Pros: 6.1 megapixels, 10X zoom lens, takes high quality digital photos, very user friendly.
Cons: Slight shutter delay on moving and/or far away subjects at times.
The bottom line: This Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera is a great choice for those looking for a user friendly model that features a large zoom.
Take a picture. It'll last longer!

Just about anyone that knows me including my family and friends can tell you that I love taking lots and lots of pictures. At any family event or just because, it's inevitable that I'll have the camera out sooner or later. I even drive my kids crazy during family vacations as I'm constantly taking as many shots as I can. I now have albums and albums full of pictures I've taken over the years, including baby photos, holiday and birthday photos to vacation photos to just every day life events. At first I had an old 35mm film camera and then graduated to an APS version when they became popular several years ago. My first experience with digital photography was on old Polaroid model that ate batteries like candy. Then soon after, my husband bought me a Concord Eye-Q Duo 2000 Digital Camera for Christmas one year that I hated almost from day one. So after all this time, I finally decided that I deserved a new camera as owning a good one was truly past due. I wanted a digital camera with a large zoom on it for sporting events and other times when I'd not be up close with my subject, so I knew I'd have to spend several hundred dollars for one. No more cheap cameras for me! While I'm no beginner to photography, I'm no expert either, so I wanted something that was user friendly at the same time for the casual photographer. My inevitable choice a few months ago was this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera that came with a printer dock for home photo printing use. Read on to find out more about the best digital camera I've owned so far by a long shot! No pun intended :-)


~~~The Digital Camera Basics~~~

This Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera with a 10X optical zoom is one of the best toys I've splurged on for myself in a long time! According to product advertising: Get a great shot with this 6.1 MP digital camera with professional quality optics engineered for top results. Features a high speed digital processor chip, advanced algorithms, and hardware acceleration features that let the Kodak Z650 make simultaneous, split second decisions for rich, vibrant, true to life colors in almost any lighting situation. Intense zoom. Incredible simplicity. Because of the large zoom, the camera itself is far from being one of those slim, compact models that are easy to carry around, but it's still rather light and small in size considering all the features it has. This digital camera offers the following features just to name a few: 6.1 MP for prints up to 20 × 30 in. (50 × 75 cm), 10X SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON Optical Zoom Lens, 2.0 in. (5.0 cm) indoor/outdoor color display, Picture enhancing features, KODAK Color Science Chip, and Auto options and manual modes. Buy this camera along with a printer dock as I did or purchase one separately and you'll have all you need (other than refill photo paper and ink) to create do-it-yourself high quality pictures at home. When they call it Easy Share, they aren't kidding. You don't even need a PC as the dock can print photos directly from the camera if desired. Or if you'd rather, download photos taken with this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera to your favorite online photo gallery for prints and sharing with friends on the web.


When purchasing this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera, here's a listing of everything that comes included:

***KODAK Color Science Chip Auto options and manual modes
***Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 10X Optical Zoom
***5X Digital Zoom for 50X total zoom
***6.1 MP for unbelievable print quality up to 20x30 in.
***2.0 LCD and electronic viewfinder (EVF) let you arrange your subject and evaluate details of shot before you move on
***Auto picture rotation in review mode
***You can quickly magnify up to 8X, fast scroll thru pictures, or view multi-up
***32MB internal memory plus a Secure Digital™ (SD)/MMC slot (memory card not included)
***Manual and custom controls
***Program auto, aperture priority, shutter priority, and custom modes
***Histogram feature
***Continuous shooting modes and auto focus
***KODAK Lithium Digital Camera Battery, CRV3 or equivalent
***USB and AV cable
***Lens cap
***Lens Adaptor
***Carry Strap
***KODAK EASYSHARE Software
***Getting Started Kit
***Custom camera insert for optional KODAK EASYSHARE Printer Docks and Camera Docks


~~~Price & Availability~~~

With a recent price reduction to just $229.95 at the Kodak.com website, this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera originally retailed for around $299. Purchase online at their website today and get a 1GB SD Memory Card for FREE! Now that's a deal hard to pass up. I actually paid almost $400 for the camera and printer dock together at my local Sears store, but you can get the camera by itself at a great price if creating photos at home does not appeal to you. Lots of electronics stores and discount retailers sell Kodak brand cameras, so finding one either online or in stores should be easy. Just remember to buy an extra set of rechargeable batteries with charger as my camera came with the batteries but no charger! For it's really hard to use batteries with no way to charge them. And don't even think about using regular "AA" sized batteries as you may get 10 pictures out of them if you are lucky. I found that out the hard way before we purchased the Kodak Ni-MH Rapid Battery Charger separately for an additional $30 or so. The sales person at Sears didn't tell us we needed the charger as maybe she assumed we already knew what we were buying. But not everyone is up-to-date on the latest technology! So to get this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera at a rock bottom price just in time for the holidays, copy and paste the following URL into your computer's web browser:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=8016&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=17689


~~~User Experience~~~

I've owned this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera for about two months now, so I'm still learning about all the features it has to offer. My first experience using this camera was at an evening high school football game my oldest son was participating in. All I had to do was flip the photo option over to Sport with the neat joystick type lever to take pictures of a subject in motion. Then just zoom in from the stands with the 10X zoom and I could see clearly in the LCD screen just what I was shooting a picture of. There's a slight shutter lag when doing this, however, so the photo will look slightly different as the subject is in moving around. When it started getting dark, I then flipped the photo option over to Night to capture both the subject and the background. Of course there's the auto flash mode in use at the same time, so taking photos at night is actually possible using this model. I was very impressed with the clarity and quality of photos taken at the football game, especially the close-ups. A few were slightly blurry, but I could just delete them and go on until I got better shots while quickly learning how the camera worked. Of course there's an included users manual to help get you started. Other photo options include Auto for general picture taking, Portrait for full frame photos, Children for action photos of children in bright light, PASM to gain access to the manual focus feature, and then an awesome Video mode to capture motion and sound. The video quality is excellent as well, so for taking short bits of video at a time, this additional feature is nice when you leave your video camera at home. As pictures are taken, you can add them to your Favorites file in the camera so that you won't accidentally delete them at another point in time. Then you can review photos as desired with this very user friendly Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera to see what you've taken so far.

Since the internal memory that comes with this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera is probably far from adequate for most people, I purchased a 1.0GB memory card separately. So when I set the photo size to 5.3 MP (recommended for printing photos on the dock), I can take up to 591 photos at a time to fit on the card. That's ALOT of pictures, even for me! Of course you can set the megapixels lower for even more photos, or set it to the full 6.1 MP if you want to make enlargements later on. To save on battery life, avoid turning the camera on and off during use. It has a battery saving mode that it goes into if the camera sets idle for a period of time, but it truly doesn't turn all the way off. Once you turn the camera on, the lens cover will automatically pop off and the flash comes out. The camera will click when the photo has been taken and will display the actual picture on the LCD display for a few seconds so you can see if the photo is acceptable or not. You can then delete it immediately and try again or it's automatically saved. There's also menu and share features that helps the user to customize the camera even more. The battery and memory card compartments are easy to gain access to as needed. My only gripe is: as a left handed person, this camera just like most others is obviously designed for right handed use. For you can actually hold this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera with your right palm and fingers cupped around the edge for one handed use while pressing the button to take the picture at the same time. It truly is an attractive camera in silver and black colors with the zoom lens in front taking up over half of the space there while the large LCD display in back is the biggest section there.


~~~Technical Specs~~~

I'm far from being a technical person, so those wanting to know the nitty gritty details of every nook and cranny pertaining to this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera should find it below (all taken directly from their website):

***Product Overview:
Item Weight 0.63 lbs.
General Warranty 1 year
***Digital Features:
Direct Printing Options
Pictbridge Movie Capability MPEG4 Self-Timer
Time 2 or 10 seconds
***Lens:
Focal Length Min - Max 38-380mm
Zoom Type Optical and digital
Magnification, Optical Zoom
10X Magnification, Digital Zoom
5X Aperture Opening f2.8 - 8 wide, F3.7 - 8 tele Focus,
***Framing & Exposure:
Shutter Type Automatic
Viewfinder Type Electronic viewfinder (EVF)
Shutter Speed automatic: 1/8 - 1/1700 sec; manual 8 - 1/1000 sec.
Exposure Automatic
Preview LCD Monitor Size 2 in.
***Image Capture:
Method Image sensor
Image Sensor Type CCD (charge-coupled device)
Image Sensor Size 1/2.5 in.
CCD Sensor Max. Pixel Count - Effective 6.1 million Sensor Max. Pixel Count - Gross - Recorded Pixel Number 2848 x 2144
Speed (Sensitivity) Auto, ISO 80 - 160, manual 80 - 100 - 200 - 400 - 800
***Image Recording & Storage:
Storage Type 32MB internal memory
Media Type SD card / MultiMediaCard Flash:
***Flash Type Built-in Flash Enhancements:
Flash Off Yes
Fill-In Flash Yes
Red Eye Reduction Yes
***Shoot Mode:
Landscape mode Yes
***Other Features:
Bundled Software Kodak EasyShare Compatibility
***Requirements:
Mac Compatibility Yes, (minimum requirements)
PC/Windows Compatibility Yes, (minimum requirements)
***Connectivity, Interfaces & Ports:
Primary Interface
USB 2.0 Outputs, A/V:
***Video Output Yes Installation Requirements:
Setup Fully assembled
Included Cables & Connectors:
Audio/Video Cable Yes
USB Cable Yes
***Controls, Overall:
Primary Location Top & back Primary Type Buttons
***Dimensions:
Height 3-1/10 in. Width 3-4/5 in. Depth 2-9/10 in.
***Power Type:
Rechargeable batteries Batteries:
***Number Included 1 Cell Type Lithium Included with Item:
AC Cord Yes
Wrist Strap Yes


~~~Overall Recommendation~~~

A great choice for beginners to intermediate photography enthusiasts, this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera couldn't be more simple to use. For not only does it have many user friendly features so that high quality prints can be created with just a press of a button, but it also offers a large zoom for those that like to take lots of close-up shots. It's nice to have another set of rechargeable batteries all charged and ready to go even though you can get well over 100 shots per charge on the battery bundle that comes included. There's not much worse than having dead batteries when you want to take pictures of important events and happenings! Print your photos as soon as you take them with a printer dock, or download them to your favorite digital photography developer either online or to a CD for local developing as desired. Set your camera to the mode that best describes the lighting and activity and you are truly ready to go. Zoom in and out with the zoom feature and use either the tiny viewfinder or large color LCD display to frame your subject(s) just so before shooting the pictures. Press the button and it's truly as simple as that to take high quality photos of all important things great and small. Since taking those football pictures mentioned above, I've since taken my camera to a party for dancing shots indoors as well as outdoor photos taken of my youngest son in his Halloween costume. We even took a few group and animal shots over Thanksgiving outside as the weather was excellent here! And I keep getting perfect shots time after time. In conclusion, I highly recommend this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera for the casual to frequent user. Your family photos have never looked better!! At least mine haven't. Good luck and happy picture taking :-)


***You'll need this Kodak Color Cartridge & Photo Paper Kit for printing lots of high quality digital photos at home.


***For more information regarding this Kodak Easy Share Z650 Digital Camera as well as many accessories including camera bags, etc., please check out their website online at:

www.kodak.com/go/easyshare


EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Rochester, NY 14650