Kodak EasyShare V1253

Overall, the V1253 is a pretty peppy performer, with decent automatic face detection, little shutter lag (other than a slight increase in AF time under low light), good shot-to-shot time even with the flash, and about 2.5 frames per second continuous shooting. On the other hand, the camera can capture only three frames in burst mode, which almost defeats the purpose of having a good capture rate. It wakes and shoots in a hair less than 2 seconds. Under optimal conditions it takes only 0.4 second to focus and shoot, and that rises to only 0.8 second in lower-contrast conditions, quite good for its class. From shot to shot, it runs only 1.2 seconds, increasing to 1.6 seconds with flash--also quite good.

Its 3x optical zoom, with a 35mm-equivalent focal range of 37mm-111mm, is a little slow both in its five-step physical zooming speed and narrow f/3.4-to-f/5.3 maximum aperture. The lens delivers fairly good edge-to-edge sharpness, but beware of vignetting and barrel distortion at wide angle.

There's no optical image stabilization; instead, Kodak opts to deliver faster shutter speeds by raising the ISO sensitivity, at the expense of image noise. Your best bet is to keep the ISO sensitivity at 400 or below, although you can still make small prints at ISO 800. Image noise, blurring and artifacts are especially noticeable when raised above ISO 800 (the V1253 starts at ISO 64 and maxes out at ISO 3,200).

When light sensitivity is kept at 400 or below, the V1253 does a really good job of keeping image noise at bay.

The camera stops just short of oversharpening images although you can dial back the sharpness in the shooting menu. And it has a tendency to blow out highlights. But colors are well-saturated and should please most snapshooters.

If you've got your heart set on a 12-megapixel camera--and unless you're printing larger than 8x10 or cropping in very tightly, you might want to scale your sights back to a lower-resolution model with optical image stabilization, such as the comparably priced Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T20--the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd still looks like the best of the group with a broader feature set, faster performance, and better photo quality than the Kodak EasyShare V1253. Still, if the real attraction for you is the V1253's large LCD and easy-to-use design, you should find the V1253 a satisfying option.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim light)

Shutter lag (typical)

Kodak EasyShare V1253

1.2

0.8

0.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T20

1.3

1.2