  Eats batteries like crazy
I got my Z812is about 8 months ago and took about 1000 pictures and maybe 50 videos so far. This is my first digital camera so I cant compare it to other ones. The Good: picture quality, video quality, zoom, the time you need to wait between pictures is minimal. Bad, or not so good: It eats batteries for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It doesn't even work on a regular AA batteries, I had to get Lithium ones witch don't last very long. It is a little balky, so you can't just stick it in your pocket. I wish it had a sleep mode button, because if I turn it on and off, it eats batteries, if I leave it on, it eats batteries. It does go to a sleep mode after few minutes, and then turns off after few more, but I wish there was a button for it. I will get a rechargeable battery pack and will update this review later. The picture quality is good, but they are big in size. Pictures will be anywhere from 0.8MB up to over 2MB in size.
Powerful consumer camera
Aaah, Kodak! My first digital camera was a Kodak several years ago (C300). It served me quite well for a long time and thousands of photos. But I began wanting something a bit more up-to-date and high-quality. I have owned several other brands since buying that first faithful camera, but almost all have quit working while the C300 still gets the job done (if the pictures are low resolution).
So, when I began shopping for a new camera - I was favoring Kodak. My experiance has been that their WasyShare line cameras are generally well-built, reliable camera (if sometimes a bit quirky).
I found the Z812is back in June when my family and I were planning a week-long vacation. The resolution was pretty impressive (at 8.2mp). The 12x Optical Zoom seemed useful, and the price (at that time) was decent.
I did not review this camera immediately, because I wanted to really put this camera through it's paces.
I'm not a professional photographer by any means, though I do take a pretty good family/scenic shot from time to time if I do say so myself. But this is a great camera for still photos. The colors are sharp, the features are useful and plentiful, and the camera is easy to use. Here are some of my findings.
Pros;
1) Good resolution (enlarge to 16 x 22 with no real pixelation).
2) Zoom (gets you right into the shot from a distance).
3) weight (I find that a heavier camera is often easier to hold steady).
4) Manual button controls (I do not like the trend of some toward touch-screen and heavily menu based controls) but this camera has REAL button controls.
Cons;
1) Video feature (Video looks pretty good, but the audio is horrible if you are in a noisy location).
2) You really do need the lithium-ion battery pack (but you can get a generic that is cheaper than the name brand).
3) Start-up time (I find this camera to be a bit slow when first turning it on, so power up in anticipation of that once-in-a-lifetime shot).
In conclusion - If you want a great (CONSUMER-LEVEL) point and shoot camera with a great zoom, this is it.
If you want a camera that does well with video - look into an actual video camera. But for the family photographer - this is a great investment.
By the way - you WILL need to pick up an SD/SDHC card as the file size of one photo tends to be in the 1.3mb plus range. I suggest at least a four gig card because they are so cheap now.
Kodak Easyshare Z812IS- Love it
I purchased the Z812IS to upgraded from my 1974 Minolta SRT201 35mm SLR camera (stop the laughing). I got tired of waiting to see if my pictures were any good after developing. I've only used it a handful of times, mainly for photographing race cars. I like the very short shutter delay. (I think it's 0.23 sec.)The camera also takes exceptional pictures at a distance. For cars in motion, it's easy to pan along with them to get that speed effect, using a shutter speed of less than 1/320,and the screen & view finder do not go blank when taking pictures at a slower shutter speed.
I also used it to photograph close ups of morning glorys. The detail is outstanding.
For the batteries, I purchased 2 KODAK(KLIC-8000)Li-Ion rechargeables.
I also purchased a KODAK High Performance 2GB memory card. I don't know the performane of this(or why I bought it), but the 2GB memory card that came with the camera is sufficient,holding over 700 photos. The most I've put on it at 1 shooting was 195.
The Image Stabilization is great. I think someone with Parkinsons Disease could easily take perfect pictures.
'Nuf said. As of this date, I highly recommend this camera.
Popup flash stops popping up
The popup flash is a big issue with camera like this. The popup flash stopped popping up for my camera and the camera is basically useless. The camera also shuts down every once in a while for no reason and I miss precious shots. I loved the camera initially because of all the features it has but now I hate it.
Great camera
This is a great camera! You can get it for almost $100 cheaper direct from kodak.com
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