Kodak C875 Exposure

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Pretty good overall color, though some shifts in hue accuracy in blues and reds. Some oversaturation of strong reds and blues as well.

Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life. The Kodak EasyShare C875 oversaturates the strong red and blue tones a fair amount, but most consumers should still find results to be pleasing.

Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc. Here, the C875 did tend toward a slightly pinkish cast, but the effect isn't overly strong.

The other important part of color rendition is hue accuracy. Hue is "what color" the color is. The C875 did push cyan toward blue and blue toward purple, but overall results are still pretty good. The camera also pushed reds into orange slightly, but results are pleasing overall.

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Nearly accurate color with the Incandescent white balance setting, though a hint yellow. Less positive exposure compensation required than usual.

Color balance indoors under incandescent lighting was quite pink with the Auto white balance settings, but the Incandescent option produced more accurate results (despite a slight yellow-green cast). The Kodak EasyShare C875 required much less than the average amount of positive exposure compensation here, at +0.3 EV. Even here, the highlights are a little hot in some areas. Despite the slight yellow cast, overall color is pretty good, though the blue flowers in the bouquet have strong purple tints. (Many digital cameras have trouble with this blue.) Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylight
Good overall color, though slightly washed out. Pretty good exposure accuracy as well, despite slightly high contrast.

Outdoors, the Kodak EasyShare C875 produced pretty good color overall, though results are maybe just a hint on the warm side. The C875 handled the bright sunlight fairly well, though with high contrast and a slightly bright exposure on the outdoor wide shot. The C875 required less than the average amount of positive exposure compensation outdoors.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
High resolution, 1,400 lines of strong detail.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,400 lines per picture height, with extinction at around 1,900. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Reasonably sharp images overall, though noticeable edge enhancement on high-contrast subjects. Noise suppression limits detail in the shadows.

The Kodak EasyShare C875 captures fairly sharp images overall, though edge enhancement artifacts are noticeable on high-contrast subjects such as the crop above left. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears. The crop above right shows this, with darker areas of Marti's hair showing only limited detail.

ISO & Noise Performance
Though noise isn't visible except at the highest ISO, strong anti-noise processing is evident, blurring detail.

Noise levels are moderate at the Kodak EasyShare C875's lower sensitivity settings. At ISOs 400 and 800, noise suppression is hard at work. Printed results are impressive, however. (See Output Quality below for more)

Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests
High resolution with strong overall detail, but high contrast and limited shadow detail. Fair low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images under average city street lighting and slightly darker conditions.

Sunlight:
Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

The Kodak EasyShare C875 produced high contrast under the harsh lighting of the test above, with deep shadows that show limited detail. Noise and the camera's noise suppression both contribute to the loss of detail there. Though some areas look a little dark at +0.3 EV, I preferred it to the image at +0.7 EV, which had too many blown highlights for my preference. (In "real life" though, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.)

Low light:
The Kodak EasyShare C875 captured bright images only down to the 1/2 foot-candle light level (about 1/2 as bright as average city street lighting at night) at its highest sensitivity settings. Overall color is pretty good, and the camera's autofocus system was able to focus on the subject down to the 1/2 foot-candle light level unassisted (which works well with its exposure capabilities here). Do keep in mind though, that the longer shutter times necessary here absolutely demand the use of a tripod or other camera support to get sharp photos. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) For such applications, you may have better luck with a digital SLR camera, but even there, you'll likely need to set the focus manually. For information and reviews on digital SLRs, refer to our SLR review index page.

Coverage and Range
Slightly dim exposures at the default exposure setting; the camera required more than average exposure compensation for flash exposures. Moderate range.

Flash coverage was uneven at wide angle, but more uniform (though dim) at telephoto. Indoors, under incandescent background lighting, the Kodak C875's flash underexposed our subject slightly at its default setting, requiring a +2.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment to get bright results. The camera's Night Portrait mode produced similar results, though with a slightly brighter and more even exposure. The background incandescent lighting results in an orange cast in both shots, though overall color is still pretty good.

The Kodak EasyShare C875's flash was bright with reasonable power, with strong intensity at wide angle all the way to 10 feet or so at ISO 100. At telephoto, images were somewhat dim at 6 feet.

Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims. In the shots above, the C875 performs close to Kodak's expectations, though the telephoto shot is just a hair dim.

Print Quality
Good print quality, great color, good 13x19 inch prints. ISO 800 images are soft but usable at 8x10!

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon i9900 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5200 here in the office. (See the Canon i9900 review for details on that model.)

The Kodak EasyShare C875 performed remarkably well, from high ISO to low. At ISO 64, it could easily produce 13x19 inch prints. Most remarkable was that at ISO 800 it could still produce excellent 8x10 inch prints with terrific color. That's rare. If you look closely, you can see some smudging, but from just a few inches away, you cease to notice. That performance makes the C875 quite a bargain.