Digital Trends

Kodak EasyShare P880

November 27th, 2005 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The black bodied P880 is much taller than most point-and-shoot digicams. Some of the reasons for this are the large 2.5-inch LCD screen, the large physical diameter of the lens along with a large electronic viewfinder. At first glance it looks like a small D-SLR but it's definitely not. The camera has a 5.8x Schneider Kreuznach lens with a range of 24-140mm (35mm equivalent). This 24mm option is a blessing since you can take wider panoramas and more interesting portraits. Most photographers would rather a lens be wider than longer on the telephoto side and Kodak delivers. We agree. Another new camera with this wide focal length is the much more expensive Sony DSC-R1. Hopefully this trend will continue with other manufacturers.

The EasyShare P880 has a very solid, comfortable pistol grip with a brush-metal accent. Other than a Kodak logo and an 8.0 Megapixels decal, there are very few design frills on the front which is dominated by the lens. The camera is supplied with a lens hood for that D-SLR vibe. As I've said before, try it on, admire it, then put it away. The hood causes severe vignetting with flash shots. And if you follow Kodak's recommendation that it be mounted backwards in those instances, the hood gets in the way of the adjusting the zoom and manual focus rings. Another knock is the lens cap string that gets attached to the neck strap. I know it prevents lens cap loss but boy is it annoying as it flaps in the breeze. Of note on the front is the window for the low light LED also called an AF Assist lamp, a must-have feature in our book.  

The top of the camera is fairly straightforward but there are a few different touches. Along with the power and shutter key, there's a hot shoe, manual pop-up flash and mode dial. You'll also find a Drive button that gives you access to burst modes and two levels of exposure bracketing (3 or 5 shots). Burst mode is rated 2.6 fps at full resolution, a good spec for a non-D-SLR. The popular $899 8MP Canon Rebel XT D-SLR grabs 3 frames per second. The P880 records three shot bursts in RAW, another pretty impressive number. There's also a zoom key that lets you zero in on image (up to 10x) to check for focus. It also engages the digital zoom (1.4x or 2x) but quality drops so you should avoid using it. A nearby Focus key adjusts that as well (macro, manual and so on).

The rear of the P880 is dominated by a 2.5-inch LCD screen and the electronic viewfinder (EVF) with diopter control. The screen is rated a so-so 115K pixels and the viewfinder is 237K, a respectable number. On the left side of the screen are keys to adjust the flash (auto, fill, red-eye, off), metering mode that offers a selectable spot along with multi pattern, center weighted and center spot). ISO can be adjusted 50-400 and there's a raft of white balance options including three custom settings and a neat Click WB for a specific object or scene.

There's the obligatory four-way controller but Kodak implemented this nicely with a mini joystick that you adjust up/down, left/right and push to accept. Other keys include Delete, Menu, AE/AF, Set and a dial to make adjustments in specific menu settings. You can also change between the EVF and the LCD screen at the touch of a button and the “I” lets you add to or eliminate the onscreen clutter on the LCD. It also gives you access to the histogram display. Since this is a Kodak, there's also a Share button that lets you tag your images for printing, emailing or labeling as a favorite. This works in conjunction with the supplied—and very good--EasyShare software.

On the right pistol grip is the SD card slot, while the left has inputs for an external flash, DC in and AV/USB outs. On the bottom is the compartment for the lithium ion battery (rated 250 shots per CIPA, the industry standard), tripod mount and dock connector for the Kodak Printer Docks. A plastic insert is supplied with the camera to ensure proper fit. We're big fans of Kodak printer docks since they simply crank out 4x6 prints at the touch of a few buttons.

The EasyShare P880 kit is solid, like all Kodaks. Along with the camera, lens cap and hood, various straps and cables, there's a Start Here! page that gets you off and running. There's also a rechargeable battery, charger, printer dock insert and a very nicely written User's Guide (102 pages in English). The same book also has French and Spanish variations. No SD card is supplied so we loaded a 2GB Kingston Ultimate high-speed card and hit the streets.

Image Courtesy of Kodak