Kodak Zx1 Camcorder Review

Color & Noise Performance Summary
• Terrible color accuracy in our bright light test • Camcorder's auto white balance system couldn't white balance correctly with tungsten light—giving the image an orange tint. • Noise levels higher than the competition, but not all that bad.
	Product Tour	(Page 3 of 17)	Motion & Sharpness Performance

Color (2.36)

The Kodak Zx1 can capture video using two different frame rates. There's HD60 mode, which is a 60p setting, and there's HD mode that uses 30p recording. The 60p mode offers native 720/60p progressive recording at 60fps. This gives the footage smooth motion and the speed of the footage resembles that of a traditional camcorder that records at 60i. The 30p mode is more akin to what you see from most ultra-compact camcorders like the Flip UltraHD or the Sony MHS-PM1. The footage is slower, a bit choppier, and not as smooth as the Kodak's 60p option. We found the camcorder performed slightly better when using the HD60 mode, so all our performance scoring was conducted using that setting. Check out the Motion section of this review for more information about the different frame rates on the Kodak Zx1.

The Kodak Zx1 performed terribly in our bright light color testing. The camcorder measured a color error of 14.85 with a saturation level of 156.6%. This poor score stems mainly from the camcorder's inability to properly white balance during our test. Outdoors, under natural light, the camcorder showed much more accurate colors. Still, the mediocre color score in our bright light testing is a bad sign for users who plan on shooting with the Zx1 indoors under a variety of different lighting conditions. (More on how we test color.)

Color Accuracy Performance
Color Test Chart (above), Color Error Map (right)
The Kodak Zx1 produced a color error of 14.85 and a saturation level of 156.6% in our bright light color testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.)

In the images above you can see what we're talking about when we say the Zx1 couldn't white balance properly in our test. A bright orange glow casts itself over the entirety of the Zx1's bright light image. This makes all the colors skew orange-yellow and, in turn, produces a very bad color accuracy overall. We've seen this problem before in our testing—most prominently in the Kodak Zi6—as well as amongst other ultra-compact, budget camcorders.

Kodak Zx1 Color Modes
Auto	100% Crop

The Kodak Zx1 doesn't feature any color options or picture adjustment settings. The sample image above is taken using the HD60 mode, a 60p frame rate setting that records a 1280 x 720 image. The camcorder also offers a 30p mode, as well as a standard definition VGA setting (640 x 480 resolution). All the test images in this review are taken using the HD60 mode unless otherwise noted.

Kodak Zx1 Color Comparisons
Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1
Flip UltraHD	Kodak Zi6

In the comparisons above you can see that the Kodak Zi6 has the same orange tint in bright light as the Kodak Zx1. Both camcorders feature an automatic white balance system that simply could not handle the indoor lighting setup utilized in our bright light testing. Both the Flip UltraHD and Sony MHS-PM1 (Webbie HD) faired much better in this test.

	Close-Up Color Comparisons
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Kodak Zi6
Red
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Kodak Zi6
Green
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Kodak Zi6
Blue
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Kodak Zi6
Skin Tone 1					No data available
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Kodak Zi6
Skin Tone 2					No data available

The close-up color chips above give you a better idea of how orange the image from the two Kodak camcorders looked in our bright light color testing. The color error is especially noticeable in the red color patch, although all the colors have a strong orange tint to them. By looking at the comparisons, it is clear that the Sony MHS-PM1 and Flip UltraHD are much better choices if you want accurate colors or if you plan on filming indoors under a variety of lighting conditions.

Color Performance Scores

Noise (4.50)

In addition to its poor color accuracy, the Kodak Zx1 also put up below-average numbers in our bright light noise test. The camcorder averaged 1.0275% noise, which is roughly twice the amount of noise we measured on the Flip UltraHD. The Sony MHS-PM1 also registered significantly lower noise levels than the Kodak Zx1, measuring roughly 0.765% in our testing. (More on how we test noise.)

Noise Comparisons
Kodak Zx1 100% Crop	Sony MHS-PM1 100% Crop	Flip UltraHD 100% Crop	Kodak Zi6 100% Crop

The above crops give you a good idea of the overall image quality offered by each camcorder in bright light. The Kodak Zx1 has a fairly sharp image, although there is some prominent interference in the vertical trumpet. The MHS-PM1 and Flip UltraHD both have better color accuracy and slightly sharper images than the Kodak Zx1. The Zi6 looks terrible next to these three camcorders, but we don't have any bright light noise data for that model because it was tested using last year's rubric.

Noise Score Comparisons