Kodak Z1015IS digital camera
I have been doing photographs for many years, starting with a little German 35mm I bought while in the army. I moved to a Minolta with zoom lens, then got into digitals, which are great. I like to photograph nature and animals and wildlife, so need a long distance lens that works with low light and fast speeds. My first digital was an Olympus, then I found the Kodak zoom digital, starting with a Z740.
I am told that Nikon and Canon and some of those have some fantastic long lens digitals, but they are away out of my price range for casual shooting. My Kodak 740 was reasonable priced, took beautiful photos, and had a fairly good zoom, though it was near impossible to use when fully zoomed except on a tripod. It also did not handle low lighting well, such as evening or cloudy days, being only 4 or 5 megapixels.
Kodak’s latest version, which I just bought, is the Z1015IS, which is 10 megapixels and a 15X zoom, which multiplies to 75X. Reaches right out there. I have not really had a chance to use all the features yet, but with the photos I have taken, the colors and clarity are excellent, and it seems to work really well in evening light conditions. Also it seems much less sensitive to movement distortion than my older kodak. I especially like the burst feature, which allows a series of photos with one shot. I have yet to try the video. There are so many gadgets and features I may never get to try them all. They put a lot in there for the price-under $300.
The one feature I may have problems with is the power, which comes from a rechargable battery pack, and they even provide the charger. Only drawback is that it takes about 3 hours to recharge. From what I have read so far, it does not work with AA batteries, as my old kodak did. Perhaps I can find a spare battery pack. Also, kodak provides a lens cap which pops off when the camera is turned on. Nice feature, but this makes the cap very difficult to keep in place when you are carrying or storing the camera.
Overall, if one is looking for a very efficient digital camera with a powerful zoom and a reasonable price, you really should consider the “Z”. This model has not been on the market long, but I believe it will be very popular. I do not print a lot of my photos, as I prefer to download them to my computer, process and store them, but the kodak also features (sold separately) the easyshare developing and printing attachment, allowing you to just set the camera on the easyshare, download your photos, and print them right away. Neat.
And there you have it: Just My Opinion.