Kodak EasyShare M1033

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By Leonard Goh
Jun 30, 2008

Kodak was once famed for developing some of the world's best 35mm negatives and slides. But when photography underwent the digital revolution, the American company coped to keep up with the changes. While its one-time competitor Fujifilm rose up to the ranks with shooters that performed well in low-light situations, Kodak lagged behind. Its new series of point-and-shoots may be lacking in features, but the application of its knowledge of colors accumulated over the years has paid off in the image quality department. Enter the 10-megapixel Kodak EasyShare M1033 which incorporates high-definition (HD) video-recording, a feature currently found on high-end point-and-shoot models.

Design

Encased in a stealth black chassis, the Kodak M1033 exudes an unassuming look until you turn it on and a blue dot glows on the Power button. The flush buttons on the top may be easily missed, like we did taking a while to find the shutter. For those who like their devices black and sleek, the M1033 should be a good choice.

Notice the lens is not in the center of the barrel.
(click for larger image)

The rear houses the LCD display, zoom rocker, four function buttons and a joystick for navigating through the menus. Unlike conventional shooters which map controls to each of the four-way pad, the M1033's joystick is good only for scrolling, changing display type and timer/ burst modes. This is quite puzzling as most manufacturers will try to make their features more accessible by mapping them to the commonly used navigation hardware.

The onboard flash is positioned to the top right corner of the shooter, and we had a tendency to block it while shooting.

A queer design we found was the alignment of the optics. While lenses are typically placed in the middle of the barrel, the M1033's is positioned slightly to the bottom. However, this didn't affect its performance or image quality.

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