a marvelous piece of work
My first digital camera, though I did try other cameras. I wanted a camera to take close-up photos of cactus plants, and for other more people based photographic needs. The ease of use, including uploading into your computer with the software provided, the high quality of the photographs, the options of black & white and sepia toned old fashioned looking portrait possibilities, and the flexibility of this lightweight package is a sure winner. The photos are startling in their clarity. Nice deal
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A Great Camera at A Great Price - Great Photos, Great Features!
I picked up this camera recently as a replacement for a Kodak z712. I was not entirely happy with the z712, but I was familiar with its feature set, and thought the extra megapixel on the 812 might be a slight improvement. Boy was I in for a shock! I took the darned thing out of the box in the parking lot of the store where I bought it, popped in the battery, attached the lens cap and neckstrap, and snapped a few quick ones through the windshield - and I was blown away. This camera is in a whole different catagory from its predecessors. The color quality is vibrant and intense, the feature set is broad and inclusive. The 12x optical zoom is nothing short of miraculous, coupled with Kodak's image stabilizing system to bring you into the action without losing sharp detail.
The Z812 has a few bells and whistles that I wasn't expecting - for example , in panoramic mode it allows you to, in camera, produce seamless panoramic shots stiched together from three separate shots. Get this - you shoot the far left area of the scene. In your next shot on the viewfinder you will see a small section of the previous shot superimposed over the next area - so you can line up your shots perfectly! The z812 does the same for the third shot - and shazaam! Stiches the three together perfectly, matching exposure and color saturation!
The z812 picks up incredible detail, has multiple and complex focussing cababilities, and the eight pixels let me print quite competently up to the full 13x20 that my printer allows without visible artifacting. In a pinch it also lets me do some serious cropping!
In sillhoette/backlighting situations I have not noticed any purple fringing at all - that had been a problem with previous cameras.
And there are loads of useful other settings as well. The candlight setting does a nice job of capturing warm and well exposed images with a minimum amount of light, and almost no digital noise!
The manual settings are great too - easy to find in the menu, and with a decent spectrum of settings.
The burst setting is very much improved too - the camera almost instantly generates your images - they show up on the viewfinder as they are being shot! Nice touch.
The 2.5 inch HD LCD display is huge and crystal clear, and the viewfinder offers a near HD image as well. You can (finally) really see what you are shooting in any light!
The buttons are all conveniently positioned for easy access.
And if all that is not enough - get ready to be blown away by the video capabilities of this camera. I shot 20 minutes of footage at a Gunfight in Tombstone AZ. It looked good on the camera screen, but I was ready to be disappointed when I got it on to my computer screen.
Well, folks, I have to tell you I was not disappointed. The video was crisp, clear and colorful, without alot of posterizing (which had been a problem with the video on earlier models) In dim light there was a bit of digital noise in the videos. It may not be on par with some of the high end recorders out there, but its better than alot of the low end ones I've tried, and with a little practice and study, I suspect I can produce some really nice movies with this.
The camera interfaced easily with iPhoto and with the Adobe CS3Bridge to upload my photos and movies in record time!
And that is just denting the surface. As I've said, I've only had the camera for a few days, and only shot 200 or so images.
So, in a nutshell, here's my assessment - a great camera, at a great price. Intuitive interface, and a quick learning curve!
Great job, Kodak!
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Kodak Z812 much better than entry-level camcorder for video clips
I got a Z812 IS a couple weeks ago, because with the 720p video, it seemed possible that one purchase might meet my camcorder upgrade needs at the same time as getting a super zoom camera for action photos.
So far, I have video(not taped I guess, maybe "videocarded" or "videoclipped" :-)
four of my daughter's high school soccer games, using the 720p resolution. The conditions were nighttime stadium lights. I shoot from high up in the bleachers to take in the overall action.
After doing 4 games this way, while I am not a professional at this by any stretch of the imagination, I can share some experiences and tips:
1) Overall, the 720p soccer game videos have turned out better than I've done with MiniDV consumer level cameras. For example, better than a Canon ZR30 and Panasonic GV-81 (or was it GS-81, can't recall exact model #)
2) A good tripod with fluid-damped panning is essential to quality videos. If the pans are too fast, it looks awful. (probably true of making video recordings in general)
3) There is more going into and out of focus than I am used to with dedicated cameras. I've gotten better at reducing the amount this happens. Trying to minimize the amount of zooming I do seems to help.
4) Since the manual says that only digital zoom operates during recording, I try to pick a zoom (each time I start/stop recording) that will require the least subsequent zooming.
5) The images look pretty good on my big screen 1080i big screen TV, after I burn the video clips on the SD card to DVD and play the DVD. There is a lot less blob-and-blur factor than with the MiniDV camcorders I've used, and it's much easier to pick out which player is which, during the action. The color and image quality looks pretty good. Maybe a stretch to say it's "true" 720p quality, but it's way better than typical home video quality.
6) Burning to DVD has been a bit of a pain. I'm new to Kodak and their Easyshare stuff, and couldn't find a way that allows one to burn a DVD with > 99 scenes (I stop/start the camera each time there is a delay, e.g., ball goes out of bounds) and each one is recorded on the SD card as a separate .MOV (Quicktime) file.
I finally decided to just use Nero Ultimate 8, I think the app is called Video Express, or something like that. I have to point to all the clips, and then click a button to put them all into the movie. I had to choose the "make a movie" option to get anything to work like I wanted. Then all the clips get put in the timeline.
For some reason, only the video is coming through in the finished movie. I haven't figured out why the audio doesn't also get loaded in as part of the .MOV file.
7) When shooting video, THIS CAMERA SUCKS--storage space, that is! At least when you shoot video clips, it sucks the Gigabytes up in short order. By the time I do 40+ minutes of video, a 4GB card is full. I'm using Sandisk Ultra II SDHC cards, $70 or so from Costco, and have been happy with them other than filling them up. I've ordered the Transcend 8GB class 6 SDHC card and I expect the full 45+ minutes of 720p video for a game will fit on that, probably around 80 minutes worth. The word is that these 8GB cards will work in the Z812. I have a cheaper 4GB card that seems to work OK too. So maybe an initial rule of thumb is allow at least 1 Gig of storage space for every 10 minutes of video. If you're shooting lower resolution, I'm sure the storage would go a lot further.
8) The rechargeable battery hassle is really the pits too. I did find shops that carry the KLIC-8000 battery, including Circuit City (better price) and Best Buy, but NOT the charger. I understand the 8500 charger is the one needed. I ordered a KLIC-8000 compatible charger on eBay but it hasn't arrived yet. Since people are reporting good results using LITHIUM CRV3 rechargeables, and I need it NOW, I am picking up a kit of charger and battery (plus car adapter) from BatteriesPlus for $35 and will see how that does. Otherwise, pay $20 for a 2-pack of CRV3 at Target. To be fair, a disposable CRV3 did get me through 2+ games, including playback and uploading to computer.
9) I really haven't used the photo capability of the Z812 much yet so don't have anything to contribute here.
So my conclusion is that I'm happy I got the Z812 and, after getting familiar with it, it does a better job than a moderate-price consumer-level camcorder would do. So anything it does on photos (and all the reviews there seem to be great :-) is at this point a bonus for me.
Without the rechargeable battery hassles, review would have been 5 stars.
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