Have you ever wondered what kind of people buy the really bad digital cameras? Well, nine times out of ten, it’s the person who spends ten minutes at their local camera store, tells the salesperson they have X amount to spend, and walks out the door with the first camera the salesperson recommends. Spending some time learning about the strengths and, more importantly, the flaws of the Kodak Easyshare Z812IS will help you decide if it’s the right camera for your needs. With that in mind, let’s shed some light on what’s wrong with buying a Kodak Easyshare Z812IS digital camera.

Batteries have to be the biggest dig to use any digital camera. Kodak hasn’t really helped things with the Easyshare Z812IS. Between this camera’s megazoom, large LCD screen, and image stabilization, the Z812IS eats up disposable batteries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Of course, it will run on AA disposable lithium batteries or a CRV3 rechargeable battery pack. Unfortunately, the CRV3 and the required charger do not come with the camera. So be sure to include that extra expense in your budget, if rechargeable batteries are important to you.

If you intend to shoot video with the Z812IS, be sure to stock up on HD cards. Being a high definition camera, this Kodak Easyshare will of course consume large amounts of memory storage for videos. I would recommend at least a 4Gb card (SD, SDHC or MMC), preferably 8Gb if your pocket is big enough. Another caveat to keep in mind is if you’re shooting video with a lot of stops and pauses. Each stop or pause causes a separate video file to be written to the memory card. This could result in additional time in the editing room working with Z812IS video files.

The Easyshares LCD is acceptable, but nothing spectacular. Kodak made the decision to go with a rather slow refresh rate, which can cause irregular flickering on the LCD screen if you move the camera too much. The Z812IS LCD screen tries to compensate for the ambient light in its surroundings, but tends to lean towards a screen that is too dark outdoors. You will have to learn to make manual adjustments.

Those shortcomings alone shouldn’t be enough to stop someone from buying an Easyshare Z812IS, but here are a few more that might:

– no component cable connection for direct viewing to HD TV

– docking station not included with the camera

– barrel distortion (image bowing) is worse than it should be

– color stripe remains visible with vibrant color transitions

– image stabilization cannot be compared to competing cameras

– Only JPEG file is saved, no RAW option mode

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