But the biggest problem was the LCD screen, which was one of the worst we’ve used when shooting in bright light. All too often it was a struggle to find the subject, and the lack of a viewfinder didn’t help things. On a brighter note, we did like the image delete system, which includes a snazzy blue scrolling pixellated display as the image is being deleted - and the option of undeleting if you accidentally wipe the wrong one. There’s also Kodak’s Perfect Touch technology, which lets you tweak the picture brightness, plus a facility to crop images.

When it comes to performance, the M893 isn’t bad, but it’s not the best we’ve seen even at this price point. The main problem was colour reproduction, which was rather bland. Close-up shooting was on the temperamental side and the camera often struggled to focus on a subject. But when it did, the results were pleasing.

Sample shots
Click for full-size images

We were disappointed with the colour reproduction - this field of rape was much more vivid in reality

With the Perfect Touch feature on (right) and without (left)

It takes a while for the camera to settle down and focus on a close-up image even when using the macro mode