I've read lots of consumer horror stories about Kodak's refusal to honor a warranty for their consumer products. Even if you kept it in a velvet-lined vault (?) and it failed as a factory defect, it isn't uncommon for Kodak to claim you dropped it. Sorry, Kodak, but I can no longer trust you to preserve my family photos. Your name lives on, but, sadly, your products often do not.

p.s. Kodak was never a Union shop, as far as I can find out. So please don't blame the workers. 63,000 retired Kodak workers trusted this company to look out for their well-being. It's a shame that a bunch of greedy executives are bleeding the company dry. How much are *they* giving up from their own health care plans?

kishanvpatel wrote:When I used to work at a camera shop we didn't carry any Kodak cameras and we made sure that if someone was not buying a camera with us that they didn't buy kodak.

That may have been more based on a management decision driven my how much camera stock that they had to buy. Some companies wanted a store to spend thousands of dollars to get in the game. This favored big stores over small and, eventually, big box store over camera stores. In short, more sour grapes than quality.

slowlyburning wrote:you get what you pay for with a point and shoot like this. ease of use sacrifices resolution in low light, unless you really love flash photography, shutterspeed has a bit of lag so time your shots. also the "face recognition" is annoying, anything with two small round objects close together is squared up as a face, go ahead, let your minds into the gutter.

The real limiter in low light is the maximum lens opening (usually f 5.6 at the tele setting) and the relatively low ISO.

Not sure what you mean by "ease of use sacrifices resolution in low light," as the resolution of the sensor does not change because it is dark. Tiny camera with tiny lenses is the real culprit.

mhelseth93 wrote:Anyone know how well they do in low light?

Depends on what you are shooting, Please give examples of what you want to shoot.

gak0090 wrote:Then you should opt to spend more than $75 and Kodak would not be the brand to go with. This is more for the people (at least 90%) that basically want something that will take a nice quick in-focus picture, a decent optical zoom, with HD (720p) video; no fuss just point and shoot and let the camera do the work. The same people that don't care if it fails in a year or two, or gets stolen , or gets dropped in toilet after a drinking binge...because the investment is not very high on it. I think for $75 bucks it's a great camera, but you're not going to be submitting your photos to National Geographic either.

I think you skipped the (quoted) message I was replying to. It wasn't about this camera and its suitability for its intended tasks; it was about whether, in the near future, there will be any need at all to know how cameras take pictures.

annieflies wrote:Anyone have any experience with these and macro shots?

pardon me, I wooted

Made me laugh out loud and have a coughing fit! Can't wait to use that line.

craigthom wrote:I think you skipped the (quoted) message I was replying to. It wasn't about this camera and its suitability for its intended tasks; it was about whether, in the near future, there will be any need at all to know how cameras take pictures.

You were replying to someone else, but let me tell you that I believe the great number of photographers are not "enthusiasts." They have used box cameras, Instamatics, APS film cameras, disposables and now decision free digital.

There will always be photo craftspersons, but they will soon be outnumbered, forgotten and found stumbling around, bestotted, mumbling incoherently about f/stops and the "sunny 16 rule."

radi0j0hn wrote:You were replying to someone else, but let me tell you that I believe the great number of photographers are not "enthusiasts." (and other irrelevant stuff

It's easy to hit your mark when you keep moving it around.

I have this camera. It's rather hit or miss; When the photos come out good, they come out very good. When they come out bad, they're utterly horrible.
*It's rather slow, so hard to take pictures of fast moving things (like toddlers), but that's easy enough to compensate for by taking a LOT of pictures.
*It has a proprietary and annoying battery, which dies frustratingly fast. It's worth it to get multiples (the imitator ones work just fine, though they're a bit small for the charger I have. I secure them with a hair band). I've gone through 4 of them in one day at the amusement park, and most of those trips only lasted about 3-4 hours because of said toddler. (not mine, just an adored niece type creature)
*I like it okay, all things considered, but I wouldn't buy it again.

I just ordered this on closeout from walmart.com a couple days ago for $49.99. They only had red but it came with a 4GB microSD card and a camera bag. Free site to store shipping also.

Ok.. a bit late.. but .. better than?

One needs to know that in Kodak's point and shoots they debated between two different focusing philosophies:
1) people pushing the shutter want the best focus and light settings the camera can produce and will live the requried shutter delay
2) people pushing the shutter want the fastest shutter response they can get, and will live with 'best guess' or slightly out of focus and off in light settings.

They consciously chose (I've interviewed the marketing group manager who made the call)
choice #2 (audience applause)

Yup.. with a Kodak camera, if you just punch the shutter, you'll get the fastest shutter response the camera can provide ... with a soft-ware 'best guess' on light settings and focus. Yup, sorta the camera responding 'at a glance.'

If you want the best focus and light setting the camera can produce (like low light) you'll want to aim the camera, half-depressed the shutter, wait, while still holding the shutter half-depresse, till everything has set it self and focused ... then gently (not in a rapid poke and fling motion) depress the shutter the rest of the way.

Their theory was .. if you're trying to catch that drop of ice cream dripping off young Johnnie's chin .. you're willing to have a bit of blur, in exchange for getting the drip before it falls..
on the other hand if you know young Johnnie is going to be making a mess of himself with his ice cream, and you're going to want a perfect shot to print and send around to everyone, you can take the time to "pre focus" (shutter 1/2 depressed) and wait for that perfect ice cream mess moment and then finish pushing the shutter and get that well focused shot.

Any point and shoot both:
Chooses either philosophy 1 or philosophy 2... and then adjusts how Fast their camera can accomplish the light and focus actions.
But.. always, any point and shoot.. there will be some time-delay for the insta-focus.
and you'll Always get the best shot your camera can deliver, if you demi-depress that shutter, before you need your shot.

If your son is going to be coming across that finish line, pre-focus at the finish line (on the ground) .. and hold the shutter demi-depressed and wait for the kid to hit the tape .. or the focus delay will eat you up every time.

Hoping they post something cool for leap day!

doesn't look too bad for throwing in a bag for trips, or for when you don't want to take a chance with a more expensive camera. in for one.

teenracer6 wrote:$129.99 + Free shipping @ Amazon. Mostly positive reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-EasyShare-Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/B004FLL58Q

That's not from amazon, but this is (Woot is owned by Amazon)

Great deal on Kodak brand charger and battery for M583.

Looks like sale is good until 3/10/12.
Combo deal $17.95 + 6.50 shipping + tax. Around $25

http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/ThemeID.3925700/Camera_Battery_Charger_K7700__KLIC-7006_Combo_Pack/baseProductID.201901300/productID.201901400

Rich

axphw1 wrote:How will support be now that Kodak is getting out of the digital camera game?

Kodak is honoring one year support and warranty

I had a Kodak M753. It was cheap and limited and only produced good photos in sunny daylight. These restrictions improved my photography. I had to learn ways around its problems. I had to be more conscious of what the light was doing. The bad photos often had a certain misty beauty.

The interface was fast and excellent. The 3X Kodak lens was amazingly clear at 64mm. Black and white mode was wonderful. Good low light photography was possible with a tripod and 2 second delay. Colors became creamy instead of speckled when I combined 5 photos and layered them at 100, 50, 25, 12.5, and 6.3% opacity to average out random noise.

It worked well for two years and two months of heavy use, then wouldn't turn on. If woot's M583 lasts as long, it means an average expense of $3 per month. That's an amazing deal compared to using film. If it lasts a year, it's $6.25 per month, or the cost of one roll of film and processing.

I'm so glad woot had this deal. I was thinking of getting a blister pack $50 camera from a discount store, but for just a little more I'm getting a Schneider lens and an impressive 8 second exposure time for night photography.

i ordered this on Feb 28 and am still waiting for news on shipping...Woot has always shipped promptly in the past..anyone else having issues with shipping?

philgonet wrote:Same as a Model T Ford. You can have it in any color you want as long as you want it in BLACK...

Mine just arrived now. It's red. Not sure if I would have bought it had I known it would be a random color.

Its been 5 days did my camera ship yet? How can I find out im new on woot. this is my first time buying in here.

828woot722 wrote:Its been 5 days did my camera ship yet? How can I find out im new on woot. this is my first time buying in here.

Log in then go to Your Account, click on the item you ordered and if your item shipped you will see a tracking code.

I also ordered one on the 28th and it was only listed this morning even though it says it shipped on 03/02 via USPS.

ooo i hope i get red

Got my camera, put in battery, plugged-in AC adapter, white light began blinking (this is good), went to lunch, came back, white light solid (indicates camera charged), pressed power button - nothing. Thought it was DOA. Wondered why white light was not going out. Took out battery, light went out, put back battery, light stayed out, turned on power, light stayed out and lense did not come out.BUT I noticed the LCD screen was on. I entered date, time, and when I finished, the lense came out and the camera works.
I felt foolish.
Point of this message is that if anyone else experiences the apparent DOA, then take out the battery, wait a minute, start all over again; it may solve the problem.

I got red.

This seems a little unfair...this post indicated the camera would be black. I don't recall having any reason to believe that I was buying a red camera.

Can I get my money back or trade it for another color? I wouldn't have purchased had I known it would be red.

amoraluv wrote:ooo i hope i get red

I got red. I will trade it to you if you get any other color.

Got mine today it it works great so far, the pictures are so crystal clear.

blueconversechucks wrote:I got red.

This seems a little unfair...this post indicated the camera would be black. I don't recall having any reason to believe that I was buying a red camera.

Can I get my money back or trade it for another color? I wouldn't have purchased had I known it would be red.

Hi, I got black. If you live in Northern Virginia and we can arrange a hand-over trade then I would be willing to do so. The color is of no consequence to me. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

amvirgin wrote:Hi, I got black. If you live in Northern Virginia and we can arrange a hand-over trade then I would be willing to do so. The color is of no consequence to me. Please send me a PM if you are interested.

My (understandable) mistake. I just opened it before lodging a complaint with Woot. And discovered that it is actually black. All pictures on the box were red though. My bad.

blueconversechucks wrote:My (understandable) mistake. I just opened it before lodging a complaint with Woot. And discovered that it is actually black. All pictures on the box were red though. My bad.

If you look at the box the picture is Red but there is a round sticker that shows what color is inside.

Got mine today. What a godawful piece of worthless junk!

I threw away 25 of 136 photos for technical reasons. The camera wants to badly overexpose everything in so-called "smart capture" mode. It RUINS perfectly good light. With my other camera, I discard 0.5% per day, not 18%! It made me angry to see optical image stabilization having no effect. I don't want blurry, overexposed, weirdly colored photos.

It was infuriating to try and try and try to make the stupid thing focus on the full moon. I had it set to expose in the center of the image at EV -2.0 and it was still blown out and blurry. It didn't even bother to attempt to focus at infinity. There was no infinity focus option, a pretty damned important thing for an 8X optical zoom lens.

Kodak is the worst camera maker. They should have left out the scene modes and put in infinity focus. The manual says it's there, but I didn't see it in the menus.

Why does it force the photographer to do six button presses every time to just use the 2 second delay? Does Kodak think we only want to make one shot, then switch back to tripod jiggling mode during a session of long exposures? I hate Kodak even more than I did before. It's like they went out of their way to maximize friction in the interface. It's very, very hard to use! Long exposures should have the 2 second delay on by default!

I had ten keepers in my first photo walk, so the M583 isn't all bad. I just don't understand why the hell the company can't seem to grasp the concept of a photograph resembling what the eye sees in daylight, not being way, way off. None of the Kodachrome photos looked anything like actual Kodachrome. Why put the feature in if it is an utter failure? Doesn't Kodak know what Kodachrome photos look like? They aren't overexposed, desaturated, weak scenes in bluish auto white balance.

I will have to manually delete "THM" files, which it adds to every video and the most recent photo in the folder. Annoying. Why not just save JPGs and MP4s and not clutter up our digital lives?

I am filled with regret and disappointment. Most of the photos looked fantastic on the camera's LCD, but weak on the PC. That doesn't happen with my other camera.

Kodak wants to rotate my horizontal photos too. Just pointing the camera down at something makes it assume it should be vertical. Stupid!!!

Program mode is essential. I just wish Kodak made things truly easy and offered fully manual cameras with the following features: Aperture, Shutter speed, and Focus. ISO, white balance, saturation, and picture size would be on a second menu screen.

- - -

Now that I've polished, uploaded, and reviewed my flickr photos (search for dnomcmlxvii m583), I like the camera again. It will take some time to learn its strengths. I was just annoyed at how much work was required to get the same easy results Pentax delivered with simple elegance. I really wanted the Kodachrome and Smart Capture features to work, not be pathetic.

- - -

After testing it on a sunny day, I feel better about the M583. The lens was amazing. No purple fringing. Great colors, tones, and exposures in program mode. HD video was excellent.

I just wish the interface cycled through options instead of forcing me to bring up menus, navigate to what I want, and keep pressing buttons to select, confirm, and then dismiss the menu. It also forces the user to navigate up and out of the menu when they're done and press another button to close the menu. I miss the simple, elegant clock symbol button on Canon and Pentax cameras, which cycled through the self timer and burst modes. Cluttered, animated menus slow down the camera, waste power, and irritate users.

dnomcmlxvii m583 thanks for the review

I just turned mine on and the view screen is Potty Emergency!. What do I do about this?

ThunderThighs wrote:Sorry about the problem. Please email service@woot.com and describe the problem.

I did that. Thank you. I was just so sad. I have a new puppy that needs to have his picture taken.

Edit: why does it say potty emergency? I the screen was broken. cracks in it.

I have vertical purple lines on the LCD display. This occurs even when the lighting is not that bright. Anyone else notice this?

regisbrwoot wrote:I have vertical purple lines on the LCD display. This occurs even when the lighting is not that bright. Anyone else notice this?

While panning around to set up a shot I have seen some funny vertical lines as if the CCD was getting a too bright glare or something... but it's not been a genuine problem.

I did have the software "lock up" on my wife once. She took a several fast indoor shots (with auto flash, and it flashed) and after the first couple it started slowing down between shots and then suddenly it was frozen. I removed the battery to force a reboot and it was up and running again.

Maybe I need to check for firmware updates and make sure my Micro SD card is "fast enough".

P.S. I got a black model.