Thoughts on Kodak Z712

[believe]

I have a friend who is looking into purchasing this camera. Her main need for the camera is for taking action sports photos, indoor and outdoor. Can you please let me know your experience with this camera if you have used it? She also wants to stay under the $200 price range, so if you know of a better option in this price range she is open to suggestions.

 

[jann1033]

I have a friend who is looking into purchasing this camera. Her main need for the camera is for taking action sports photos, indoor and outdoor. Can you please let me know your experience with this camera if you have used it? She also wants to stay under the $200 price range, so if you know of a better option in this price range she is open to suggestions.

i have a daughter that has it...she hasn't really told me why but she said she isn't crazy about it..( she won it) i do think she mentioned she doesn't think it takes very good indoor shots

 

[ukcatfan]

Unfortunately, there is no camera for ~$200 that will take good indoor action shots. You typically need a DSLR with a fast long zoom. Probably the cheapest you can do that for is ~$1,300.

Kevin

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My BIL has this camera. He owns a boat and told me recently he wanted to toss it in the ocean because it was so slow to capture whale, fish pictures, etc.

I don't think it's as much an issue of brand (have seen tons of beautiful Easy Share photos) as it is a point and shoot camera. Most will have difficulty capturing and processing action shots because their main processing centers, the sensors, are very small compared to a film or SLR camera so it takes a while to get the information onto them thereby delaying the next shot. This slowness also causes blur when it can't capture the information as fast as is necessary to have no blur.

Here's an article which helps explain what I'm trying to say: http://www.photosecrets.com/tips.sensorsize.html And another, a bit more complex: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-camera-sensor-size.htm

One thing you could tell your friend if she is going to get it is to make sure she has a fast memory card, the fastest she can get. She may be able to get some usable outdoor sports shots using sports mode/fast shutter speed - though many will be blurry - but indoor is going to be really tough. If she knows anyone with this same camera, maybe she should try borrowing it before she buys to see if it can do what she wants (though her shots will improve somewhat when she gets better at using the camera as an actual owner). Another suggestion is that she try reading the book Understanding Exposure to help her learn how to best adjust the settings on whatever camera she has to get in order to get the best photos possible.

Good luck.

 

[Zoesmama03]

I have a Nikon Coolpix P2 that I got for just under $200 2 years ago it does pretty well indoors but I don't know about action. Even with a tripod its hard to do with a point and shoot because you can't choose shutter speed. I could do aperture priority on it though and it does wonderfully with low light but nothing like me D80.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

I had a Kodak Z710 and was really happy with it. But as with any p&S camera, it wasn't good in the dark or with action shots. Thats why I have just bought a dSLR. I came back from WDW disapointed that I couldn't take the photos I wanted. For just ordinary shots with a great zoom, I would definitely have recommended the Z710.

 

[believe]

Thanks for all the feedback...my friend has not decided against this camera. Leaning more towards Canon S5. Any thoughts on that? I have the S3 and am very happy with it.