Kodak P850

Reviewed January 2006

Characteristics

The P850 uses a 1/2.5 inch CCD with 5.1 million pixels of which 5 million are effective to capture a maximum image size of 2592 x 1944 pixels.

CCD sensitivity is automatically controlled by the camera when the Auto or Scene shooting modes are used, ranging from 50 to 160 ISO. While when the P, A, S or M modes are used sensitivity can be manually set to 50, 60, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400 or 800 ISO, although the highest ISO value, 800 ISO, is only useable when the image size is reduced to 1.2 MP (1280 x 960 pixels).

The P850 offers a 12X Variogon zoom lens made by Schneider-Kreuznach with a focal length range of 6 to 72 mm, equivalent to a 36 to 432 mm on a 35 mm camera. The zoom has a maximum aperture of f2.8 at the wide angle end, and f3.7 at the maximum telephoto, closing to f8 for both.

The P850 is the first Kodak camera to use an image stabilizer. The way the stabilizer operates is determined in the Setup menu (see the Interface and Software section for the content of the Setup menu), where it can be set to operate continuously when the camera is on, or only operate when the shutter release is pressed, or even turned off when the camera is stabilized with a tripod.

The front of the lens is threaded to accept an adapter that can support 55 mm diameter filters, or optional lens converters, wide angle (0.7X) or telephoto (1.4X).

The shutter speed range of the P850 covers from 1/1000 second down to 16 seconds, but only when the camera is set to the Manual or Shutter priority modes. In most other modes, the longest shutter speed is limited to 1/2 second, while the Night Landscape and Fireworks Scene modes have a maximum of 2 seconds.

Five images sizes are available with the P850:

• 5.0 MP: 2592 x 1944 pixels,
• 4.5 MP: 2592 x 1728 pixels (a 3:2 format designed for printing 6x4 photos),
• 3.1 MP: 2048 x 1536 pixels,
• 2.1 MP: 1664 x 1248 pixels,
• 1.2 MP: 1280 x 960 pixels.

Whatever the still image capture mode, photos can be saved at any one of three JPEG compression levels:

• Fine: the least compression offering the highest JPEG image quality.
• Standard: an average compression.
• Basic: a strong compression that places more importance on the number of images that can be stored than on the image quality.

With the P850 set to P, A, S, M, C1, C2 or C3, images can be saved using TIFF, an uncompressed image format, or RAW, a proprietary format with a *.KDC extension that records the output of the CCD without any in-camera processing. TIFF files have a 14.8 MB file size, and require 6 seconds to be stored on a memory card. RAW format images have a file size of 8.6 MB, and are saved in approximately 5 seconds.

RAW files have to be "developed" (interpreted) using the software included with the camera, or using a program such as Photoshop CS II. As noted above the RAW format saves the image captured by the CCD without any processing, but also stores the camera settings for white balance, exposure compensation, sharpness, contrast, etc. so that these can be applied later during developing, or modified at will.

Although the PROG. button near the shutter release provides a direct access to the image type and size settings, these settings are part of the capture menu of the P850. The menu's content varies with the mode in use. With the camera set to Auto or the Scene mode, the menu only presents two tabs at the top of the screen: Capture and Setup. However, when the camera is set to P, A, S, M, C1, C2 or C3, the menu has an added section that appears in the first position called Capture +:

• White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Open Shade, Sunset, Tungsten (incandescent), Fluorescent, Click White Balance (measures the white point based on a white surface under ambient light) and WB1, WB2 and WB3 into which custom settings (see below) can be saved and recalled later.

• Custom White Balance offers two options:
  • Compensation: allows compensation of the white balance using a cursor (white square in the screen capture at left) that is moved over the larger square containing primary colours while the colours in the monitor or EVF's echoes the change.
  • Registration provides for saving a selected white balance setting:
    • Current setting: saves the current setting
    • Last Captured Picture: bases the white balance setting on the last captured photo.

• AF Control has two options:
  • Continuous AF: the camera adjusts the focus constantly as the subject moves.
  • Single AF: focuses only when the shutter release is pressed halfway.

• AF Zone:
  • Multi zones: finds one or more focus points using 3 horizontal focus areas near the centre of the frame.
  • Centre Zone: uses the centre focus point.
  • Selectable Zone: allows moving the focus to any of 25 positions in the frame.
• Sharpness controls the sharpening applied to images prior to being saved: High, Normal (default), Low.

• Contrast adjusts the contrast, providing three settings: High, Normal (default) and Low.
• Slow Flash controls at which point during the exposure the flash fires when the slow sync mode is used:
  • Front Sync (default) fires the flash at the beginning of the exposure.
  • Front Sync Redeye: fires the flash at the beginning of the exposure and uses pre-flashes to minimize the red-eye effect.
  • Rear Sync: fires the flash just before the end of the exposure, and is intended to capture more natural looking moving subjects.
• Copy to Custom records the current camera settings into any one of the three available custom modes C1, C2 or C3.
• Custom Exposure Mode (only available when the Mode Dial is set to one of the C positions): serves to choose either P, A, S or M for modes C1, C2 or C3.

The next section, Capture, contains options that apply to all capture modes, and not only to the P, A, S, M and Custom modes. It appears in all modes:

• Picture Size: as explained above.
• File Type: selects the image quality (Fine, Standard, Basic, and if the camera is set to P, A, S, M or one of the Custom mode, TIFF or RAW).

• Colour Mode serves to choose how images are recorded:
  • High Colour: increases saturation.
  • Natural Colour: the default colour saturation.
  • Low Colour: decreases saturation.
  • Black and White.
  • Sepia.
• Date Stamp: Off (default), YYYY/MM/DD, MM/DD/YYYY, or DD/MM/YYYY. Permanently superimposes the date on the image.

The last section of the menu is the Setup menu, and its options are covered in the Interface and Software section of the review.

Set to Video mode, the P850's menu has only 2 sections: Video and Setup. While the Setup section is common to other modes, the Video menu is specific:

• Video Size selects the frame size for the video recording:
  • 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second (VGA).
  • 320 x 240 pixels at 30 frames per second (QVGA).
• Video Length determines how long the camera captures video:
  • Continuous: captures video until there is no more space in memory.
  • or a preset time: 5, 15, or 30 seconds.
• AF Control: decides whether the focus occurs only at the beginning of the video (Single) or Continuously.

In the Review or playback mode, the P850's menu has a similar appearance, and is composed of 2 sections Review and Setup. The first section, Review, contains the following options:

• View: serves to select or view pre-selected sets of images that are part of the Favourites.
• Album: requires first using the EasyShare software included with the camera to create up to 32 album names and install them in the P850's internal memory. Then, images or videos can be moved into any of the albums, which in turn ensures that they are transferred to the corresponding album when downloaded to the computer.
• Protect: allows tagging images as "protected" so they cannot be accidentally deleted. Nevertheless, protected images can be erased when the memory is formatted.

• Edit (shown only when a JPEG image or a video clip is on the screen): provides options to Crop, or Resize the image, or Exit without making any changes. With video clips, the choices become Make Picture, to create a 640 x 480 still image from a frame of the video; Trim, to cut-off a section at the beginning or end of the clip; Cut, to cut a middle section of a video; Split, to cut the video clip into two segments; and Merge, to combine two clips into one. Finally, an Exit option is also available to back out of the process without editing.

• Redeye Reduction (only shown with JPEG images): automatically applies a red-eye reduction program, the result of which can be cancelled, kept as a new image, or used to overwrite the original.
• Slide Show: starts a slide show of the images in memory. The interval between images can be preset to be between 3 and 60 seconds in 1 second increments, and the slide show can be preset to loop back to the beginning at the end or not.
• Copy: serves to copy one or all images from the internal memory to a memory card, or vice versa.
• RAW File Develop (shown only when a RAW format image is on the screen): makes it possible to create a TIFF or JPEG copy of the RAW image, adjusting the copy's picture size, file type, exposure compensation, colour mode, sharpness, contrast, white balance, and white balance compensation.
• Video Date Display (only shown when there is a video on the screen): allows displaying the date/time stamp on the image while the video is playing.
• Multi-up: presents the saved images as thumbnails, 9 per screen. The same function can be called up by pressing the down arrow of the 4-direction controller while the camera is in Playback.

When the P850 is turned ON to the Favorites mode [] using the power switch, a special menu is displayed when the MENU button is pressed. The menu is also composed of two sections, with the Setup menu occupying the second position:

• View: allows the automatic display of images that have been previously marked as "Favorites"
• Slide Show: Slide Show: starts a slide show of favorite images with a selectable interval 3 to 60 seconds in 1 second increments, looping back to the beginning at the end of the show or not.
• Multi-up: presents favorite images in index format (9 thumbnails per screen).

• Remove Favorites: deletes images stored in the favorites folder.

The Kodak EasyShare P850 is equipped with a 32 MB internal memory, and is compatible with SD (Secure Digital) or MMC (MultiMedia) memory cards. The slot is located on the right side of the camera, and is covered by a solid plastic door. In North America, the camera is retailed without a memory card. However, its internal memory limits the number of images that can be captured, and the acquisition of a larger capacity SD card should be considered a necessity when the camera is purchased.

The chart below provides the approximate image capacities for both the internal memory and a relatively inexpensive 1 GB SD card:

The P850 is powered by a Lithium-ion battery (KLIC 5001) which is housed in the grip part of the camera. And a charger, included in the kit, takes 3 hours to recharge a fully discharged battery.

The P850 has two other external connections, tucked away behind a flexible plastic cover door on the lower left flank of the camera.

On the left is a DC-In jack that allows the camera to be powered from household current for extended periods of time.

On the right is a multi-function port that is used for USB (compatible 2.0 High-speed) or A/V (Audio Video) out depending on the cable used, and the AV out signal (NTSC or PAL) produced by the camera is decided in the Setup menu.

All the necessary cables, as well as the adapter for the docking kit are included in the P850's kit.