Kodak Easyshare M5370 Review

4.0

January 26, 2012 | Matt Grayson |

Buy a EasyShare M5370 16 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver (3" Touchscreen LCD - 5x Optical Zoom - 4608 x 3456 Image - 1280 x 720 Video - PictBridge - HD Movie Mode)

Lowest Price: $118.88

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 16 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

Noise

On the surface noise looks to be handled very well. Certainly at low ISO the pictures are sharp and smooth. However, looking closer, even at ISO 64 there are problems in the dark areas, with noticeable traces of green colour.

But let's put this in perspective: we only noticed this while viewing at 100% magnification and for people looking to buy the Kodak Easyshare M5370, it's unlikely that the pictures will be looked at in such detail. At normal viewing size this issue isn't a problem. So with this troubling start, we nervously move through the settings. ISO 100 sees a minor increase in the colour at full size but again this isn't remotely seen at normal viewing distance.

Noise takes a significant leap at ISO 400 and starts to show through at lighter areas although edge definition takes a nose-dive. At ISO 800 colour noise disappears and is replaced with salt and peppper noise. Or at least that's what it looks like. More likely, the noise reduction software has removed the colour from the noise because coloured areas of the picture that aren't noise look muted. ISO 1600 is simply an exacerbated example of ISO 800 with more speckled noise and less edge definition.

ISO 64 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

We sharpened the Kodak Easyshare M5370's images using Adobe Photoshop and were pleased to see that the camera doesn't benefit that much from it. The pictures are sharp enough without the need for the boost.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

We thought that having a Schneider lens on the front of the Kodak Easyshare M5370 would go some way to avoiding lens aberrations such as chroma. Unfortunately, we found it quite easily, more frequently on light subjects with a dark background, but not so much on black subjects with a light background.

Macro

While the Kodak Easyshare M5370 doesn't have a dedicated macro button, the close-up mode works exceptionally well. We got lovely sharp pictures from the close-up tests with the subject getting to around 5cm away from the front element.

What we're also happy with is the edge to edge definition. There's very little fall off from the centre of the frame with detail remaining pretty sharp towards the edges.

Macro	100% Crop

Flash

With the flash turned off, the Kodak Easyshare M5370 has a little vignetting at wide-angle but it's very faint and is eradicated at telephoto. Using flash, the vignetting is made more prominent and there's also a very mild amount at full telephoto.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (140mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Auto setting or the Red-eye Reduction option caused any red-eye.

Auto	Auto (100% Crop)


Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

Night pictures from the Kodak Easyshare M5370 look good although if you want to retain a decent ISO you have to compromise with a slightly darker picture. This is because in Program mode the shutter speeds don't go slow enough.