Kodak DC4800 ZoomKodak's first true 3 megapixel consumer camera has excellent color and *amazing* low-light capability!<<Design :(Previous) | (Next): Optics>> Page 4:ViewfinderReview First Posted: 7/31/2000 |
ViewfinderThe DC4800 is equipped with a real-image optical viewfinder and an LCD monitor for image composition. The optical viewfinder resides on the top left of the back panel, and features center focusing targets and close-up cropping marks for telephoto framing. A small dioptric adjustment dial on the left side of the viewfinder adjusts the view for eyeglass wearers. Also, on the right side of the viewfinder, two small LEDs let you know the current status of the camera, whether the focus is locked or if the flash isn't ready.
In the center of the back panel, the 1.8 inch color LCD monitor can be turned on or off by pressing the Display button. An omnipresent black strip across the top of the monitor displays camera information such as the current amount of zoom, and when the shutter button is halfway pressed, the exposure settings. In Playback mode, the LCD monitor allows you to zoom into captured images up to 4x and scroll around to check various details. Also, instead of the ordinary index display mode, the DC4800 actually displays a small row of thumbnails of captured images at the bottom of the Playback menu. You can use the right and left arrow keys to scroll through these to quickly find the picture you want. We noticed that the LCD monitor was a little dark at times, and it took us a while to figure out how to adjust the brightness. We actually found the adjustment by reading the manual, as it falls under the Power Save function of the Setup menu, where you can select between Off, Standard and On. The Off setting brightens the LCD display quite a bit. Standard sets the LCD to normal brightness, and On significantly lowers the brightness. The Power Save settings also adjust features like the automatic quick view and whether or not the LCD monitor and television outputs can function at the same time.
We found the DC4800's optical viewfinder to be pretty accurate, just a little bit "tight", showing fully 98 percent of the final image area at wide-angle and about 93 percent at telephoto. (Note the change in our nomenclature, dating from spring 2000: Previously, we referred to this viewfinder behavior as "loose" rather than "tight".) The LCD monitor was even more accurate, showing 100 percent of the final image area at wide-angle and 98 percent at telephoto. (We suspect this variation was actually more reflected the difficulty of determining *exactly* where the boundaries of our test target rectangle are on the LCD, rather than any actual variation in LCD accuracy as a function of focal length.) We like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, and DC4800 (like essentially all Kodak digicams) does very well in this category. We did notice that the images framed with the optical viewfinder are rotated clockwise slightly, about 0.5 degrees. This is an annoying but not uncommon digicam manufacturing defect, caused by the CCD being placed in the camera slightly rotated relative to the camera body itself. The 0.5 degree error of the DC4800's optical viewfinder is fairly slight , and you'll probably want to rely on the LCD finder if you're doing really critical framing anyway.
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