Kodak Ektra - The mobile phone for photographers?

Recently Kodak presented a new smartphone. New phones are introduced almost daily, but according to Kodak, their new product is particularly suitable for taking photos. That made me curious.

As a reminder, Kodak was once one of the biggest names in photography. But then the company slept through the digital age and today hardly plays a role in photography. This is all the more surprising as Kodak, of all companies, introduced the first digital camera in 1991 that was also commercially available.

So now there is a device from Kodak again. However, only the name and the design are from Kodak, the technology comes from the Bullitt Group. The specifications correspond to those of a good mid-range Android smartphone:

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

  • Android 6.0
  • 5-inch display with FullHD resolution
  • 21MP camera with f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilizer, phase comparison autofocus and dual LED flash.
  • Helio X20 2.3GHz processor with 3GB RAM
  • 32GB storage, expandable with MicroSD cards
  • 3000mAh battery
  • USB 3.0 Type C port

In addition, there is an app for printing high-quality prints and a very nice Super 8 video recorder with which you can record videos in a retro look.

When I saw the press images for the first time, I was thrilled by the design. The retro look looks very classy and my first thought was finally a phone with a real camera! Above all, the rather large lens stands out immediately.

Kodak Ektra
© Kodak

But the disillusionment comes quickly when you take a closer look at the product photos. In the middle of the "lens" you see a tiny lens, no bigger than on any other smartphone. That is the camera! All the rest, i.e. the tube and the glass, are pure show. At best, you could call it protection for the lens. The device contains a normal Sony IMX230 Exmor RS image sensor, which is also used in some other phones.

I would not be surprised if many customers fall for this marketing. Die Presse writes, for example, "The 1941-style back cover is prominently adorned with a lens about two centimetres in diameter" and even Heise says "It is dominated by the prominent Ektra lens ...". That annoys me a bit. Especially since, apart from the shutter release button, the smartphone doesn't have any special features that other modern phones can't do. And then the most important unique selling point is just a fake?

What a pity. For a brief moment, I really thought something new had finally happened in the smartphone market. Unfortunately, all that's left is a nice design and a few Kodak apps.

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