I purchased this camera at Wal-Mart for $149. I was shopping in the $100-$150 price range or a little more if necessary. The most important must-have feature that I was looking for was digital image stabilization. This was the only camera in that price range with this many features. I have owned this camera for about 1 month now.

This camera out performs all my other previous camera. The auto mode takes great shots 90% of the time. I find that I do not use the image stabilization mode as much as I thought I would. The blur warning feature works well to tell me when I have a good shot or not.

SCENE MODE FEATURES THAT I LIKE:
-Text: The text mode takes incredible image of text documents. I have yet to see one that is blurry. It is almost like a photocopy.

-Sport: The sport mode takes great images that would normally blur in other modes. It freezes the action. If I am taking a picture of something that is moving and I see it blurs in auto mode, I just switch to Sport and I have a perfect shot

-Night Portrait: The night setting takes GREAT pictures in the night. It is sometimes hard to prevent it from blurring, but when the person is still, and the camera operator is still, there is no better picture. One method I find for taking great pictures in Night Portrait mode is to set the timer to 2 seconds, so that the camera does not shake while you are in the process of pressing down the shutter button.

Other Features That I Love:
-2 shot timer: I love the option of taking a 2 shot timer, one at 10 seconds and the other at 16 seconds. It prevents me having to go back up to the camera as often to take another picture

-Color Mode: The color mode has high color, natural color and low color options. This change the image based on how much color is in the picture. It is a handy option. The black and white as well as the Sepia pictures are incredible. I prefer post-image manipulation though, so I can always use Photoshop to do these.

-Battery: At first, I was not fond of the idea of using rechargeable battery instead of the traditional AA batteries. I would not go back to AA batteries though, because it takes so much work to take out the battery and charge them in an external charger each time. I use my laptop enough to just plug it in occasionally when I need it charged. I have yet to run down the charge on the battery, so I am not sure what the battery life is like. I have used it heavily for 2 days and I have not run out of charge. I wish it had a battery meter so I could tell how much battery I have left though. It does have a low battery warning light, but I have not seen it yet.

-Zoom: The optical zoom on this camera is great. When the digital zoom gets close to the maximum (which shows red in the zoom meter), the image starts to get grainy, so in effect, you do not have the full range of the digital zoom as listed in the manual. It is enough for the average user though, so I do not have much complaint about this.

I was always in love with the Casio Exilim, the really thin one, which also comes in the same copper/orange color. It was on sale at Wal-Mart for $179. I went back several times wondering if I should get it or not, however I realize that the Exilim has no easy modes like the Kodak, where you can just turn it to different scene settings to take pictures. I would have to manually adjust the each setting in the camera depending on the condition. With this in mind, I just let go of the idea of purchasing the Exilim.

Overall, I love this camera and I would recommend it to any user who wants a great simple to use camera with a ton of features for cheap!


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 149