givemethedeal wrote:SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH Variogon lens ............?? What is this and is it the deal breaker ???? Or is it a big funny...........

That's just the type of lens on the camera!

whiskeywreck wrote:I also bought this camera back when it was $99. Where it really shines is with video. For the price, it takes great video at 1280 x 720 at 30 fps, in a tiny, fit in your pocket form. I use it for snowboarding in the winter and the video is quite nice, much better than my old pocket sony W1. Also, at $79 you can afford to take it anywhere to capture those epic moments without fear of ruining your expensive digital SLR or nice still camera that you are afraid to get wet, dirty, sat on, broken, smashed, lost, or stolen. The still images are nothing to write home about (not nearly as nice as my 5 megapixel Sony W1 or 6 megapixel Fuji S7000) but are good enough for everyday shooting. Buy this if you want a decent, rugged little pocket camera to document how hard you play!

I'm glad people like the video, I bought it for Burning Man but also to have a backup point and shoot that I won't worry about getting messed up.

How does this camera perform with exposure bracketing?
Does it take three shots consecutively very quickly (like all three in .9 seconds)?
Does the software simulate navigating through the menus to change the exposure like in some other cheap cameras (thus slowing it down to 3 shots in 9 seconds)?

Decent camera for the money. Relatively low optical zoom and I would invest in the LiON batteries for sure.

In for 1, cant be any worse than the polaroid

I also bought one several months back when it was $99. I'm very disappointed. Perhaps it's a flaw with my camera, but autofocus is very bad. It hunts for focus repeatedly even when I've kept the autofocus area very consciously set in the center of the frame; it frequently seems to be confused by some foreground detail at the edge. As long as I'm taking portrait-type photos it's fine, but for anything with a variety of detail at different distances it's been useless. Again, could be I just got a lemon.

I was looking for a cheap camera and I got lucky woot posted this. Just a few questions from a novice: First, I assume the camera's interface to the computer is easy to use as no one has complained about it. Second, does the camera come with an SD card? Is an SC card necessary to upload pictures on to your computer from the phone? Yes, I am a novice when it comes to cameras.

EDIT: I just noticed the camera comes with a usb cord. So I'm guessing ppl just buy sd cards to have more available memory?

i bought this a couple months ago too. great camera, especially for the price. i've taken some really nice pictures with it and havent had any problems. it does enjoy the taste of batteries but watcha gonna do.

Bf's friend has one and it takes nice pix, im in for one... hope i like it!

Finally getting around to upgrading from my 1.3mp Olympus 360 I bought back around 2000. Hope it lasts as long as that one. It still takes good pictures. My other wish, is that I hope this works fine with digikam in linux. My wife will be using it more than anyone, and she runs Kubuntu.

I guess one other thing.. I never saw any reviews of pics at lower resolution. I really don't plan on taking most pics at 12mp. 3.1 to 6mp is more than enough for most pictures. Heck, the high resolution digital mammograms we take here are 5mp and look way better than the old film images.

does it come with a memory card? If not, how much memory is on the camera?

Read this review and you will probably not buy this camera!

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2007/10/09/Kodak-EasyShare-Z1275/p5

Just not good deal for me. I would rather buy better camera with less megapixels. All these pixels and good optics are useless if camera cant capture images properly. It's like nice tires and paint job don't make car faster or better if engine is bad!

sssimoni wrote:does it come with a memory card? If not, how much memory is on the camera?

Around $20 for 4gig

pezlin wrote:I've got a similar issue with my current Kodak C150... except my lag is experienced after the picture is taken. Perhaps its my memory card... but it seems like there's anywhere from a 5 to 15 second delay before the camera is able to take another pic. Does anyone know if this camera suffers from the same issue? (or perhaps my SD card just stinks)

So the LAG time is not from pushing the button to taking the actual picture? It is after the picture is taken, writing the card. Right?

givemethedeal wrote:SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH Variogon lens ............?? What is this and is it the deal breaker ???? Or is it a big funny...........

I was a pro photographer for years. Don't know about this lens exactly, but Schneider lenses were always tops in quality. The glass is the most important part. If I needed another digcam, I'd buy this for the Schneider lens alone.

Well, first purchase from woot, this will be replacing my old kodak easy share that I got a long time ago... Should be fun to shoot 720p video, and I can finally try after effects with footage I made. (My old camera recorded at QVGA... llo. I knew it was time to get a new camera when my cellphone started taking better pictures)

rrdaines wrote:So the LAG time is not from pushing the button to taking the actual picture? It is after the picture is taken, writing the card. Right?

I'm not sure. The only indicator is that the camera says "Processing..." The memory stick is a SanDisk 1gb class4 - so I can't imagine it'd be that. But who knows.

Have you verified that the camera was set for "center" as opposed to "multi-zone" AF? If you still have some of the OOF images, you might check the EXIF data to see if it contains the AF mode information. It could also be any number of other causes, such as low light, incorrect shutter speed or ISO setting. Example images with EXIF data might help identify the issue with your camera.

KuoH

FrankElley wrote:Perhaps it's a flaw with my camera, but autofocus is very bad. It hunts for focus repeatedly even when I've kept the autofocus area very consciously set in the center of the frame; it frequently seems to be confused by some foreground detail at the edge. As long as I'm taking portrait-type photos it's fine, but for anything with a variety of detail at different distances it's been useless. Again, could be I just got a lemon.

I've had a couple of Kodak point and shoots in the past. They're not bad, especially when you find one cheap, like this.

For folks who say the lens vacuums.... What? It's a Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens. That doesn't suck.

For those not in the know: Schneider-Kreuznach is the manufacturer. and Variogon is just a type of lens, one with variable focal length. Here's a $7.4K lens using Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon optics. You're obviously not getting nearly that level of quality, but the lens manufacturer is good. That's not the problem.

If this is like the Kodaks I've had, the problem is with their image stabilization. Rather than using optical image stabilization, Kodak uses a "digital image stabalization" which, from what I can tell, is shorthand for "way to make pictures unsharp".

Add to that a somewhat long zoom (in this case 5X, which is the 35mm equivalent of 35-175mm - mine had 12X and 10X zooms, respectively) and you can wind up with camera shake if your shutter speed isn't pretty fast.

This looks to be a decent camera for the price.

samkaz wrote:I was looking for a cheap camera and I got lucky woot posted this. Just a few questions from a novice: First, I assume the camera's interface to the computer is easy to use as no one has complained about it. Second, does the camera come with an SD card? Is an SC card necessary to upload pictures on to your computer from the phone? Yes, I am a novice when it comes to cameras.

EDIT: I just noticed the camera comes with a usb cord. So I'm guessing ppl just buy sd cards to have more available memory?

It has 64 mb of internal memory...So yep, you'll have to get a separate SD card. They're insanely cheap these days. Just get one either online, or one on sale at Circuit City or Best Buy...don't pay full price! :P

lilgreenfish wrote:It has 64 mb of internal memory...So yep, you'll have to get a separate SD card. They're insanely cheap these days. Just get one either online, or one on sale at Circuit City or Best Buy...don't pay full price! :P

Best Buy has a 2 pack PNY 4gb SDHC for $34.99 (class 4)-will these work in this camera??

The Kodak EasyShare Z1285 12 Megapixel 5x Optical Zoom, HD Digital Camera - 8060006 is one of today's featured specials at Buy.com (btw, BEWARE of buy.com!) for $183.63 w/free shipping:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206879508&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

...anyone know the difference, why it costs SO MUCH MORE?

kerplunk17 wrote:Count me in for one. Anyone know any good online stores to buy SD cards from

I would never recommend Buy.com for anything expensive, but the have 2 GB flash cards cheap ($10-20, some with free shipping):

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207937974&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

kerplunk17 wrote:Count me in for one. Anyone know any good online stores to buy SD cards from

I would never recommend Buy.com for anything expensive, but the have 2 GB flash cards cheap ($10-20, some with free shipping):

....e.g.:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207937974&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

This is respiffied. And it's woot. And its the 1275, not the 1285.

rrdaines wrote:Does anyone know if this camera has actual face recognition (focus on the subject, not what is the closest object)? Also, I have had problem with taking a picture with a delay in the shutter by 4-6 sec (by that time people have already left the room). So, after I press the button, how long does it take to actually have it take the picture?

Say's 1.6 sec., doesn't it?

lacotomo wrote:Athough I would not go so far as to say rediculous, most people will not need 12MPS unless you plan on making 10 ft. posters out of your pictures. What I really want to know is where I can pick up one of these 'GOD' lenses you speak of. They must be really awesome!!!!

Talk to a priest.

rebeljean55 wrote:Best Buy has a 2 pack PNY 4gb SDHC for $34.99 (class 4)-will these work in this camera??

If you plan on using it to record HD video, I would get a class-6.

No, that's the shot to shot delay when in single drive mode. Shutter lag is 0.1 seconds with prefocusing and 0.6 seconds without. It's a wonder how many people still don't know how to use the half press prefocusing system on their digicams.

KuoH

diletante wrote:Say's 1.6 sec., doesn't it?

If people are curious how this camera looks taking pictures here is a sample pic I took when I owned this camera.

Linkiboy wrote:If you plan on using it to record HD video, I would get a class-6.

Thank you for the reply, I was just researching class 6 sdhc-will all brands of class 6 work in the camera-there's a Kingston for $19.33 on Amazon....

I get all my cameras (and SD cards) from WOOT. In for 1!

rebeljean55 wrote:Thank you for the reply, I was just researching class 6 sdhc-will all brands of class 6 work in the camera-there's a Kingston for $19.33 on Amazon....

Kingston makes good flash memory, I have been using a 4GB Kingston class-6 in my eeePC for a while now and its very nice.

I also bought this camera when it was $99, a few months ago.
Totally worth the price. $79 is a SCREAMIN' deal, folks. Buy em up!
Excellent little camera.
And if i'm not mistaken, Kodak will make good on the warrantly for one year....even on the refurbs.

oh yeah....rechargable batteries might not be such a bad idea. Or always carry extra double AA's with you....which is what I do.

Automatically sets the ISO depending on lighting conditions? That there, my friends, spells trouble if you're a budding photographer or are considering this camera as an upgrade. It's not a deal breaker (at this price) but user selected ISO is a must for anyone except someone who doesn't understand it or doesn't need it.

In for 1. This'll be my first higher MP digital camera. I've got a sweet digital camcorder, but not a camera. Hope it works out great!

Linkiboy wrote:Kingston makes good flash memory, I have been using a 4GB Kingston class-6 in my eeePC for a while now and its very nice.

Thanks again for the help on sdhc cards!!

WTS i bought the last kodak respiffied they had on here! i wish i would've waited, because for $10 more this seems like a much better camera. arrgghhh

Have one, Love it ...wish it had a view finder , but take GREAT pics!

rebeljean55 wrote:Best Buy has a 2 pack PNY 4gb SDHC for $34.99 (class 4)-will these work in this camera??

They should! It says on the spec sheet that it'll take SHDC cards.