• Kodak Easy Share M1093 IS

    Kodak Easy Share M1093 IS

    Sudeep Naik, Nov 04, 2008 1919 hrs IST

    The Kodak EasyShare M1093 IS promises a point-and-shoot like no other. Here's our take on it.

    10 MP, Good build and design, Ease of use, Good number of Scene modes.

    Flat zoom rocker, LCD performance in daylight, Battery Life, ISO 6400 is not useful at all.

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Performance

The sleek looks of the M1093 IS did attract more than a few stares when we were roaming around snapping whatever we fancied. I have to admit; it's feels good but does tend to slip when your palms get sweaty. The 3-inch LCD isn't as crisp as we'd like it to be and washes out in bright sunlit outdoor conditions - to a point where you can't really see anything on the screen.

The M1093 IS starts up quickly and is ready to capture images in less than 2 seconds. The Burst mode is limited to three shots which are captures in about 2 seconds. It does feel slow when doing this.
Given the limited customisation features that the M1093 has to offer, our focus was more on the preset shooting modes, the autofocus response and the shot-to-shot times.

The Autofocus locks on rather quickly but there is a considerable amount of shutter lag leading to a high shot-to-shot time of about 1.5-2 second when not using flash. When using flash, the charge time seems a little on the higher side and depends largely on the juice left in the battery.

The array of scene modes provide a good experience and cover most exposure settings. But, I strongly suggest you stay off the HIGH ISO mode. Images we shot in this mode had evident noise and chromatic aberration rendering the image useless.

With respect to ISO settings, the camera does curb noise down to acceptable levels up to ISO400; however, beyond that, it just grows out of control to a point where it renders the image almost useless. The ISO6400 mode work only when the camera is set to capture pictures at 3.1MP or lower. Again, images can hardly be used and are marred by very high noise content.

On the whole, the quality shot using the M1093 was below average. Most of the images weren't sharp enough and missed a lot of detail. Landscapes too looked washed out. The one place where the image quality turned out to be good was when using it indoors with the flash on. Here, the images came out with good detail and skin tones.
The Perfect Touch technology automatically corrects the brightness levels in the image and gives you an optimally processed image. It takes around 30-40 seconds for the camera to finish processing an 10MP image.

As far as video capture is concerned, the performance is below average, considering that the M1093 boasts 720p video recording. The resolution is there, but the videos lack the clarity and sharpness that High Def is all about.

And since Kodak doesn't bundle an A/V cable with the camera, you'll need to buy it separately if you want to connect the M1093 to a television.

Battery Life

Known for making hogs out of cameras, Kodak's M1093 sucks the proprietary Li-Ion rechargeable battery (KLIC-7004) dry in just about 100 shots (without flash). Average flash usage drops the number to about 80 shots per charge. Given this propensity for battery-draining, a second battery pack wouldn't be a bad idea.

Conclusion

The Kodak EasyShare M1093 IS is available for a street price of Rs 10,000 and usually comes bundled with a carrying case and a 2 GB SD card.

What The M1093 has going for it are the great looks, build quality and the ease of use but the image capture is just about average and you could easily find a better performance camera in the same price range. Personally, I'd rather go for the Sony CyberShot W120 if I was looking for a good budget ultra compact camera.

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