Kodak M853 Review

The Kodak EasyShare M853 combines an eight megapixel CCD imager and a Kodak-branded 3x optical zoom lens with a fairly standard 37 - 111mm equivalent focal range. For framing images, there's a 2.5" 154K pixel LCD display but like many current models, the M853 has no optical viewfinder. Images are stored on Secure Digital / MultiMediaCards, or in 16MB of internal memory.

The Kodak M853 has 17 scene modes to help beginners achieve the results they're looking for without the need to understand subtleties like shutter speeds, apertures and the like. Scene modes provided are: portrait, sports, landscape, children, night portrait, beach, snow, fireworks, self portrait, backlight, night landscape, text/document, manner/museum, flower, sunset, panorama, and candlelight. Additional shooting modes include auto, video, Favorites, digital IS, high ISO, and close-up.

The M853 determines exposures with a center-weighted TTL metering system, and offers 2.0EV of exposure compensation in 1/3EV increments. Five white balance settings are available including an auto mode, and ISO sensitivity is controlled automatically ranging from 80 to 800, or manually up to 1,250. The EasyShare M853 also offers a movie mode, capturing VGA (640x480) clips at 15 fps, or QVGA (320x240) clips at 30 fps, both with audio. Movies are encoded in QuickTime MPEG4 format.

Images and movies captured on the Kodak M853 are transferred to your computer over a USB 2.0 Full Speed connection. Power comes from a custom KLIC-7001 Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery, and features in-camera charging via USB cable.

The Kodak EasyShare M853 ships August 2007 at a suggested list price of US$179, and is available in white, red, graphite, silver and espresso.