Home > Consumer Reviews > Kodak EasyShare Z885 8.1MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom

Spent a lot of time looking for reviews on this camera without luck -- so I thought I would post one.

Bought this for my parents who have never used a digital camera so ease of use was of primary concern. From that perspective it's a home run. It is much more intuitive than the other digital cameras I have owned/used. Low-light usage is (predictably) not as good as my D-SLR (forget the 8000 ISO from a practical standpoint, but at 800 it performs well). Shutter lag is on par or better than other Point-and-shoots I've used (hardly noticeable). Supports about 15 or so languages.

Pros:
- Very easy to use. Intuitive Menus and features.
- Decent low-light performance.
- Good color and auto adjustments.
- Nice in-camera feature set: Automatic digital red-eye removal, photo stitch, crop, etc (these work well enough for novices, but you'll probably want to use a computer based program if you are going to set it up)
- Relatively comprehensive and well laid out manual control mode (white balance adjustments are missing, but does have things like independent exposure controls and adjustable exposure bracketing).
- Relatively compact but not so small that it feels fidgety
- Built-in orientation sensor

Cons:
- Screen has a relatively low resolution (would give it 4.51 because of that)
- The High-ISO mode (selectable) was either too grainy or smoothed out for my liking in my test shots.

Final thoughts:
- Be sure to buy some decent rechargeable batteries with the camera. Alkaline AA's won't last long.
- The included Kodak software is OK, but a little clumsy. Picasa (free) is simpler/more efficient to use and has a very good feature set.

Over the years I've owned many digital cameras; at last count I've owned about 8 cameras in a little over 7 years. With digital camera technology changing so much I've always liked to keep up with the new features, but have always been hesitant about spending a lot of money on a camera because I knew that in a few months the technology would change again, or (worse yet) I'd end up breaking it and have to buy a new one!

I picked up the Kodak Z885 after my prior digital camera bit the dust after spending a little too long in a hot car. I initially picked up the camera because I had previous Kodak cameras that were high quality and because it was the only affordable digital camera in the 8.1MP range that offered the features I was looking for. I'm happy to say, 4 months later, I made a great choice in chosing this camera.

How many megapixels is enough? When it comes to detail, the more megapixels the better. That's why the 8.1MP of the Z885 caught my eye. When taking pictures with the high quality mode you can expect to get images that are very crisp and bring out a lot of the smaller details of the subject you are focusing on. And speaking of focus, a feature of this camera that I have put to use a lot is the ability to pre-focus the lens on your subject and have the camera actually show you what it is focusing on. By using the LCD and pushing halfway down on the trigger button the camera will focus in on area (or areas) and bring up green rectangles to show you what it is focusing in on -- I've found this invaluable for close-up shots with busy backgrounds when I wanted to make sure the camera was focusing in on the foreground and not the background.

Another impressive feature of this camera is how well it takes pictures in low-light. The camera does have a built-in flash, but I have found that it takes exceptionally good pictures without using the flash well until dusk. Most cameras cannot handle low-light well, but the Z885 certainly excels in that area.

If you are looking into this Kodak camera, or any Kodak camera, I highly recommend that you also invest in the Kodak EasyShare Camera Dock Kit. For one, it makes recharging this camera a snap when using rechargeable batteries, but even more importantly it provides one-touch easy access to the internal and memory cards for pulling the pictures off to your PC without having to worry about attaching cables. Trust me, even if you only take a moderate amount of pictures, the dock will pay for itself in no time flat.

Overall, the Z885 packs a lot of punch for a relatively low price. It's a great camera not only for everyday use, but is also perfect for those close-up shots you might want to grab. With its 5X optical zoom, it also delivers good, crisp results for objects in the distance. The only drawback to this camera is the lack of a viewfinder, but after you use the auto-focus features on the LCD you'll be left wondering how you ever got by with a viewfinder on your previous cameras!

Two years ago I got the Kodak Z760. A few months ago it was stolen, so I bought the Z885 to replace it. According to Kodak's specs, the Z885 was better than the old Z760 in every way: it offered more built-in settings, more video options, higher megapixels, and more zoom.

Unfortunately, this camera has been a MAJOR disappointment. Kodak's built-in settings (SCN options) are a great way to get the right flash, shutter speed, focus, etc. for your subject by scrolling through the different options very quickly. On the Z760, these worked great (i.e. you'd choose "action" setting for action shots, "close up" setting for close up, etc.) On the Z885, these could not possibly be worse. The action shots are always blurry, the close up shots are out of focus, the portrait setting gives everyone redeye, arrrgh!! The flash on this camera is too bright (I eventually figured out how to lower the brightness of the flash in the manual settings), and pictures taken without the flash are, of course, blurry. Sometimes the pictures even look grainy, a problem I have never seen on a digital camera.

Everything I've photographed indoors usually has to be photographed 3 or 4 times (each time changing the settings) to get the right conditions, and for the most part, I'm trying to photograph my baby; I don't get 3 or 4 chances at those quick smiles! Also, this camera has a delay that you wouldn't believe, I know what Kodak says it is supposed to be, but it feels like a full second before it takes the picture (again, photographing babies is especially difficult with this problem.)

The lack of viewfinder makes photographing in bright outdoor conditions very difficult, sometimes impossible. I tried to photograph someone waterskiing, but several times ended up with pictures of just waves because I couldn't see that the person wasn't even in the frame!

Based on the specs of this camera, you think it'd be pretty sweet, especially for the price. But who cares if you have 8.1MP and 5x Zoom if you can't get a decent picture in the first place?!

The only reason I give this 2 stars instead of 1 is the panoramic stitch feature, something Kodak recently added to most of its cameras. It works great and is really awesome for taking panoramic shots. I give the panoramic stitch 5 stars, but I'm disappointed in everything else. I can't figure out why Kodak's new product isn't as good as the one they made 2 years ago.

I bought this camera along with the Kodak Z612 b/c I also wanted a smaller one to fit in my purse or diaperbag. This camera is great, there is only one negative, that it does not have a viewfinder. However that ONLY affects me when I am in super super bright sunlight that is reflecting on the screen which is not that often. It is great in auto mode, movie mode, sports, etc. The 5x zoom is more powerful than I thought it would be. For the money you can't go wrong with this one at all, it is quick and super easy to operate, you don't even need to read the manual to operate it. The functions and icons are self explanatory. Once you buy this kodak and register you have access to Kodaks website and galleries where they have tons of hints and the extended user manual if you ever needed to look anything up. The camera is sharp looking too. Has great Fireworks mode. I took it to an outdoor baseball game, it took great pics in ALL light even at dusk. I was truly amazed. The stabilization is pretty good too for this camera. It also has vivid/high color mode and makes the colors bounce off of the page. Try it you will love it. Beats all the other cameras out there in this option range, the canon elph, panasonic, sony, and hp etc. can not compare with the feature's and ease of use of this one. I have two kids and I need to turn it on asap and operate it, that is one feature that will always be the best with Kodak.
I only wish that this came with a lithium ion battery instead of AA's, however, you can add rechargable's, I strongly advise them.

If you choose this camera go ahead and shell out the bucks for an SD card and the dock.
I've never been crazy about the easy share software but it works best to get the pictures from the camera to the computer.
In the fully automatic mode taking great pictures is a no brainer, as for the more advanced stuff , it will do a time exposure of up to 8 seconds which makes it usable for some astronomy photos. I photographed the last lunar eclipse and just for kicks, the Orion constellation.

as for the video mode, at 640x480 you can get some pretty good stills from your videos.

I would prefer videos that were in Windows media format, but the quality is great.

This is the best digital camera before you move up to the next price range