273.
If you've come to associate Kodak with the often mundane compact cameras that the company churns out on a regular basis, be prepared to be surprised: the V1273 is a high-end camera with impressive build quality and one of the most polished touch interfaces around. Indeed, the camera's physical presence sets a high bar – one that the V1273's performance and image quality will have to clear in order to earn our praise as a well rounded total package.
FEATURES OVERVIEW
The Kodak EasyShare V1273 is a high-resolution, high-spec ultracompact that features, most notably, a minimalist design and interface driven by a large touch panel display. Positioned as a premium product, the metal-cased V1273 targets a consumer market that appreciates a well-made product but as a rule is seeking a high-tech, fully automatic shooting experience.
To this end, the 12 megapixel, 3x zoom V1273 delivers, defaulting into Kodak's Smart Capture shooting mode on startup, which utilizes several behind the scenes technologies to control exposure and contrast, reduce motion blur, and set accurate white balance. With the V1273's processor making the overwhelming majority of basic picture taking decisions for you automatically in its default mode, the camera aims to provide point-and-shoot picture taking, but with more consistent results than your average auto-exposure camera offers.
Although it does provide almost no user controls by default, there's more going on than initially meets the eye in the V1273's menus. Click the shooting mode icon in the touch screen's upper left corner and the V1273 provides you with a short list of touch-to-select shooting mode options:
* Smart Capture: The V1273's full auto mode, in which the camera automatically sets all exposure options and even applies Kodak's PerfectTouch technology as needed.
* Program: A conventional program auto mode with user controls for exposure compensation, white balance, processing options, and so on.
* Scene: The V1273 has 22 scene presets available.
* Movie: The camera supports video capture with sound at up to 720p.
Beyond the touch interface, the most highly touted feature on this ultracompact is its ability to capture HD (1280x720) video. The camera has no problem grabbing smooth looking clips in its highest-res mode, and appears to be able to shoot clips of unlimited length up to the capacity of its memory. Predictably, the camera's mono sound is rather boxy and unflattering, and we did have some focus acquisition issues when shooting video, even with the camera set to continuous auto focus. If you're looking for a pocket camera with a little more kick in the video department, however, the V1273 mostly delivers.
Playback mode provides a surprisingly limited number of post-shot processing tools for a premium device. Other than cropping images to suit or appending audio notes, there's not a lot to play with here – though the "roulette wheel" scrolling style that lets you quickly flip your way through images using the touch interface is good for wasting a few minutes at least a few minutes of your day.
The V1273 does provide Kodak's PerfectTouch in-camera post-processing, which claims to open up blocked up shadow areas and subtly add more vibrancy to colors. In testing, we were generally pleased with the results that this handy little tool provides.
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