Kodak DCS-14n Review, Phil Askey, May 2003

Review based on a production DCS-14n, Firmware Version 4.1.0 -> 4.2.2 *

Kodak announced the DCS-14n at Photokina in September 2002, it marked the first Kodak Professional digital SLR since the DCS 720x in June 2001 (15 months). The DCS-14n generated a lot of interest for several reasons; it has a full frame sensor (no cropping factor), the sensor is CMOS, not CCD as used by Kodak in the past, the camera is considerably smaller than any previous DCS digital SLR and importantly it carries a US$5,000 list price. At the time there's little doubt that Kodak stole a large amount of the limelight from Canon's EOS-1Ds which was also announced at the same time, especially as that eleven megapixel full frame digital SLR has a $8,000 list price. Since then however the DCS-14n has been 'forever delayed', with several slipped release dates. The DCS-14n is starting to reach dealers as I write this review but still isn't available in large quantities.

Anyone familiar with Nikon SLR's will immediately recognize the F80 'top half' to the camera, the body itself is custom made from magnesium alloy to Kodak's design, the top is supplied by Nikon. The photographic side of the camera is based on the F80, the electronics and digital portion of the camera by Kodak Professional. The fourteen megapixel full frame CMOS sensor is made by the Belgium company FillFactory and is actually produced by Tower Semiconductor in Israel.

* Firmware

One reason why this review has been 'forever delayed' is that as I have progressed through it Kodak have been supplying me with new firmware, I have had to return to tests to confirm improvements made by the firmware. The majority of the review was carried out using firmware 4.2.1.

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If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this review (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (normally 960 x 720 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This review is Copyright 2003 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey.