Kodak EasyShare P850 review

Given enough light and contrast, the autofocus worked quickly and accurately. However, the P850's lack of an AF-assist lamp caused it to struggle under dark conditions despite its relatively good low-light performance in formal testing. The image stabilisation provided at least one-stop leeway when shooting at slower shutter speeds, but as you would expect, keeping it continuously on (as opposed to off or activated on exposure) increased the drain on the battery.

Shooting speed in seconds
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Shutter lag (typical)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H1

0.4

2.0

1.3

Konica Minolta Dimage Z6

0.4

2.5

1.7

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ4

0.5

2.8

1.1

Canon PowerShot S2 IS

0.6

2.1

1.3

Kodak EasyShare P850

0.6

4.0

1.7

Konica Minolta Dimage Z5

0.7

3.5

1.3

Image quality
Photo quality was mixed as well. Colours looked natural, albeit a little dark. Exposures were generally accurate, and auto white balance worked well under most lighting conditions. The camera had a problem with high-contrast scenes, however. We noticed clipped highlights and purple fringing along edges. You'll need to keep ISO sensitivity as low as possible with the Kodak EasyShare P850 -- image noise appeared in shots taken as low as ISO 100, and by ISO 400, they're unusable at all but the smallest sizes. Photos also looked slightly soft.

Despite the Kodak EasyShare P850's attractively amateur-friendly feature set, there are better 12x-zoom options available.

Edited by Lori Grunin
Additional editing by Nick Hide