Early in 2013 the near defunct name of Kodak as a camera maker was given some life support by having its name licensed by JK imaging Ltd. a start-up imaging company that is hard to know much about. See this article for some clarification.
This week the Kodak brand name was revived with the Pixpro S1. A Micro 4/3rds camera with lens compatibility with Olympus and Panasonic. The specs are as follows:
- 16 megapixels 4/3 sensor
- Sensor shift stabilization
- ISO-200 – 12800
- tilting 3″ Screen
- Video: 1920 x 1080 (30 fps), 1280 x 720 (60, 30 fps),
- Slow Motion : 640 x 480 (30, 120 fps)***
- $499 body only
- Wifi
The camera is a low end spec iteration of recent micro four third cameras from Panasonic and Olympus. The price is certainly on the upper echelon and gives us little hope it will be adopted. There are better alternatives out there and also the very capable J1,J2 and J3 Nikon cameras at lower prices.
What is interesting in slow motion is the 120p mode at VGA which at that size is nothing special but it does hint at a higher spec model that might offer better frame rates at high resolutions. So if the camera helps the brand lift from the ashes we may very well see a few good and capable cameras with the Kodak brand name and with some luck a few higher frame rates to boot.
The image quality in raw and JPG is not bad and quite competitive with other similar m4/3 cameras. There are no real video samples but we expect those to be acceptable. For a slow motion camera the Kodak S1 is no real option, the nostalgia of the Kodak brand might help it take off but they will need to offer some edge in features/performance or price to survive in the ILC camera market.
We wish them a good dose of good luck!
Pixpro S-1 Previews and more info:
- Dpreview first impressions- Kodak S-1
- JK imaging page for the S-1
- ephotozine Preview Kodak S-1
- First Look Video by What Digital Camera
- Pre order Kodak Pixpro S-1 Here from Amazon