Kodak AZ422 Kodak - Review 🏆

The Kodak AZ422 is an affordable bridge camera offering a versatile superzoom lens in a compact body. Released in 2015, it features a 16 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor paired with a 22-880mm equivalent zoom lens, providing a huge focal range from wide-angle to super telephoto. With an electronic viewfinder, full manual controls, and RAW capture, the AZ422 provides an extensive feature-set for its low price point. Its beginner-friendly Auto mode makes it accessible for casual users, while the advanced controls cater to more experienced photographers. The 42x optical zoom is the highlight, allowing you to capture anything from sweeping landscapes to distant wildlife without having to change lenses. Overall, the AZ422 is designed as an affordable all-in-one camera for travel and everyday use.

Design and Build Quality

The Kodak AZ422 has a fairly compact and lightweight body made of plastic, with a textured finish that provides a secure grip. It weighs about 350g including the battery and SD card. The camera feels solid and well-built despite the plastic construction.

The ergonomics are good, with a decent sized handgrip and thumb rest on the back. The buttons and dials are well-placed and easy to access. There's a zoom rocker around the shutter button for operating the lens. The mode dial on top makes it simple to switch between different exposure modes. Overall, the AZ422 has a functional and intuitive control layout suitable for beginners as well as more experienced photographers.

While not as robust or premium feeling as higher-end models, the AZ422's design and build quality are very good for a budget superzoom camera. The plastic body helps keep the weight down while still providing a durable and comfortable camera to handle and shoot with.

In comparison, the Kodak PIXPRO AZ401-BK offers a similar lightweight design but features an impressive 40x optical zoom, making it perfect for capturing distant subjects with clarity. Its sleek and streamlined form factor makes it even more portable, ideal for travel photography. Both cameras are user-friendly and provide excellent image quality for their price. For more details, check out the Kodak PIXPRO AZ401-BK.

Image Quality

The Kodak AZ422 features a 16MP 1/2.3-inch BSI CMOS sensor, which is fairly standard for bridge cameras in this price range. The sensor resolution allows for printing high quality images up to 13 x 19 inches.

Overall image quality is quite good for a camera at this price point. The AZ422 produces images with nice color rendition and saturation right out of the camera. Details are rendered well when shooting in good lighting conditions. Noise performance is also decent, with usable images up to ISO 800. At higher ISOs, aggressive noise reduction leads to loss of finer details.

The AZ422 has decent dynamic range, though highlights can get blown out in high contrast scenes. Using the built-in HDR mode helps preserve highlight and shadow details.

For JPEG shooting, the AZ422 offers standard, vivid, and monochrome color modes. Images have pleasing colors in the standard mode, while vivid mode boosts saturation for bolder hues.

For RAW shooting, the AZ422 can capture DNG RAW files. This allows recovering blown highlights and manipulating colors during post-processing for greater creative control.

Overall, the Kodak AZ422 delivers good image quality for casual photographers, though more advanced users may be left wanting more. The small sensor struggles in low light situations. But with realistic expectations, the AZ422 is capable of producing pleasing prints and web images.

In comparison, the Kodak PIXPRO AZ255-RD also offers exceptional image quality within the bridge camera category. This model features a powerful 16MP 1/2.3-inch sensor and an impressive 25x optical zoom, allowing users to capture detailed images from a distance. Its intuitive controls and user-friendly interface make it accessible for beginners while providing advanced shooting modes for enthusiasts. Additionally, the AZ255-RD excels in low light conditions, making it a versatile choice for various photography scenarios. For more details, check out the Kodak PIXPRO AZ255-RD.

Zoom Lens

The Kodak AZ422 has a 22-960mm equivalent zoom lens, which provides an extremely versatile focal range for everything from wide landscapes to super telephoto shots. The actual focal length is 4.9-108mm. With a 40x optical zoom, you can get very close to distant subjects without significant loss of image quality.

For the aperture range, the lens has a variable maximum aperture of f/3.1 at the wide end and f/6.9 at the telephoto end. This is fairly typical for bridge superzoom cameras in this price range. While not hugely bright, the lens gathers enough light for most situations.

The AZ422 also includes optical image stabilization to help reduce blur from camera shake. This is especially useful when shooting at the long end of the zoom range where hand shake can be more apparent. The stabilization provides around 2-3 stops of compensation, enabling sharper handheld shots in low light. Overall, the versatile zoom range, aperture performance, and optical stabilization make the lens a standout feature.

Autofocus and Shooting Speed

The Kodak AZ422 has a contrast-detect autofocus system, which is fairly standard for bridge cameras in this price range. It's not as fast or advanced as phase-detection autofocus, but it gets the job done in most situations.

Autofocus acquisition is reasonably quick in good lighting, locking focus in around 0.5 seconds. In low light or low contrast scenarios, it does slow down and hunt more. This can lead to some missed shots if your subject is moving.

For burst shooting, the AZ422 can capture up to 3 fps, which isn't fast but on par for an affordable bridge camera. The burst depth is limited as well, with the camera able to take a burst of around 7 JPEGs or 5 RAW files before slowing down. This makes it hard to reliably capture fast action sequences.

Overall, while the autofocus system is decent, the AZ422 won't be the best choice for sports, wildlife, or other fast-moving subjects. It's better suited to relatively static scenes. The burst speed is also quite limited compared to higher-end bridge cameras.

Video Capabilities

The Kodak AZ422 can capture full HD 1080p video at 30 fps, which is decent but not exceptional. Many cameras in this class can record 1080p at 60fps for smoother motion. The AZ422 uses H.264 compression to create .MOV video files. Audio is recorded in stereo using the built-in microphone. There is no external mic input, so you are limited to the internal mics which may pick up camera noise like zooming and autofocus. The lack of an external mic input reduces the versatility for video. Still, the AZ422 is capable of recording respectable HD video for casual home movies and events. But videographers looking for more advanced controls and features will want to look at other models.

Display and Viewfinder

The Kodak AZ422 has a 3-inch LCD display with a resolution of 460,000 dots. The screen is fixed and does not tilt or swivel, which can make shooting from high or low angles challenging.

The display is decently sharp and provides a good preview of shots, but it lacks touch capabilities. You'll need to navigate the menu and settings with the physical buttons instead.

In terms of viewfinder, the AZ422 has a 0.2-inch electronic viewfinder (EVF) with 201,000 dots resolution. The EVF is quite small and is not the easiest to use for composing shots. The image preview also appears a bit grainy.

Overall, the display and EVF work reasonably well for the price point, but are fairly basic. Those looking for more versatility may want to consider models with articulating screens and higher-resolution EVFs. But the AZ422's fixed display and simple EVF get the job done for casual shooting.

Connectivity and Ports

The Kodak AZ422 offers decent connectivity options for a bridge camera in this price range. It has built-in WiFi which allows you to wirelessly transfer photos to your smartphone or tablet using the free Kodak Photo Share app. Setting up the WiFi connection is quick and easy.

In terms of physical ports, the AZ422 has a micro HDMI port to output HD video and images to an HDTV. It uses a micro USB 2.0 port for charging and transferring photos to your computer. There is no USB-C or Bluetooth connectivity.

The camera has a composite A/V out port for connecting to older TVs. Overall the ports are fairly standard for this class of camera, but the addition of Bluetooth could have been nice to enable easy wireless pairing with smartphones and tablets.

Battery Life

The Kodak AZ422 uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that provides enough power for around 200 shots per charge, which is lower than average for a bridge camera. This limited battery life means you'll likely need to carry a spare battery if you plan on shooting all day or taking more than 200 photos in a session.

The battery takes around 3 hours to fully recharge once depleted. Since bridge cameras have a large zoom lens that requires more power, the battery life tends to be lower compared to smaller compact cameras. Still, 200 shots per charge is on the lower side, so battery life is one area where this camera falls a bit short.

Overall, the battery life could be better, but is probably sufficient for casual users who don't need to take hundreds of photos at a time. For more active shooters, purchasing an extra battery is recommended to ensure you don't run out of power during important photo sessions.

Pros and Cons

The Kodak AZ422 has a number of strengths as well as some weaknesses that are important to consider.

Pros

• Long zoom range. The 22-972mm lens provides a powerful 42x optical zoom, allowing you to get very close to distant subjects. This makes it great for wildlife, sports, and travel photography.

• Image stabilization. Optical image stabilization helps reduce blur from camera shake when shooting at long zoom lengths or in low light. This allows you to capture sharper images.

• Large 3-inch LCD. The rear LCD is generous in size and provides a good preview of your shots. It tilts up and down for flexible viewing angles too.

• Decent image quality. Photos are fairly detailed and sharp in good lighting conditions. The 16MP sensor provides enough resolution for prints.

• Manual exposure controls. You get aperture and shutter priority modes plus full manual control for greater creative flexibility.

Cons

• Slow autofocus. The contrast-detect autofocus is on the sluggish side, especially at the long end of the zoom range. You may miss some shots.

• Mediocre low light performance. Image quality deteriorates quickly as light levels drop. Photos exhibit more noise, softness, and lack of detail in dim conditions.

• No RAW support. You only get JPEG images, not RAW files. This limits editing flexibility.

• No viewfinder. Lack of an electronic viewfinder makes composing in very bright sunlight more difficult.

• Short battery life. Battery drains quickly with heavy use. You'll need spare batteries for all-day outings.