New Kodak Z981 superzoom goes 14mp and 26X zoom, keeps RAW and faux-grip

Like clock-work, to the day, one year after the announcement of the Z980 super-zoom at CES 2009, Kodak is back with the brand new Z981 superzoom. The model name "advances" by just +1, but the camera actually jumps to a 14mp sensor and 26X zoom ratio, up from 12mp and 24X.

The lens is also Schneider-branded, f2.6-f5, and has a 26-676mm equivalent focal range. It has image stabilization but the Kodak material fail to specify what type. The purpose of a product announcement and description is to describe the product!

The vertical shutter button and detachable vertical (non-battery) grip remain with this model as well. You can see them in the picture right below.

On the plus side, the camera has RAW capture and PASM which is short for Program, Aperture and Shutter priority, and Manual exposure.

The camera has a less than 0.2 second click-to-capture specification, although someone at Amazon must have a sense of humor (or a typo), because they switched the "< 2.0" from the Kodak material to "> 2.0" :)

Other features include a 3-inch display, one-touch upload to popular web-services (flickr, youtube, facebook, etc).

It takes four AA batteries, and Kodak actually includes four of the pre-charged (presumably LSD) types. This is a nice touch for AA cameras.

The camera is available for pre-order at Amazon for $330.

You can read more about it at Kodak.