Slim profile and attached USB makes for quick and easy videos that you can throw straight onto Facebook, though the smartphone sitting in your front pocket is a big contender.It doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to imagine that Kodak was going for the party-going happy snapper who is used to taking photos no clearer (but no more difficult) than on their mobile phone when they introduced the colourful PlayFull pocket cam. A noble endeavour, it may be, but with the poor lowlight performance and no flash in tow of the PlayFull, a point-and-shooter that could have been great hasn’t reached its full potential to play.
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The top feature of this camera is more its usability and simplicity than its image quality. The cam’s face features a small, 1.5 inch screen that’s nothing to boast over, but the other four buttons fitted flush under the surface place (like pseudo-touch buttons), the main shoot/enter button, the dedicated ‘Share’ button and direction controls are all integrated simply and logically.
The on button on the right hand side of the camera is easy to press and the camera itself turns on and off quickly, so having to quickly go from off to snapping a shot will only take around three seconds.
There are tabs on the left and right for miniUSB, miniHDMI and SD card storage, and a tripod screw-in spot on the bottom. The handiest addition is the hidden USB that is pulled out of the top for quick connection to PCs.
Overall, the unit feels very plastic and cheap, from the awkwardly tight tension of the buttons to the flimsy feel of the pull-out tabs. On the plus side, the pull-out USB stick is very practical and the connection feels tight while not restricting bending, so you can plug the cam into even the most hard-to-reach USB slots.
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This is great as a camcorder (for its price) in lit conditions though, offering fluid picture and clean sound under multiple customisable settings. It captures 1080p and 720p at 30fps, and quality is fair, without much blurring thanks to the image stabiliser. It automatically adjusts its exposure pretty quickly to changed light conditions as you direct the camera in and out of harsh light sources like the sun or light bulbs.
There’s also a 720p at 60fps mode for active video shooting that gives video that extra crisp edge and avoids motion blur when shooting sport (or perfect if you’re just generally a klutz at holding a camera steady).
Image quality is good if you’re comparing to a smartphone, but the average shot looks like it’s been taken at a near-1,000 ISO level on an old compact cam. In high light, edges are smooth though colour is still a little on the pastel side, and from low to mid-light the quality deteriorates, increasing image noise and crumbling the edges of shapes.
The 4x digital zoom is diminutive and not worth using since it’ll only serve to enhance the visual noise and make photos blotchier. Used in video, it makes everything seem more like a moody, ’90s, grunge video than a happy home movie of your kid playing on the swings.
The small inch and a half screen is poor quality, and makes it hard to determine the end result of photos and video that you’ve taken. The in-built speaker also makes hearing playback of video clips a chore if there’s any other noise around.
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| PlayFull compared to PlaySport (right) |
You could always go for the PlaySport Zx5 for an extra $50, which will give you the same picture but in a weatherproof casing, more attractive user interface and buttons and a better screen, but you’d lose the slim profile and attached USB. For quick and easy videos that you can throw straight onto Facebook from any setting, this is an ideal unit, though the smartphone sitting in your front pocket is a big contender.
