A Review of the Kodak Z712 IS in Layman’s Terms

I bought my first digital camera in 1999 in a Las Vegas Wal-Mart for $99 it was a Polaroid we were in Las Vegas for my daughters wedding and I wanted to be able to take some digital photos of the wedding.

I don’t think that the camera was even 1 mega pixel but even if it had been and written plain upon its box that still would not have meant anything to me. After using a 35mm camera I was a little disappointed with the results when I printed out the photos I had taken at anything larger than 6”X4”

My old 35mm camera was much better at the large print sizes but this is where my love affair with digital photography began. I took my photos at the wedding in the Little White Chapel and about 400 more as we toured for three and a half more weeks in the USA.

My latest camera is the Kodak Easy Share Z712 IS which was a Christmas present from my daughter I have had this camera for about a year and a half and I am still finding out new things about it. This is the spec

Superior performance. Superb picture quality.

12X SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON Optical Zoom Lens

Optical image stabilization

7.1 megapixels

Best-in-class* click-to-capture speed (0.26 sec.)

High ISO mode

KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology

KODAK Color Science Chip

High resolution 2.5 in. (6.4 cm) color display

If you understand all this techie speak then no doubt the spec will tell you a lot about the camera but for those not fluent in techie speak read on to learn a little about this fantastic little camera.

One of the things that make this pretty much point and shoot camera special is it 12 times optical zoom it also has a digital zoom but I never use that as I can do a better job and have more choice using one of the photo software packages I have on my computer. Rather than waffle on about the special lens and focal points or some other stuff that I know nothing about even after reading up on them I thought I would show you what it can do.

The following two photos were taken down on one of our beaches in Villa Joyosa, my husband and I were out walking the dogs and if I had used any of my previous digital cameras the photo taken without the zoom is probably the best I could hope for.

The boats were taking part in a leg of some big international boat race taking place in Alicante. I took both photos from roughly the same spot and in order to get the two boats properly framed in the photograph I don’t think the zoom was fully on but you can see the difference having a good optical zoom makes to taking interesting photos.

The only problem I have found with having the zoom fully on is that the minutest of movements results in a fuzzy photo. However if you are careful and hold the camera steady you get a lovely crisp shot like the one I took above.

This is one area that I had found to be poor using digital photography, which might be because I usually have my camera set on auto so I only have to point and shoot.

Point and shoot is not particularly well suited to poor light conditions. This camera however is better than most and I have managed to take some really nice photographs at night but, like when the zoom is on full the smallest movement results in a fuzzy photo the same happens when taking low light shots.

This is not the camera's fault because if you use a tripod when taking photographs in poor light then you can get some really good results.

My son put the camera on manual and set the ISO and turned the little wheel on top to scn and selected the Night Landscape setting and here are three of the results.

Each of the photographs have some zoom on them starting with the one with the smallest amount and all are taken from the same spot on our balcony. If you click on the photograph a larger view is available.

There is a surprising amount of detail in these photos; the Dam can be seen with its lights in front of which is the Reservoir and behind the Dam the Mediterranean with the moonlight playing on the water.

My son managed to capture a lightening strike which shows just what this great little camera can do with someone a little more knowledgeable taking the shots.

I found this camera allowed you to zoom right in so that you could take fairly decent close up shots below a a few samples of close ups taken with this camera.

Bearing in mind that this is a still camera it takes remarkably good quality video and the sound reproduction is not bad at all considering the inbuilt microphone on the side is only nine small pin holes. Like with the still photographs the colour reproduction of this little camera is superb and very life like.

I have uploaded a small sample so you can see how good the video quality  is but please keep in mind the original quality is much better than that which has been reproduced on you tube.

I chose this clip so you could get an idea of the sound quality of this camera which I think is very good. Meye is teaching Jairo to play a new worship song on the guitar and don’t worry if you can’t understand the words they are speaking and singing in Spanish.

This camera works with the new four gig HD (High Density) SD memory cards this means that you can take over eight hundred photos on the maximum 7.1 mega pixel setting this is even enough for me.

The only draw back is my computer doesn’t recognize the new HD cards so I have to down load the photos using the camera instead of just plugging the card into the card reader.

I now have a new computer and this is no longer a problem.

In conclusion this is one of the best cameras available in this price range with features like the optical zoom normally only found in much more expensive cameras.

I have no problem recommending this camera to anyone who wanted to take good quality photographs with the minimum of fuss and expense.

I could go on for a lot longer, I have barely touched on what this camera can do but I have twenty eight more hubs to write for the hub challenge. I hope that this small review is useful for those who are technically challenged like me.