What a flashback: Review of the Kodak S-1 MFT camera
I honestly forgot Kodak once made a Micro Four Thirds camera! Tom Calton tested the Kodak S-1 that was announced nearly 14 years ago.
Quick Conclusion:
The Kodak PixPro S1 is one of the strangest and most obscure mirrorless cameras ever made. Released in 2014, it entered the Micro Four Thirds market with some interesting ideas but failed almost immediately.
- What was good: Micro Four Thirds mount compatibility, decent 16MP RAW files, fun Kodachrome and Ektachrome color profiles, very cheap on the used market.
- What was bad: Extremely plasticky build, very slow autofocus and overall performance, long write times, blackout after every shot, poor video quality, no RAW+JPEG when using film profiles, weak kit lenses.
- Why it flopped: Kodak’s brand had lost credibility, marketing was almost nonexistent, competition from Olympus, Panasonic, Sony, and Fujifilm was overwhelming, and early units even suffered shutter failures.
Final Verdict: A fun and rare collector’s camera, but not practical for real photography today. Kodak could have built a Fujifilm-style revival based on its film heritage, but instead delivered a slow, plasticky, and quickly forgotten camera.
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