Once I found out that Kodak has recently released a camera that combines 5-Megapixel resolution and 12x optical zoom with optical image stabilization, I knew I had to get it. In addition to the aforementioned qualities, the Kodak EasyShare P850 also features a large 2.5-inch LCD screen, includes a rechargeable battery pack and charger. Combined with a low price (I got mine for $308) it sounds like a winning combination. Let's see how good of a camera it is and how it compares to its direct competition (12x optical zoom cameras with optical image stabilization).

Cameras with 10-12x optical zoom are a lot of fun to use since you can zoom in and achieve high magnification levels without sacrificing image quality. And even more important is the fact that to be able to use this kind of zoom while handholding the camera, you pretty much have to have optical image stabilization. Otherwise, you may end up with blurry pictures. Previous Kodak cameras with high zoom levels had no image stabilization (e.g. Z740, Z7590), but the P850 does have it.

Other cameras with high resolution, 12x optical zoom and image stabilization include Canon PowerShot S2 IS, Panasonic DMC-FZ5, Sony DSC-H1 and Konica-Minolta Z6.

Pictures

The pictures of the Kodak EasyShare P850 and the sample photos taken with it are available at the address below:

http://www.review-shop.com/Kodak_P850/Kodak_P850_Samples_1.html

You can copy and paste the above address into your browser's address area.

What Is Kodak P850?

The Kodak EasyShare P850 is a 5.1-Megapixel digital camera with 12x optical zoom (36-432mm equivalent f/2.8-f/3.7 with minimum aperture of f/8.0), SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH P.VARIOGON zoom optics, optical image stabilization, a large 2.5-inch LCD screen, an electronic viewfinder, automatic, scene and manual modes, powered by a supplied rechargeable battery. The camera has a pop-up flash and an external flash shoe.

The camera stores photos and videos in built-in memory (32MB) or on Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. The camera can store images in JPEG, TIFF and even RAW format.

The camera features a USB 2.0 interface and a video out. It can record video at 640x480 or 320x240 at 30 fps.

Getting Started

The camera arrived in a well-packaged box with interior split between a little cardboard box with the camera itself and another one with its accessories. The battery charger was a surprise. Unlike most other chargers that have prongs that fold, this one has detachable prongs. The positive aspect of it is the fact that you can get prongs of different configuration if you are going to another country. The charger supports 110-240 V, so you can use it in any country.

The battery is compact and fits the recess in the charger very snugly. After charging the battery, I inserted it into the camera (lid is at the bottom). The side of the camera has a little lid for the memory card compartment (just like in digital SLR cameras), which accepted my SD memory card. After attaching the supplied lens cap, I was ready to shoot.

The camera itself is relatively compact for a mega-zoom. It feels sturdy and well-assembled. The controls are, for the most part, within easy reach and the menu control joystick has (at last) good feel and precision, which is something I cannot say for joysticks of the previous Kodak cameras.

Usage

The camera is powered on or off by rotating a switch on top of the handgrip. Once rotated to ON position, the camera turns on and extends its lens. You have to remove the lens cap before you turn the camera on. Of course, I forgot to do that a couple of times and was surprised to see that the lens extends with enough force to push the lens cap off the lens barrel.

The lens extension and retraction are rather noisy. The power-on or off takes about 4 seconds. The camera has a rather strange zoom control that is located in the camera's back panel, lower than what I am accustomed to. It works well after you get used to having your thumb tilt down so much.

The zoom mechanism has two speeds which let you fully zoom in between 3 and 6 seconds, depending on the amount of pressure you apply to the zoom control. Zooming is a bit noisy.

LCD

The camera has a large 2.5-inch LCD screen and an electronic viewfinder. The screen is bright and fluid (less so in the dark environments). It has decent (but not great) resolution. The viewfinder is electronic and is also fluid in bright light and less so in the dark. Both gain-up (increase brightness) in the dark, but get noisy in the process. Both have about 100% coverage.

Focusing

The camera lets you select between continuous focusing and single-frame focusing. The former does not seem to help camera focus faster, but rather waists the battery power. You focus by pushing the shutter release button halfway. I wish the button was less stiff as there is too much effort required to pre-focus and the difference between pushing the button halfway or all the way is minimal.

The camera focuses rather fast (under a second in most instances), but in dim light at telephoto can take up to 3 seconds.

You can also use the manual focus feature that shows you the distance scale and enlarges the center portion of the screen.

Flash

The built-in flash pops up automatically when needed and has a good range. But its recycle time depends on the distance to the subject and zoom level. The flash was able to fully recycle in under 2 seconds when taking pictures at wide angle at 5 foot range. But at 12-foot range at full telephoto, the recycle time was 5-7 seconds and, worse yet, the camera lets you take a picture when the flash is not fully charged, which results in no flash and photos that have nothing but darkness.

The camera has an external flash connector/shoe.

Formats

The camera lets you record images in JPEG format, TIFF and even RAW. Not many cameras let you record RAW images, which is a really cool feature if you want to adjust parameters like white balance or sharpness in software afterwards.

The camera can take pictures at intervals slightly slower than 1 second, which is pretty good. RAW images take about 5 seconds to write and TIFF images take up to 9 seconds.

Battery

The supplied battery is rated as being able to deliver 250 shots. I took about 70 photos (some with flash) with no signs of battery depletion. The battery is compact and the supplied charger takes 2-3 hours to charge it fully.

Settings

The camera lets you adjust a lot of its settings: sharpness, contrast, color saturation, resolution, compression, file type, white balance, etc. It comes pre-set to High Color, which I immediately changed to Natural Color. It also comes pre-set to High sharpening.

You can switch between continuous image stabilization (default) and stabilization only when shooting. I choose the latter to conserve battery power.

The camera has automatic mode, scene modes and manual modes: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and full Manual mode. You adjust the settings (ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, exposure compensation, flash compensation) using the wheel in the camera's handgrip and the SET button.

The ISO setting is very flexible letting you choose between ISO 50, 64, 80, 100, 200 and 400. ISO 800 available at 1.2-Megapixel resolution (and is not really usable).

Image Stabilization

The Image Stabilization on the P850 works well, just as the systems on its major competitors, letting me take sharp photos handheld at shutter speeds 2-3 stops slower than would have been possible otherwise. I have taken reasonably sharp photos at 1/100 s. handheld at full telephoto (432mm equivalent), which is very good result. With no image stabilization, they would have been blurry.

Movie Mode

The camera can record video at 640x480 resolution at 30 fps, which is excellent. Unlike many other cameras, it even lets you zoom when recording videos and has continuous focus mode and continuous image stabilizer mode.

Image Quality

As you can see from the samples, the P850 produces very good pictures. The concerns I have are loss of detail in highlights (blurry leaves on the first photo), small amounts of chromatic aberration (purple fringing) visible and slight softening of corners of the frame at full telephoto. These issues are pretty typical of mega-zoom cameras though.

The noise levels were low at ISO 50-100, moderate at ISO 200 and ISO 400 was so noisy as to be barely usable for 4x6 prints. Default High Sharpening mode makes the noise even more visible.

Competition

The Kodak P850 is cheaper than its competitors and has some unique features. Its 2.5-inch screen is larger than the one on Panasonic FZ5 or Canon S2 IS. It has RAW mode, which others do not have. It has an external flash shoe. It uses a supplied rechargeable battery pack, unlike Canon S2 IS or Konica-Minolta Z6, which rely on 4 AA batteries or Sony H1, which uses 2 AA batteries. It has a better movie mode than the others.

Conclusion

Overall, I still prefer Panasonic DMC-FZ5 as it is faster-focusing and easy to use while not being too expensive. The Kodak P850 is a good choice, however, if you want an inexpensive, yet easy to use mega-zoom with optical image stabilization. It also has unique features that may make it your only choice (e.g. RAW mode, external flash shoe, move mode with zooming).


My Reviews of Other Digital Cameras

Canon:
Canon Digital Rebel XT with Lens Kit
Canon Powershot S2 IS Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A620 7.1-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A610 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A520 4-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A510 3.2-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot A410 3.2-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot S70 7.1-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD200 3.2-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD300 4-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD30 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD400 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD450 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD500 7.1-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot SD550 7.1-Megapixel Digital Camera Review

Panasonic:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ1 4-Megapixel Digital Camera with 6x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 6x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4 4-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review

Olympus:
Olympus D-595 Zoom Digital Camera Review
Olympus SP-350 8-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Olympus Stylus 500 Digital Camera Review
Olympus Stylus 600 Digital Camera Review
Olympus Stylus 800 Digital Camera Review
Olympus EVOLT E-500 Digital SLR Camera Review

Sony:
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H1 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-M1 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P200 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S40 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S60 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-S90 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T33 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T5 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T7 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5 Digital Camera Review
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W7 Digital Camera Review

Fuji:
Fuji FinePix A345 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix A350 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix E500 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix E510 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix E550 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix E900 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix F10 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix F450 Digital Camera Review
Fuji FinePix S5200 Digital Camera Review

Kodak:
Kodak EasyShare C340 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare P850 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare V530 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare V550 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare Z700 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare Z730 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare Z740 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare Z760 Digital Camera Review
Kodak EasyShare Z7590 Digital Camera Review

Konica Minolta:
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z5 Digital Camera Review
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6 Digital Camera Review

Nikon:
Nikon D50 Digital SLR Camera Review


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 308
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts