They eat the special Oxy-alkaline batteries they come with pretty quickly (I got one on sellout.woot in May). Best to get a rechargeable pack. I’m looking at a clearance item at the local Target; charger plus two NiMH packs. Takes nice quality pictures, and with 7.1MPx and 10X zoom, you can get quite up close and personal. Easy to do the basics with, but has some more advanced features. Not an SLR; I’m no photo buff though, so it’s the same to me. I wanted something a little more advanced than a snappy camera.
Edit: essentially, I believe this to be a good value.
A few excerpts from reviews regarding battery life:
-While the CRV batteries are recommended it will take 2 aa’s in a pinch. The original KODAK brand battery that it came with lasted for 600+ pictures!!!
-While I do love that you can use standard AA batteries in this camera, they don’t last very long at all, so I recommend just spending the $15 or however much they are and getting the special lithium photo battery just like the one it came with.
-Easy to Use, Good Battery Life, Great Resolution, Nice Features and Settings
-My only problems with this camera are the lens cap not clicking in place and the battery life. If you use the Kodak brand battery for this camera its great… I can go a long time with those but try to use AA batteries and you wont get an hour out of them. Its worth it to buy Kodak. Even the off brand arent as good as Kodak.
-If you buy the speical battery and not just use the double A, it will last forever. I have had it since Oct of 07 replaced the battery once. However for a week I did use a whole box of double A it went through 2 every 30 photos.
The people who know about cameras tore this camera apart last time it was on woot. I don’t own or know enough about one so can’t say. Maybe one of the suckers from last time will comment
I bought one of these when it was up last time but gave it away as a gift instead of keeping it, though I did end up using it for a good 3-4 week period. I am familiar with the camera…and am considering buying one for myself. Ask questions…
Here’s what you should know:
+Panorama mode! it’s AMAZING
+Good resolution, great zoom, minimal distortion
+Good features
+Very nice price today $125 shipped (I paid $150 new at Costco…)
+Good quality videos for a digital camera! (they are really not bad!)
+Overall a nice camera, good quality photos, build, features
-Lens cap does not snap on, it just lightly “attaches” to the lens and falls off very easily
-Small screen
-No optical image stabilization (shaky at full zoom)
-LONGGGG image saving/processing times (can only shoot two pics in a row before processing screen comes up and you have to wait about ~6-10sec per photo to process at full res)
-Not the world’s best zoom control buttons, and the zoom is noisy which will get picked up loudly in videos if used
I got one of these last time. It’s a really nice camera, but I got a dud. About every third picture shows up as corrupted and can’t be read by a computer or even the camera. Obviously this is a problem.
I’ve since upgraded to the comparable Canon. It’s really a shame, because I don’t think I get much better pictures with the Canon, but obviously most people need the camera to be reliable. It’s probably worth the risk though.
I’m a photo buff and have been looking heavily at new cameras (getting ready to move to London). My old camera is a very decent Kodak that’s relatively customizable, and I wanted to step it up for a new one.
I think the only issues with this camera pertained to the battery life and Kodak quirks (like the lens cap). Rechargeables are the way to go, from what I’ve read, and if you’ve used Kodaks before, the quirks won’t be new.
The only reasons I’m not buying this tonight are because I leave in 3 days (no overnight shipping–sad) and I was gifted a Nikon Coolpix–complete fail on the camera, but I think the gift giver would be pissed if I had the Nikon and then a newer Kodak shows up at the door.
But it’s a great deal–I was under the impression these started around $199, and the only thing better is a digital SLR. Superzooms like this one seem to be the next high-tech camera market niche, for those who can’t afford to drop a grand on a camera but who are still photographers at heart.