The Kodak Easyshare C875 is a versatile digital camera offering fully 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.
Image Quality
I found the Easyshare C875 was able to work well in most situations. As with other Kodak digital cameras colours are very strong. This helps to add a vibrant feel to the pictures taken with it.
It is difficult for me to pick out individual elements in the photos that I like. It was more of a case of being happy with the overall results.
Starting with the outdoor scenic shots you can see the strength of the colours immediately. This feature is especially prominent in the skies and any greenery that comes into shot. On the whole the Easyshare C875 focuses sharply, but it does fall away in places towards the edge of shots. Also in the second outdoor shot where the zoom lens was not in use there is a fall off in the level of sharpness in general.
At this time of the year when the sun starts to get lower in the sky cameras can have problems where the sun reflects from light coloured objects. This can be seen in the first test shot. Detail is lost from the wooden beams under the roof of the building. There is a similar loss of detail showing on the white boats. The amount of detail the Easyshare C875 loses in this situation is a bit above average.
The third outdoor shot comes out darker than the scene actually was when the picture was taken. This is also something I have noticed from time to time with this range of Kodak cameras. In this instance I like the affect it produces, but I would be wary of the problems that this could cause at other times. It is most likely to occur when the zoom lens is fully extended.
Not surprisingly the dedicated test for colours highlights the ability of the Easyshare C875 to produce very strong colours. In my opinion the strength of the colours manages to remain acceptable, but you may take the view that the colours are too strong for your own taste.
The outdoor portrait shot is another to suffer from a loss of detail in the lighter areas. This can be seen where light falls on the face. This leads to the photo being washed out in places. This detracts from the skin tones and the photo also loses any warmth it might have had.
By way of contrast the indoor portrait is a success. The photo is sharp and the lighting levels are good. In fact the lighting levels are better than I am used to seeing in this test shot. The Easyshare C875 also manages to keep red eye to a minimum as well.
The Easyshare C875 scored well in my other lowlight test. This is of some beer bottles taken in very low light. Again the level of brightness is better than normal and considering the conditions the levels of sharpness are pleasing too.
For close up shots the macro mode also produced a decent quality test shot. It is worth noting that the camera is not able to focus from as close to the subject as many other cameras can though.
My final tests are for shooting with higher ISO settings. As with many digital cameras these test provided a disappointing result with a clear decrease in picture quality at ISO 400 and above.
Shutter Lag and Recycling Times
I was able to take a single shot in 0.15 seconds and five shots in 6.16 seconds. Both of these are very fast times, especially the time to take a single photo.
You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.
Features
The five times optical zoom lens has a focal length of 37 - 185mm in 35mm format. There is also a 5x digital zoom available.
There are two focusing modes (single, continuous) and two focusing zones (multi-zone and center zone) you can select from. Manual focus is available too. For close up work the Easyshare C875 can focus from 10cm away from the subject.
The LCD screen is 2.5" in size. There is no viewfinder.
The built in flash unit has a maximum range of 4.1m. This falls to around 2.6m when the zoom lens is in use. The flash modes available are auto, fill, off and red eye reduction.
To help you take the best possible photo there are a number of preprogrammed scene modes. When you use a scene mode the Easyshare C875 will use what it considers to be the optimum settings for the shot. The scene modes are: portrait, night portrait, landscape, night landscape, close-up, sport, snow, beach, text/document, backlight, manner/museum, fireworks, party, children, flower, self portrait, sunset, panorama left-right, panorama right-left, candlelight and panning shot.
For when you would like to appear in the shot yourself there is a self timer. This allows you to set a delay of either two or ten seconds. It also has a two photo setting.
In order to fine tune your pictures you have access to colour modes (high colour, natural colour (default), low colour, sepia, black and white) and also sharpness levels.
A 3:2 aspect ratio is available. This is ideal for taking pictures when you plan to make 6 x 4" prints from them. Using this aspect ratio means that there is no need to trim the photo to fit on to the paper. It should be noted that using the 3:2 aspect ratio reduces the resolution to seven megapixels.
A full set of manual exposure controls are available. These are fully manual, aperture priority and shutter priority. This allows you to set the aperture and shutter speeds. The maximum aperture is f/2.8 (wide) and f/4.4 (tele). Minimum aperture is f/7.1 (wide) and f8 (tele). Shutter speeds work in a range between 1/1600 seconds and 8 seconds.
Other advanced settings include ISO sensitivity (Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800), metering (multi-pattern AE, center weighted AE, center spot AE), exposure compensation (±2.0 EV with 0.3 EV), white balance (auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade) and bracketing (3 images selectable ±0.3, 0.7, 1.0 steps).
There are two types of burst mode. The first allows you to take up to five shots at a rate of two shots per second. The second saves the final four photos of a burst. Again the Easyshare C875 captures these shots at a top speed of two frames per second.
Video of up to 80 minutes in duration can be captured. The maximum resolution is 640 x 480 pixels and the top speed is thirty frames per second. Zoom can be used while the recording is being made and sound can be captured as well. There is also a feature allowing you to print a low resolution still photo from a video.
Kodak supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Easyshare C875 to a computer, television set and PictBridge compatible printer.
Ease of Use
As I mentioned above the Easyshare C875 is relatively easy to use despite having more features than a typical point and shoot camera. The menu system is straightforward and buttons and dials are kept to a minimum as well. When you are using the menu system help text is available to guide you through the options.
Cost
You can pick up a Kodak Easyshare C875 for around £170. This compares to around £190 for a Canon Powershot A630, £185 for a Olympus SP-320 and £220 for a Canon Powershot A640.
There are few digital cameras to choose from in this category. While I think the Canon Powershot cameras are a bit ahead of this one in terms of overall picture quality the Easyshare C875 is attractively priced.
Style
All the features the Easyshare C875 offers have been squeezed into a compact body size. There is a grip on the front of the camera to help you keep it steady while taking a shot. Otherwise it has a fairly standard design.
It has dimensions of 90.5 x 63 x 36.6 mm and weighs 170g.
Batteries and Memory Card
Two AA batteries are required to power the camera. To keep running costs to a minimum I would suggest investing in a set of rechargeable batteries with mAh ratings of around 2500.
32mb of memory are built into the camera. The camera is compatible with SD cards. Owing to the built in memory a card is not supplied with the camera as standard. I was able to take a respectable 32 shots before the internal memory was full.
Click here to save money on SD cards..
Points I like:
Ease of use
Specification
Low shutter delay
Where it is not so hot:
Loss of detail in light areas of photos
Summary
Digital cameras offering manual exposure controls and extra zoom, in a compact body are few and far between. On balance I like the Kodak Easyshare C875. It does well to retain good levels of ease of use and picture quality is good in most situations.
Kodak Easyshare C875 Front View
Kodak Easyshare C875 Back View
Kodak Easyshare C875 Top View
Sample Menus
| Kodak Easyshare C875 Summary |
| Description: | 8 megapixels with a 5x optical zoom lens |
| Ease of Use: | 8 |
| Features: | 8 |
| Colour: | 8 |
| Macro: | 7 |
| Indoors: | 8 |
| Value for Money: | 8 |
| Style: | 8 |
| Movie Mode: | 8 |
| Image Quality: | 7 |
| Build Quality: | 7 |
| Total: | 77 |
| Verdict: | The Kodak Easyshare C875 offers a very good set of features for a compact digital camera. This includes fully manual exposure modes. Picture quality is good and one outstanding feature is the very fast shutter response times it is capable of. |
| Review Date: | October 2006 |
| Click for: | Sample Images |
|
