If this is the same as the one I bought about a couple months ago, it is excellent, but I paid $20 more. Does anyone know if there are differences? More, less, different features or quality or a lense difference? The only thing more that I would want in my camera would be closer macro -- to take pictures of very small things close up. Oh and I could use a link to give me an understanding of techniques to make good use of all the features. Thanks.

o man, i just bought 2 of the 8.2 easy share a few weeks ago, they are great cameras!! i am still using the first batteries (i think they even came with it) and we went to georgia for vacation and i am listing pics of coins on ebay, same 2 AA batteries!
really easy to use, and again, great pics! hmmm, should i buy this one too??
hubby is fine with the 8.3 but this might be even better for ebay.
also, tho, respiffied, it came as new, software packaged new, cord, etc, if it didn't say "respiffied", i never would have guessed.
beachpatty

I too bought this earlier. I think it's a good deal. My kids use it more than me though! Easy, nice pictures, and now cheaper.

Phil99 wrote:My first digital camera did not have a view-finder BIG MISTAKE... never again

I agree. That's a deal breaker for me too. I see no reason for a camera of this type to not have a view finder!

ViperGuy wrote:Why is that?
Every digital camera I have owned has one but I NEVER used it, that's why they have those nice LCD view finders.

Because when outdoors in the sun, view finders are much better than LCD displays. Also, when in the sun, you can turn off the LCD and save on batteries.

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

I've had a good experience with meritline.com. I believe they have a 4G SDHC for less than $20 now.

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

Actually, there have been some nice SD cards from woot, and mini SD cards with readers. I'd watch again for another deal.

quartermane wrote:Bought one here for $99 a couple of months ago. Good camera, decent pictures, works ok. It can eat its weight in batteries in a day though. Better invest in rechargables.

happy wooting, gnite

I also bought this for $99 back in April. It has gone back for repair twice in that time. it does go thru batteries like mad. Personally, I would never buy this camera again. The pictures are ok, but to have owned the camera for less than 4 months, and been in possession of it for about 2 months (because of it being in repair) it is not worth it.

RonaldHLevine wrote:If this is the same as the one I bought about a couple months ago, it is excellent, but I paid $20 more. Does anyone know if there are differences? More, less, different features or quality or a lense difference? The only thing more that I would want in my camera would be closer macro -- to take pictures of very small things close up. Oh and I could use a link to give me an understanding of techniques to make good use of all the features. Thanks.

Go to kodak.com and find the model number. You can get a full manual there.

Good Woot!!! In for 1

I've used Kodak before (i currently own a Nikon) and yeah, they're pretty easy to figure out. Plenty of fun. BUY!!!

Good Woot - only thing that would make it better is if it were new instead of respiffied.

This is a great little camera. I bought one almost a year ago. To have handy for those times I don't want to pack around my SLR. It does a great job with photos (especially for the cost).
It does shoot 720 HD video. HOWEVER... it does NOT have image stabilization. That means you better lean against something or stand VERY still or the image jumps all over the place.
Batteries ARE an issue until you purchase some rechargables. Nimh last a full day with no problem. standard AA's are worth about 40 pics or 30 min of video. (for me, that's about 2 hours of a day of fun.)
I recommend buying the Kodak KAA2HR batteries. These last great.

Good Woot ...these will be perfect for my guys on the road .

I bought one of these for my daughter. It takes great pictures but eats batteries. Had to but rechargeables.

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

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?

Seems good. Anyone know if you can zoom while shooting video? That would be cool for i would buy this curp just for the HD vid. Anyone out there...

Wow, 12 MP and 720p video for $80. My camera is old. 4MP with something like 240p and it cost just under $200. I need to upgrade soon.

Bought a couple months ago, not happy with it all, my Sony 6mp take way better pictures then this pile of s***. Do get a good picture once in a while, but it is hit-an-miss most of the time.

philmo14741 wrote:Does anyone know how good the lens is? That is what is most important, 12 MP is ridiculous and you don't need that many MPS. If you have a god lens you can get great pictures out of a 1 MP camera. So back to my original question how good is the lens?

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!!!!

philmo14741 wrote:Does anyone know how good the lens is? That is what is most important, 12 MP is ridiculous and you don't need that many MPS. If you have a god lens you can get great pictures out of a 1 MP camera. So back to my original question how good is the lens?

I bought this last time it was on sale at woot too. I am not too impressed with the quality of its lens and user interface. Mainly, my old Sony W100 camera with just 7 MP outperforms this 12 MP from Kodak. I use my old camera a lot more than this new one due to the batteries as well (Sony has lithium rechargeables that work very well). Even with rechargeable batteries I seem to run out of juice very often and cannot keep "shutter-happy". I would recommend this camera only to desperate newbies who do not care about the lens, batteries and the user interface.

p.s. Also note that the camera does not work very well with the regular SD memory cards. You will need faster cards or SDHC if do not wish to wait a long time after each shot (to be saved/captured). So overall I am not too happy with camera and hope that others "beware".

Curse you Woot. Bought one yesterday.

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 12MPs gets you is the ability to shoot something farther away, and when you get back to your computer crop it down to what you want, and still have enough resolution for an 8x10.

My current 6MP Kodak is really all I need if everything I want to shoot fits nicely in the frame. When my kid's on the far side of the soccer field, though, I can take the shot and frame it later. (Though with the 5X zoom on this new model, might not have to do as much cropping.)

In a nutshell,
It's good points - [a] Picture color [b] 5X zoom [c] 12 MP [d] Use all types of battery [e] Pocketable.

It has three faults -[a] No IS [b] No optical viewfinder and [c] It is very slow in writing to SD card.

Check out the pictures at - http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2007/10/09/Kodak-EasyShare-Z1275/p1

This camera is ranked as follows at Digital-Camera HQ.

53rd of 59 in 9 and 10 Megapixels (#1 is Canon SD790 IS)
16th of 25 in Kodak (#1 is Kodak Z1285)
42nd of 82 in $150 - $200 (#1 is Canon A590 IS)

http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/kodak-easyshare-z1275_reviews.html

philmo14741 wrote:Does anyone know how good the lens is? That is what is most important, 12 MP is ridiculous and you don't need that many MPS. If you have a god lens you can get great pictures out of a 1 MP camera. So back to my original question how good is the lens?

Even reviews that give the camera a lousy rating raved about the lens for its lack of distortion and chromatic aberrations. Most knowledgeable negative reviewers fault the firmware (i.e. over-compression) and not the lens. As such, there's hope since the firmware is upgradeable.

Here's a tough negative review that loves the lens. It includes some excellent photos showing the lack of distortion.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/digital-cameras/review/2007/10/09/Kodak-EasyShare-Z1275/p1

While loving the lens, the reviewer points out that the camera may have some real bugs, see the weird colors under the car at ISO 800. It disappears at other ISOs, both higher and lower.

Phil99 wrote:My first digital camera did not have a view-finder BIG MISTAKE... never again

Agreed. Good camera but need that viewfinder for bright light or tight situations.

morimori wrote:Seems good. Anyone know if you can zoom while shooting video? That would be cool for i would buy this curp just for the HD vid. Anyone out there...

While the photo results get mixed reviews, everyone seems to rave about the videos. Not only is it rare to get 720p at this price but you can also zoom by shooting movies. That's very unusual. One reviewer complained that you can hear the zooming noise. The major complaint is that there is no stabilization for the movies. When zoomed, the shake is very noticeable so get a tripod.

I just wooted this camera since my needs are primarily video (too bad the sound is mono). My biggest concern is battery drain. I don't want the batteries to die in the middle of a 20 min video, which is possible based on what I've heard.

Here are movie samples of a diver, in 720p and 640. The image looks great but notice the shaking:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/kodak_z1275_samples.html

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?

Although Kodak doesn't announce it, apparently it does have face recognition. The manual mentions it as well as some reviewers.

I can't give you exact numbers but many reviewers complain about the shutter lag, especially those photographing children and animals. Most annoying is the fact that it freezes for about 10-15 secs after every three shots to clear its buffer. Google Z1275 and read the reviews. If you ant speed, this isn't the camera to get.

This camera was my first Woot. My Aunt has one and in my opinion it takes great pictures and she paid over $200.00 for it. Now I don't have to borrow other people's cameras...they will be wanting to borrow mine

WOOT WOOT!

Can the optional rechargeable cells be charged in the camera, or must they be charged separately?

To convert the .mov video to avi and fix the audio might need to use this converter, only change the audio to mp3

This fixes the audio codec. Try it with the link demo video provided earlier.

The XVID codec can be used.

http://mp4cam2avi.sourceforge.net/

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

Buy.com and CompUSA always feature weekly deals for SD cards. Usually around $8-$10 for 2 gig. SDHC will cost you a bit more. You might want to splurge a bit and get high speed SD or SDHC since lag seems to be an issue with this camera. Some have also said that the video is choppy if the card is slow.

Here's a 4 gig SDHC card for only $17.95. Being HC, the speed is probably pretty good.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205135515&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

HikingStick wrote:Can the optional rechargeable cells be charged in the camera, or must they be charged separately?

Charged separately. Your best bet is to get 2650mAh NiMh batteries and a high-speed charger. They'll juice up the batteries in about 15 mins. The chargers get so got that there is a built-in fan.

sdc100 wrote:Charged separately. Your best bet is to get 2650mAh NiMh batteries and a high-speed charger. They'll juice up the batteries in about 15 mins. The chargers get so got that there is a built-in fan.

Thanks for the quick reply. Much appreciated.

I bought from Woot 2 months ago as well for $99. People miss the point with this item. If you buy it to be a CAMCORDER and sometimes use it for pics, it's an amazing deal. Having said that, drawbacks include: tiny display, closeups are terrible, won't sit in Kodak docking station, stabilization is terrible, Quicktime file format only on movies is hard to work with, 'on/off' button so tiny it's hard to use.

I have a DSLR and wanted something small to take into sitches that I don't want to take my DSLR into.

That, and I have an 11 year old who wants a camera and this looks like a good speed for her. She's been using my old 2MP Kodak that I bought 6 years ago. I mean, it can't be worse than that, can it?

SBC wrote:As Consumer Reports said, "Image stabilizer is only simulated." That's the best definition I have ever read of the feature "digital stabilizer."

Well, that's no different than Digital Zoom. It's a simulation of real zoom by cropping the image and then enlarging the remaining area.

Heck, I hate to get technical here, but isn't much of digital technology a simulation of reality? For example, digital music is a result of sampling. The faster and more frequent the sampling, the more real it sounds (an the more bandwidth it takes). This is why cellphone calls sound choppy as compared to landlines. But reality is continuous so sampling, no matter how frequent, is only a simulation.

why do I find it so hard to purchase a refurbie?

HoozWoot wrote:Where can I get a copy of the instruction booklet? With all the options I think I'll need one. Thanks..... Hoozie

Click on the Extended User Guide

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/products/ekn032924.jhtml?pq-path=11033