Offering a 2.5-inch LCD of average
resolution, the interface is designed to use large fonts to
ensure legibility. This is particularly important as when
the Program or Manual modes are used, the interface allows
the selection of some camera settings using the 4-direction
control. In general the Z885's interface is easy to understand
and use and requires little time to become familiar. The relatively
coarse image of the monitor, on the other hand, can be an
impediment when trying to ascertain the sharpness of a small
image element, or align a subject precisely.
Menus are presented superimposed on the image, be it the
image coming from the lens or an image under review, but are
quite legible thanks to the use of semi-transparent single
colour background. The Setup menu which serves for basic configuration
of the camera is accessible as the last option from both the
capture and playback menus:
LCD Brightness: serves to adjust the
brightness of the monitor.
Image Storage: decides whether images are saved
to a memory card by default or to the internal memory.
Set Album: serves to select an album
into which photos will be saved as they are captured. The
album must first be created with the software while the
camera is connected to the computer.
Capture Frame Grid: adds a grid that
is superimposed on the monitor, which serves as a guide
in composing images.
Orientation Sensor: when On, the orientation
data about the image is saved in the file's header, making
possible for many programs, and the camera, to display images
the right way up.
Camera Sounds: to control the sounds
produced by the camera, shutter sound, self-timer, error,
or all at once by selecting a theme: Default, Sci-Fi, Fun,
Musical, or None).
Sound Volume: Off, Low, Medium (default)
or High.
Date & Time: to set the clock and
calendar of the Z885.
Auto Power Off: to select the delay after
which the camera turns off automatically when not in use,
3 minutes (default) or 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes.
Format: to format the memory card or
the internal memory.
Feature Demos: this option plays short
videos that demonstrate some of the camera's features.
About: displays the camera's firmware
version (version 1.0000 for the camera reviewed here).
Kodak retails the Z885 with two very thin printed manuals, the
"Getting Started Guide", one of which is in English
and French while the other is in Spanish and Portuguese. The
guides only contain the most basic level of information about
the camera, and the Kodak site has to be consulted to obtain
a bit more details about camera operations.
Software
In North America, the Kodak Z885
is retailed with a single CD containing version 6.2 of Kodak's
EasyShare software for Windows and Mac.
EasyShare offers
the choice of automatically searching for "albums"
from which it will incorporate images into its database. Or,
alternatively, albums can be created, the computer's drive(s)
browsed, or images can be added at any point. EasyShare presents
images as thumbnails, acting as an image browser but can also
be used to burn CDs and DVDs.
Other tools allow viewing images
as slide shows, and uploading them to a Kodak Gallery account
if one has been created. Moreover, EasyShare can be used to
do some basic image editing.
In an editing window, the
user is given a choice of cropping; rotatingleft or right; removing red-eye;
automatically enhancing the image; doing scene
balance, which allows adjusting exposure, shadows, or
highlights; or colour balance, which allows clicking
on a gray point in the image to automatically adjust the colour
balance.
Images are presented split-screen,
with one side showing the original while the other reflects
the effect of the changes.
On the other
hand, Scene Effects, a group of effects that
impact the colour tone and brightness of an image (black and
white, sepia, forest, scenic, portrait, and sunset), or Fun
Effects such as spotlight, colouring book, cartoon,
or fisheye, are applied directly to the image. However, the
user is given the choice of applying the effect, which stores
the image as a new one, or cancelling without applying the
effect.
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Interface & Software
