I bought this little monster somewhere in Oct’06. I was planning to buy one for long was somehow couldn’t make up my mind. Then, before a trip to Sikkim, I had to get one. I discovered the J.J. Mehta & Sons in Dadar, Mumbai(they are dealing in lots of photography stuff for long). I didn’t have a definite picture in my mind what I wanted. But I was fixed upon for good pixel density and optical zoom. Finally, I decided on Kodak Z612.
Initially I had quite lot of doubts about my investment. But the camera turned out to be worthy. Of all features, one that I really like is its 12x optical zoom capability. Its ideal for mountain shot where you can do away with unnecesary background. As a first user, I was very happy. Basically the images that were transferred to my PC were simply brilliant. In daylight, the shots are simply stunning. Though the night shots had some annoying noises but they are not visible unless u enlarge it several times.(One word of caution here, never and never, try to use digital zoom at night, the entire image gets screwed up!). About a month after, when I took out the prints in 5x7 size, I was stunned by the brilliance.(You can sample a few here: https://picasaweb.google.com/adityabhuyan/Sikkim)
But I didn’t explore the capabilities of the camera then. After learning some bits and bytes of digital photography(photography in general), I sat with the cam, and explored each and every feature of it. It is no less than any professional camera. It allows you to adjust exposure, flash compensation, shutter speed and’f’. Then I discovered how you can improve in night shots. After this, I went to vizag. There I tried the night shots. It gave some really good images.
This cam also has the movie capabilities. Though it is surely not meant for it, but it won’t let u miss those moments when you feel, if only you had a handycam.
On the down side, though the battery lets you shot close to 800 shots in a single charge, but its the type that it uses. Model is CRV3, which is not commonly available. This means that if you are on a long trip, its wise to have two batt. It claims that it can sense motion and can rotate the pic automatically when you are viewing in the LCD panel. This didn’t happen till now in my piece. For storing movies, the cam supports .mov format only. This means that, if you want to have VCDs made, then you need to get the convertor. To play as it is, the cam comes with the Apple QuickTime software.
Well, to zap up, if you are looking out for a camera that has professional capabilities but still want the ease of automatics, then this is just the right thing.