Kodak Z885

Reviewed July 2007

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Using the default settings of the Z885 and with the CCD sensitivity set to 80 ISO to prevent any noise, the camera yields an image that is a touch too dark, and some light falloff can be seen in the corners of the frame. Setting the sensitivity to Auto ISO, the camera automatically goes up to 200 ISO and yields a good exposure that shows even lighting.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on the centre of the image above to gauge the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as in the preceding photo.

With the zoom set to the maximum telephoto, and the sensitivity set to auto, the camera again uses a setting of 200 ISO to capture the image. The exposure is slightly darker than the wide angle shot, but colours remain natural. Noise is nearly undetectable and the image shows excellent sharpness, as can be seen in the texture of the underlying drop cloth, and the old photographic paper envelope.

CLOSE-UP PHOTO

The Z885 is capable of shooting close-ups, but not the type of macro shot that has become expected of a digital camera. At its closest approach to a subject, the Z885 has a focus range of 20 to 70 cm (7.9 to 27.3 in.) when the zoom is at the wide end, and 50 cm to 1 m (1.6 to 3.3 ft) when set to the telephoto end; yielding, respectively, fields of view of 25.3 cm (9.8 in.) and 9.6 cm (3.74 in.).

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

Benefiting from the perfect lighting conditions of a summer day, the Z885 easily produces a perfect exposure. Saturation is excellent, particularly with blues and greens, allowing the image to create a superb print.

There is no discernible barrel distortion, nor is there any chromatic aberration, and sharpness is uniform across the frame.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

Zoomed in, the major characteristics of the image remain identical to the wide angle shot. The exposure is excellent, revealing a lot of detail in the areas of the frame that are directly lit by the sun and those that are in shadow, such as the elements behind the tinted glass doors. Here again, we note the absence of any distortion or of chromatic aberration.

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera is capable of long exposures, a photo taken at night is included here.

Equipped with a full Manual mode, the Kodak EasyShare Z885 allows the user to select the sensitivity, the white balance, as well as the aperture and shutter speed, making it possible to capture very good night time images under relatively low-light.

The maximum exposure time of 8 seconds combined with a sensitivity setting of 80 ISO allows the camera to produce an image that contains details invisible to the unaided eye.

With the white balance set to Tungsten (incandescent), the resulting image has colours that are close to those that can be perceived.

The Z885 uses a noise reduction process that operates immediately post-capture, using a dark frame to identify sources of noise and delete them from the photo prior to saving it. The process has some impact on the overall sharpness of the image when it is seen at 100% scale on a monitor, but the residual noise is undetectable when the image is printed, even with 8 x 10 (20 x 25 cm) prints.