Kodak EasyShare M883

You have a choice of 21 scene modes: portrait, panorama, digital image stabilization, sport, landscape, close-up, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, text, fireworks, flower, manner/museum, self-portrait, high ISO, children, backlight, panning shot, candle light, and sunset. That about sums it up.

The 8MP camera features 3x optical zoom, and has the bells and whistles – face detection, digital IS etc. I like the metering system that allows you to focus on more than one object in the frame at the same time. It takes about three seconds to power up, and doesn’t seem as sluggish as the M853.

That apart, the camera failed to excite me. Pictures clicked in daylight are heavily overexposed, and lack detail. Although the M883 didn’t suffer from purple fringing as much as the M853 did, it still has problems capturing greens. Sharpness levels, although low, can be corrected to an extent by using appropriate scene modes.

Shooting in the night is a real pain. In fact, in relatively low light conditions the camera starts acting up. You will find it looking for things to focus on for a long time. You might find solace in the high ISO mode, but the noise level can be unbearable.

In auto mode, you can control exposure compensation, which will only lead to more crappy pictures if you don’t know what you are doing. I faced problems focusing indoors even during the day. Shutter lag is a big problem here too, just as in the M853.