Before buying this camera, I delved on various digital cameras and after a lot of research, I had short-listed this camera and Canon Power shot S3. Finally I reached the conclusion that the Kodak Z812 IS had the best bash for the buck and selected this one based on following: 1) This was costing approx$250 with rechargeable battery and charger(NON OEM) as compare to Canon S3 was costing approx$290 with Sony Batteries and charger. **2)** It has 7.1 mega-pixels as compare to Canon S3 which has 6.2 mega-pixels. **3)** It has 2.5 inch LCD as compare to 2 inch in Canon S3.
What I really Like: I am very much satisfied with this camera. This is one of the greatest ultra zoom cameras presently available at its price, the best choice if you judge quality to cost ratio. It takes pictures that are very remarkable with great color reproduction and with fine details. Even videos are so great that it can beat some of the low end video cameras except the sound quality. Optical zoom is tremendous. There are around 20 scene modes, selectable with the menu steering buttons.
**Great optical zoom:** A 36mm-432mm optical zoom means that nothing is out of range with this camera. Combined with the image stabilization characteristic you can get away with somewhat slower shutter speeds at long focal lengths and still get nice pictures. The lens is reasonably fast, meaning the aperture doesn’t close down too much when fully zoomed(its widest setting is f/2.8 to f/4.8 at 12x zoom), so there’s more available light even at highest zoom, so the shutter can be fast enough to freeze sports action, or ISO can remain low for low noise.
**A multiplicity of modes:** As an amateur photographer I like having the ability to set my own shutter and aperture values depending on what I’m doing. At the same time, the availability of a fully automatic mode makes it a camera that is easy to use by anyone. Plus, having sixteen preset modes for special settings(night time shooting, portraits, snow, beach, etc.) is handy if you’d rather not mess with the stop settings yourself. In addition to being able to control the exposure you can also control the flash setting. Low light results are also very good. I was able to use "night landscape" mode efficiently to take otherwise difficult night cityscape photos. The camera chose a 10 second(!) exposure time at ISO 64, and the photos came out superbly.
**Variable Color Settings:** This is a relatively simple feature but on the advanced modes you can choose between "Low Color" "Natural Color" "High Color" "Black and White" and "Sepia". This lets you adjust the appearance of your photos as you take them rather than in a photo editing program later. I find that taking a photo in the mode produces better quality that editing it later in a photo editing program.
**Photo Quality:** The image quality was very good. The main difference between this and the classier DSLR are the sensor sizes and interchangeable lenses. The Z812 has a 1/2.5" sensor; DSLR’s start at about 15 times that area and up. This makes a huge distinction in low-light and vibrant range of the pictures. But of course DSLR’s are a lot bulkier and expensive.(Check https://flickr.com/photos/25661984@N05/)
**High ISO settings: **High ISO settings allows this camera to take photos in low light conditions. While the quality of low light pictures isn’t exceptional, they’re not awful either. HD Video - by far my favorite feature is the ability to take 720p video at 30 frames per second. It takes a computer or high definition TV to really appreciate the superior quality of this video. The fact that the stereo sound is cool, but the quality is about average for a digital camera.
**Other Features:** The Z812 has a lot of sophisticated features especially like the live histogram. Performance was overall quick, except when the buffer filled(about 5 burst pictures), then it takes almost 10 seconds to write it all into the memory card. Multiple Photo Features - Besides the standard self-timer, there are two settings for taking multiple photos. One takes five consecutive photos in rapid succession. The other will take up to 30 consecutive photos in rapid succession and store the last five.
**Batteries:** Out of the box the camera comes with a disposable battery. The least Kodak could have done was include a rechargeable battery in the box. During my research I found many misleading reviews on battery issue. This camera works well with Lithium or Lithium-Ion rechargeable batteries. It is good idea to have Li-Ion rechargeable with charger. To buy original or compatible batteries / chargers is up to you. According to me it is not an issue at all. I bought 2 Non OEM batteries and charger from Amazon at 19$ and they are working great. Another misleading was about the loose lens cap. If it was not kept loose, it would have easily damage the zoom mechanism if you forget to remove the cap before turning ON the camera.
**In a nut shell.** No matter who you are, apart from professional photographer, the camera is apposite for you. You may use it as just point and shoot camera. Or you may play with more technical stuff like f-stop or aperture or shutter speed or exposure compensation or so on. Obviously it is not DSLR and how much you can expect in a$210 deal(now a day’s price is 250$+8$ shipping charges), but. If you want some thing like DSLR at a price of point n shoot, this is the camera. So overall A great camera @ great Price