Digicam says it does have optical stabilization
I’m a serious amateur. For me the deal breaker is:
-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)
That is forever in photo-time. Kids, animals, sports … these things do not wait for your camera to process. But the price IS great!
I had one of these untill a friend lost it. I bought a new Z712 IS which is essentially the same but higher optical zoom.
Fo the image speed, you really need to buy the good high-speed SD cards. If you use the cheap-o ones, you have a looong processing time. Get the PNY or Kingston made for cameras and you are OK. Also get the rechargable battery packs. The RcR-3’s last quite a while and are cheap compared to AA photo lithium. By the way, my instructions say that the camera may malfunction without the proper battery, which means it quits taking pictures or the flash will not work when the AA’s get low.
The only other negatives are no through-the-lens viewfinder. You have a small button to the left of the viwefinder to select LCD screen or finder. The lens cap just presses on, does not snap but you can purchase another one at most camera stores.
Bottom line is - get the right batteries and SD-cards and this is a great camera with a lot of features to keep most average photog’s happy - takes very nice pictures with good image stability. Nice price too, I paid more when i first bought it, and it still runs about 150 local. The Z712 runs about 180 local, 150 on-line (plus shipping),
Alkaline or NiMH batteries should be considered for emergency use only–you get a very short battery life with them. I’ve been using Lithium disposables, they work well and last a long time.
Zoom and low-light shooting is great for the price. Could use image stabilization–To fully use the zoom, you need a tripod even in bright light. Flash is adequate, and the lens is fast enough that you can get by without it fairly often.
The lens cap sucls. I put velcro under the clip buttons to make them harder to push, that helped a lot.
I got this same camera from woot.com at the begenning of this summer. It was refurbished for 115$ but if you look at the same camera on other sites it is nearer 215$ Get yourself a rechargeable kodak battery pack from buy.com ( i got 1 rech. pack and 2 rech AAs w/ recharger and 512kb SD card for about 34$
Great camera, impressively suave pics, very simple interface but w/ advanced options. many settings for any lighting occasion
HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS DEAL!
I love this camera. Got one for x-mas. It does take great pics, however when I don’t have the flash on, my pics turn out blurry. It could just be me though. Good price. I paid $149.
I have this camera. I hate it. Even with the good enegizer batteries, they literally last about 6 minutes. Rechargeable batteries barely last 5 minutes. It’s awful.
I got one during the recent woot-off and I’m very, very pleased. I’m still on the original battery but I’ve got 6 Nimh AA’s in my case along with a charger. Now I’m a bit worried. My pictures have all turned out quite well and for the price I couldn’t ask for more. I’ve had co-workers ask about one and I’m not sure if I should mention a sale that will be over come Monday. Today’s OfficeMax ad though has a special “while supplies last” sale on the Kodak Z712IS, 7.1 MP basically the same camera but with a 12X zoom. It’s going for $139.99!
I bought a Z612 about a year ago, which is essentially the same thing as this, only this one has 7MP, while mine has 6.1. It takes amazing pictures, has great zoom, which is stabilized pretty nicely, and with rechargeable batteries, they last forever - 500 pictures easy.
I would definitely buy this if you are looking for a amateur camera that is under $300. Take a look at some of the pictures I’ve taken with it- http://rhinowake.com.
Most cameras are prone to shaking at 10x zoom. Understand that this drawback applies to all cameras. An easy fix to that would be a tripod. Nothing fancy, just something to prop your camera on.
looks professional
but then again, looks can be deceiving
at this price, what could go wrong?
im very happy to have been one of the things i have wanted for along time i will get soon i cant wait i hope its every thing i wanted
may i ask do u like the cam that au got tell please i just ordered one for myself
the card dont come with the cam
I don’t think they were saying that it did.
I thought the same, and blew some $$ on a ridiculously fast SanDisk Extreme III SD card, which did nothing whatsoever to the processing time. A slow card will make things worse, but it is the internals of the camera that seem to cause the long waits.
That’s the main reason why I’m not jumping on this right now.
Man i missed it. I was getting money together. I really wanted this =(
Believe it or not, I actually saw the Z712IS at Sears for $90.97 brand-new, and they have a ten percent discount on all clearance items (and this is eligible.) If you want one of these things, call in and see if they have any left. My local store ran out last week :-/
Using either the internal memory or saving directly to the SD card I usually get 2 or 3 shots consecutively. Prior to that 4th shot the camera pauses to save data, which takes about 4 to 5 seconds (estimated). We take all our shots in the highest resolution. It would probably save faster if I took pictures in a lower resolution. Great camera though, we love it! As mentioned in other posts, the lens cap can be a bit frustrating. But that’s really minor. Wonderful shots indoors even with the flash turned off. We take a lot of action shots indoors (martial arts kicks and punches). The camera does a wonderful job. Our old camera would produce nothing but blurs.
OfficeMax has the Kodak Z712 IS this week for only 20 bucks more. It has optical image stabilization (better than the ZD710’s digital), a larger 2 1/2 inch LCD, and 12x zoom.
a rare sellout on sellout.woot nowadays, ey?