The Kodak EasyShare-one comes with 4 megapixels and a heavily marketed Kodak Color Science Chip. We tested the functionality of this chip by taking several well lit exposures of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart and uploading them into Imatest Imaging Software. This program compared the colors from the chart to the colors the EasyShare-one produced. Below is a modified GretagMacbeth color chart output by the imaging software. In each color tile, the EasyShare-one’s reproduced colors are placed in the outer square, while the ideal colors are depicted in the inner vertical rectangle. The inner square shows the camera’s rendered colors corrected by the software for luminance.  

If it’s difficult to eyeball the difference between the colors, check out the chart below. This chart, also output by Imatest, shows the original colors as squares and the EasyShare-one’s colors as circles. Ideally, the shapes would be right on top of each other. However, some of the shapes are connected by a line representing the camera’s error; the closer the shapes are, the better the Kodak Color Science Chip could reproduce that tone.

The Kodak EasyShare-one performed decently with a 7.98 overall color score. There is a mean color error of 7.61, which is quite good. This digital camera over-saturated colors by 19.9 percent, which is on the high end of what it should be, but rendered colors were rich and vibrant. Most digital cameras over-saturate slightly to bring out lighter skin tones, but the EasyShare-one goes a little overboard. Still, a 7.98 overall color score is very respectable.

 

Below is a shot of our elegant plastic still life scene captured with the Kodak EasyShare-one.

The Kodak EasyShare-one advertises 4 effective megapixels and a maximum still image size of 2304 x 1728 pixels. We used Imatest Imaging Software to help us analyze the number of effective pixels used to create the image files. Following processing and compression, the quality of the image can change substantially depending on the camera’s internal handling of the file. We report resolution scores as both a raw megapixel count and as a percentage of what the sensor can capture.  When a camera produces 70 percent of its advertised pixels, we give it a “good” designation. When a camera produces 80 percent, it is considered “very good.” The very few models that enter within the realm of 90 percent receive an “excellent” designation.

 

 

The Kodak EasyShare-one produced “very good” results as its processed images came within 81 percent of its advertised pixel count. The EasyShare-one used 3.22 megapixels, which is certainly enough to make prints up to 8 x 10 inches. Kodak advertises the camera as able to produce prints up to 20 x 30 inches, but I don’t recommend printing that large.

 

The reported scores were shot at f/4.8 at a focal length of 18.6 mm. The Kodak EasyShare-one oversharpened images by 31.7 percent, which is quite a lot – even for a compact model.

 

When users choose the Auto option in the ISO section of the setup menu, the camera uses a shortened ISO range of 80-160. Nevertheless, the camera still performed well in optimal lighting. The Kodak EasyShare-one received an overall automatic ISO noise score of 4.87, which is pretty good for a compact model; however, with a 160 maximum ISO speed in auto mode, the camera will not perform well indoors unless the ISO is manually set.

 

As well as the EasyShare-one performed in the automatic ISO noise test, it performed even better when the ISO was manually set. We tested the noise levels at each ISO rating and entered the results into a regression analysis to determine an overall score. The Kodak EasyShare-one offers 80, 100, 200, and 400 settings. Below is a chart showing the EasyShare-one’s ISO ratings on the horizontal axis and the accompanying noise levels on the vertical axis.

The Kodak EasyShare-one received an overall manual ISO noise score of 7.16, which is actually one of the best scores we’ve seen from a Kodak digital camera and quite impressive for any point-and-shoot model.

 

To see how well the image sensor performed in low light, we exposed it to diminishing light levels of 60, 30, 15 and 5 lux. 60 lux is about the lighting you get in a room with two soft lamps at night. A single 40-watt bulb gives off 30 lux. 15 and 5 lux are very close to darkness and test the limits of the image sensor.

 

Low Light Tests
60 Lux	30 Lux
15 Lux	5 Lux

 

The Kodak EasyShare-one had some problems with this test because it does not have an auto focus illuminator. The image at 60 lux is pretty good; it retains illumination and the image is still crisp. However, the image at 30 lux loses its sharpness. The picture gets even furrier and darker at 15 lux and is hardly visible at 5 lux. It was difficult to attain focus even when using the self-timer. The exposures were taken using the automatic mode. We tried the night landscape scene mode, but the colors were completely distorted. From these results, the Kodak EasyShare-one looks like a sunny weather type of camera.

 

Speed / Timing
Start-up to First Shot (2.11)
The Kodak EasyShare-one isn’t made for spontaneous photo shoots. It has one of the slowest start-up times of any compact digital camera. There are two ways to turn the EasyShare-one on: users can power it up with the designated button or flip the LCD out to automatically power it up. The button had the fastest time at 7.89 seconds. The LCD was even slower at 9.05 seconds. Both of these times are much slower than the average compact start-up time of about 2-3 seconds.

Shot to Shot (9.64)
The Kodak EasyShare-one has two burst modes, a first burst and a last burst. The first burst proved slightly faster in testing with an average time of one shot every 0.36 seconds, while the last burst had a shot every 0.38 seconds. The camera took five shots before stopping to record the pictures to memory.

Shutter to Shot (8.42)
There is a slight amount of shutter lag with the EasyShare-one. It takes 0.29 seconds from the time the shutter release button is pressed to the time the picture is taken. This is common for compact digital cameras, so there are no surprises here.