Kodak Playsport Zx5 Camcorder Review
- Sections:
- Color
- Color Accuracy Performance
- Low Light Color
- Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
- Noise
Color
In our testing, the PlaySport Zx5 produced colors with complete inaccuracy. Take a gander at the sample images below to see what we're talking about. You should immediately see a bright orange glow that encompasses the entirety of the Zx5's bright light image. Of course, this is an issue with the auto white balance system more than anything else. This has been a problem on every Kodak camcorder we've reviewed—going back two or three years now—and Kodak has yet to do anything about it. Shame, shame, shame. More on how we test color.
Color Accuracy Performance
Color Error Map
The map above is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video.
The Kodak PlaySport Zx5 produced a color error of 16.54 and a saturation level of 166.00% in our bright light color testing.
The Zx5 has a few digital effects, but no manual color modes. One of the digital effects is called high saturation, which, as you can probably guess, boosts the saturation levels. The image below was taken in regular auto mode, and you can clearly see the problems the Zx5 had with rendering colors under our bright lights. Outdoors, under natural light, the Zx5 produced colors with far better accuracy.
Auto
100% Crop
The overall color error numbers on the Zx5 are barely worth mentioning because the values are entirely skewed by the terrible auto white balance system. For our dedicated readers, though, here they are: 16.54 color error and a saturation level of 166%. Those numbers are worse than last year's PlaySport Zx3 from Kodak, but both camcorders did a miserable job in this test. In fact, a good two thirds of the ultracompact models we review have some sort of white balancing issue like this in our bright light test, so this problem isn't solely associated with Kodak. Of the comparison models we look at in this review, only the Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS10 did a quality job in our bright light color testing.
Low Light Color
The Zx5 did far better on our low light color test than the camcorder did in our bright light testing. This fact is almost certainly related to the kind of lights we use in each test (halogen lights in our bright light test vs. LED lights in low light). Still, the Zx5's color accuracy in low light wasn't anything to write home about. More on how we test low light color.
Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
Color Error Map
The map above is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video.
The Kodak PlaySport Zx5 produced a color error of and a saturation level of in our bright light color testing.
The camcorder measured a color error of 5.89 and a saturation level of 86.84% under the 60 lux lights. Of these two numbers, the saturation level may be the one we are most pleased by. The Zx5's saturation in low light was 20% higher than last year's Zx3, although the Zx3 managed slightly better color accuracy.
Noise
Noise levels on the Zx5 were fairly low, although it did have more noise than last year's Zx3 (just by a hair). The camcorder averaged 0.66% noise in our bright light test, which is around 0.1% more noise than last year's Zx3. The JVC GC-WP10 and Sony Bloggie Touch MHS-TS10 also had less noise than the Zx5, but, in all, these four camcorders each did a good job in this test. More on how we test noise.
Let's forget about noise for a moment—all of these camcorders did a fine job in keeping the noise low in our testing—but take a look at the crops above anyway. Notice how blurred the image appears from the Kodak PlaySport Zx5. This is what the Zx5's testing images looked like in all kinds of light and shooting situations. It always produced blurred, out-of-focus imagery on the left side of the frame. Always.
We're not completely sure where this problem stems from, but we think it is an issue with the Zx5's autofocus system. The right side of the frame consistently looked much sharper than the left, so we think the focal plane may not be perfectly straight (the two sides were never fully in focus at the same time). We reference this problem in numerous other areas of this review because we think it is something important to talk about. Also, this is something we've seen from other camcorders, particularly cheap and ultracompact models, before.
