manual exposure controls and manual focusing. It is also a powerful
model with eight megapixels and a five times optical zoom lens. These
features make the Easyshare C875 a clear step up from a standard point
and shoot digital camera.
Despite this Kodak have managed to ensure the camera remains easy
enough to use. Taking this into account the camera is likely to appeal
to someone who while looking for a more advanced digital camera with a
few handy, extra features would still like a camera that does not take
long to get to grips with.
The C875 is a fairly chunky little camera, measuring 1.5 inches
wide and weighing just over 6 ounces. It's really too big to fit in
most pants pockets, but it makes a great jacket or purse camera. The
right side of the camera sticks out a bit to hold two AA batteries and
offer a nice grip.
The camera's controls are pretty standard: a mode dial on
top, a joystick on the back, and various buttons for other functions.
Unfortunately, the buttons feel awkward; they're too small and shallow
to press comfortably. Also, large-thumbed users will find the tiny zoom
rocker difficult to manipulate, and the joystick's occasional sticking
and slipping may make you wish for a more conventional directional pad.
Beyond its 8-megapixel sensor and 37-to-180mm-equivalent 5X
optical zoom lens, the C875 is a fairly nondescript camera. It sports a
broad variety of shooting modes, including Program, Aperture-priority,
Shutter-priority, and Manual modes for advanced users and a handful of
scene presets for casual users. Though it lacks an image stabilization
feature, the sensor can be cranked up to ISO 800 for low-light and zoom
shots.
The C875 demonstrated impressive performance, though its
quick autofocus was hindered slightly by an occasional lag when writing
to a memory card. After powering up and capturing its first image,
which took 2 seconds, we managed to fire off a shot every 1.4 seconds
in bright light and every 1.7 seconds in dim light. Shutter lag was
surprisingly low, taking just 0.2 second to lock and shoot against our
high-contrast target, and just 0.4 second to shoot our low-contrast
target. Unfortunately, we experienced an occasional pause after taking
a few shots, when the camera had to catch up on writing to the SD card.
The C875 produced nice pictures that were generally clear and
free of noise. At lower ISOs, we saw mostly accurate, vivid colors and
plenty of fine details. While noise was barely noticeable even at ISO
800, thanks to the camera's effective noise-reduction algorithm, that
algorithm also blurs and obscures fine details. For example, from ISO
200 through ISO 800, the markings on the measuring tape in our test
scene gradually disintegrated into a blurry mess. That means users
shooting text or highly textured subjects should stay under ISO 200,
the lowest setting at which the camera engages noise reduction.
Auto white balance produced slightly warm, though still
acceptable, images with our lab's tungsten lights. The camera's
tungsten preset slightly overcompensated, yielding images with a slight
greenish cast. Though a bit more neutral than the auto setting, many
users will likely find the auto setting more pleasing. Lens distortion
was minimal at the telephoto end, but wide-angle shots brought out some
barrel distortion--a noticeable outward bowing of what should be
straight lines. For a compact point-and-shoot camera, though, the
C875's distortion issues were few and far between.
Conclusion - Pros
- Great feature set at a great price
- Decent build quality
- Full photographic control with genuinely usable interface
- Typical Kodak ease of use, excellent integration with EasyShare software
- Useful 5x zoom range (would be nice if it started a bit wider, however)
- Reliable focus and exposure
- Decent resolution, respectable image quality
- Lots of detail at ISO 64/100
- Bright, vivid color; typical 'Kodak' output
- Generally responsive
- Useful post-shot blur warning
- Useful Custom mode
- Reliable auto white balance in everything but the most challenging artificial lighting
Conclusion - Cons
- Screen not very bright, not enough resolution, can be hard to see in bright light
- Slow focus at the long end of the zoom and in low light
- High noise reduction at ISO 200+ causes excessive loss of fine, low-contrast detail
- No custom white balance
- Flash exposures a little hit and miss
- Images are over-compressed; no quality options
- Images a touch over-contrasty and over-sharpened for purist tastes
- Bit fussy about type of batteries used
- Fairly high distortion (not a major issue for everyday photography)
- Corner softness at full zoom / maxiumum aperture
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