Kodak Zx1

Colour & Noise Performance Summary
• Terrible colour 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

Colour (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 colour testing. The camcorder measured a colour 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 colours. Still, the mediocre colour 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 colour.)

Colour Accuracy Performance
Colour Test Chart (above), Colour Error Map (right)
The Kodak Zx1 produced a colour error of 14,85 and a saturation level of 156.6% in our bright light colour testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the colour error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular colour.)

In the images above you can see what we are 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 colours skew orange-yellow and, in turn, produces a very bad colour accuracy overall. We've seen this problem before in our testing amongst other ultra-compact, budget camcorders.

Kodak Zx1 Colour Modes
Auto	100% Crop

The Kodak Zx1 doesn't feature any colour 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 Colour Comparisons
Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1
Flip UltraHD	Sanyo VPC-CG10

In the comparisons above you can see the orange tint in bright light. The automatic white balance system could simply not handle the indoor lighting set-up utilized in our bright light testing. Both the Flip UltraHD and Sony MHS-PM1 (Webbie HD) faired much better in this test. The CG10's colour performance is impressive by any standards, particularly compared to other camcorders in this price range

	Close-Up Colour Comparisons
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Sanyo VPC-CG10
Red
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Sanyo VPC-CG10
Green
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Sanyo VPC-CG10
Blue
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Sanyo VPC-CG10
Skin Tone 1
	Ideal	Kodak Zx1	Sony MHS-PM1	Flip UltraHD	Sanyo PC-CG10
Skin Tone 2

The close-up colour chips above give you a better idea of how orange the image from the Kodak looked in our bright light colour testing. The colour error is especially noticeable in the red colour patch, although all the colours have a strong orange tint to them. By looking at the comparisons, it is clear that the Sanyo VPC-CG10 is the much better choice if you plan on filming indoors under a variety of lighting conditions.The Sony MHS-PM1 and Flip UltraHD, however, also produce more accurate colours than the Kodak Zx1.

Colour Performance Scores

Noise (4.5)

In addition to its poor colour 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 and the Sanyo VPC-CG10. 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	Sanyo VPC-CG10 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 colour accuracy and slightly sharper images than the Kodak Zx1.

Noise Score Comparisons