Bought a new digital camera: Kodak z760Hmm Reviews, gadgets, photoshop it — by TDavid @ 9:57 am PST
 (1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ... |
I probably should have done some comparison shopping and asked folks first before buying the Kodak z760, but when it comes to pictures Kodak is a good name.
As for their camera quality? Didn’t have a clue and no, the picture above was taken with our older camera, not the new one. The price seemed to be pretty good: $198 with the docking station and for an extra $20 be picked up an additional lithium batter ($50 normally).
After the fact and while charging, I decided to do some checking on the z760 and found this review from a customer who paid $298.00 for just the camera and uses the words: “BUY THIS CAMERA!!!”
I did some Googling and found that this camera came out in May 2005 and was selling for $449 USD then. Seems like we maybe be scored a good Black Friday deal.
I’m just a camera rookie, at best
This is our third dedicated digital camera purchase. Our first was a Casio which we used for a couple years, then we bought the HP 315 photosmart a couple years ago for $400 which has served us well but is definitely showing its age. This Black Friday morning WalMart was running an enticing deal: $88 for a 4.1 megapixel camera so we went down there. Of course, they were sold out by the time we got there so we looked around for other deals running. The Kodak seemed compelling, so off to the register we went.
After those first three hours
After unpacking the camera and charging for three hours I had our weekly radio show to host, so I wasn’t able to start shooting any pictures. I did open up the camera instruction manual and discussed on the show the various camera modes with other webmasters. Fortunately for me, the audience had a few people who knew much more about photography than I.
We went through things like: shutter speed, ISO speed, apeture, back and front lighting, scenes and more. All things I’m sure most seasoned photographers already understand very well. I admitted that I’ve been primarily a point, shoot and process in Photoshop guy. It occured to me after spending some time going back and forth with listeners in the chatroom that it was vastly more practical to start with a quality source photograph rather than try to massage a lousy one in Photoshop.
Love those closeups
One of the scene (SCN) modes is close-up allowing pictures as close as two inches. I decided to take a picture of one of the studio phones. Check it out here (opens in a new window). Jowl posted this over at Webmaster Cookbook blog and also a picture of himself cartoon-style:
This was created with the Kodak EasyShare software (”fun things” plugin) and compressing and filtering using Photoshop. Here is a few more photos I took in various lighting situations and camera modes:
Check out the dust and smudges shown on the hinge. And now look at my glasses that need cleaning in this next shot:
Da plane, da plane!
Transferring pictures from the camera dock
This couldn’t be easier, you just put the camera on the dock and press a button. No fooling around with USB cables. The accompanying EasyShare software organizes the pictures by date/time in albums that you can view and then drag to other folders and modify.
I like this camera not only for the price but for the number of features. Yes, I have much to learn, but this has given me new energy in trying to become a better photographer which hopefully translates into better pictures on this blog. That is, if we don’t overcompress them for the web, anyway. It has also given me some new photography-related ideas. Where those ideas go, if anywhere, I’ll write about in the future.
The Kodak z760 camera is easy to use and yet has enough powerful features so that skilled photographers can take good quality pictures. Grade: A.
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Kodak EasyShare Z760 User Review
Kodak EasyShare Z760 User Review
Trackback by Digital Camera Tracker — November 26, 2005 @ 2:24 pm PST
[…] Any readers who are digital camera skilled and can tell me how I’d take a closeup shot of a spider that actually doesn’t look like crap? I’ve taken a few pictures of inantimate objects up close that haven’t turned out too bad, but clearly I need to head back to the Kodak EasyShare z760 docs for best settings for closeups. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Spider shoulder voyeur — March 26, 2006 @ 12:11 am PST
HI!
read your experience with the kodak z760 and would like to ask if you’re still happy with it? I bought it on sale at walmart and I really dissapointed with the quality. All the photos seem dark and shadowy. I am trying to sell it on ebay or trade it in or something. I’ve read all of KOdaks info and nothign works.
Comment by Lisa — April 6, 2006 @ 11:50 pm PST
How in the hell did you get the easyshare software to work. Doesnt work at all and looking on the net, I am not the only one having installation problems.
Comment by Steve m — September 7, 2006 @ 12:50 am PST
Hi Steve - didn’t have any trouble installing the Easyshare software here. What kind of install problems are you having?
Comment by TDavid — September 7, 2006 @ 5:42 am PST
my husband works for walmart…SOOOOOOOOOOO…………sometimes buyer beware of those Black Friday deals. they are a limited special buy and when they are gone they are gone FOREVER. I need to replace my Z760 we bought at Walmart on black friday and Wal Mart does NOT carry this model. In fact I cannot find it anywhere. It is my daughter’s camera and was struck by a power surge and was fried and since it is still under warranty it really is not covered for this. GO FIGURE….any one who can help let me know thank you….
Comment by dyan — September 13, 2006 @ 5:44 pm PST
I’m a computer tech for several schools and I’ve got to say the Kodak Easyshare software might be good, but the whole downloading and installation process absolutely SUCKS! The older CDs that shipped with the cameras have problems working with XPsp2, and whenever I go to Kodak’s site to try and download updated drivers or updated EasyShare software, it always errors out with some 1624×17x1956089094x error. Nor can you download the full package, you can only download a tiny utility that actually starts to download the full installer for you. So each time you run the program, you have to download the software from the internet again. If you have a slow internet connection, that sucks! Our schools have several makes and models of digital cameras and I’ve got to say I’ve never had so many problems with them as I have with the Kodak lineup. It’s gone to the point that I never recommend these cameras anymore.
Comment by John Smith — September 22, 2006 @ 11:49 am PST
Help, just purchased a C703 for my wife, tried to install software on my computer and it went nuts. Starts up and shuts down and I cannot seem to get it to slow down long enough to remove installation software. Tried contacting Kodak on support website without any luck. Tried to open domstic phone number line with same results. Anybody else having this problem? suggestions?
Thanks Chip
Comment by Chip Timmons — December 23, 2006 @ 3:30 pm PST
I have a C643. The camera is wonderful. Aside low light issues I don’t have a complaint about it. The action is crisp, the picture quality is phenominal. Even the movies are outstanding.
If I had one criticism it’s that the camera’s movie format is MPEGIV, which requires Apple’s QuickTime (which I refer to as “Slow Time”). I yanked that abomination and use a substitute Quicktime which isn’t bloat ware. Quicktime is a reminder to the rest of us of why we don’t buy MacIntosh computers.
The EasyShare software was written by a team of Solipsists or they were directed by a committee of solipsists. I keep hoping it’s the latter, because no self respecting windows fluent app coder would write such crap.
They seem to have operated under the delusion that all Kodak customers have bleeding edge speed and stability. I also think that they imagine that you’ll only use your system to service your camera. I can’t see any other reason for the bloated, resource hogging and clumsy interface and action of this “software”. If I could change one thing about my camera, and only one thing, I’d eliminate this “convenience”.
Easyshare is not convenient, it’s not easy to use, and I’d only share it with people I don’t like.
The application INSISTS on loading in the app bar, which takes three to four minutes. It then bogarts your USB port. Stick in a memory stick and EasyShare goes into action whether you like it or not. Oh, did I mention that my Windows 2000 with 256Mb of Ram, forty gigs of disk and 1.8 Gig AMD visibly SLOWS DOWN when I leave the app on the app bar?
The interface is not standard Windows either - it’s some odd screen which reminds me of the old fashioned interfaces before Windows became popular. I have trouble navigating it and I resent how it “takes things in hand”.
I’d have felt better if the blasted thing could have downloaded my pictures and then gracefully asked me what I wanted to do. I am perfectly capable of organizing my photos, but NOO….
I tried living without it, and discovered that I could not download my photos. I cannot enforce a “transfer only”. Like it or not I’m going to do things Kodak’s way. At least until I find a workaround, or buy a new camera from a company which doesn’t treat me like a Luddite.
I thought this evening I’d found an answer. The’s answer was a “driver”, which turned out to be… Easyshare!
The pity is…. it’s a fine camera. Just wish that there was a better way to interface with my system.
Gene
Comment by Gene — May 13, 2007 @ 5:06 pm PST
got Z760 from my inlaws, nice pixz for the first 20 shots since it came. then batery icon showed so i charged up using doc 3 for 4 hours. after charging camera hungs, upon turn on it displayed kodak easyshare logo then crossed a horizontal line across the LCD screen then screen is somewhat off but still i can see kodak logo with the line on it.
docked it on doc 3, switched on and presto it worked fine!
undocked it and plug ac adapter on camera, and selecta it also worked pretty good. even took a video of kidz it was ok except for the wires plugged on the wall socket that limits potability.
and then this CAME: upon unplugging from wall socket, with fresh charged bateries the cam went off. so mode dial to off then back to auto. wala it hanged up again!!!!!!! until so many tries it stayed hung up!!!!!!
it only works either docked on dock 3 or with ac adapter plugged.
ANY GOOD HEARTED SAMARITAN? PLEASE RESCUE ME FROM THIS UPBEATING………
THANKS AND GOD BLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by wyndl — November 2, 2007 @ 8:05 pm PST
We have two Kodak digital cameras, and also purchased the EasyShare dock system. At first, the printer dock worked fine, but we soon started having significant problems. For example, we would buy a replacement cartridge and paper kit which was supposed to print out 20 or 40 photo prints, and the cartridge would run out after 3 or 4 prints. When we contacted Kodak customer service, they acted as if we were scamming them, and asked us to ship receipts, unused paper, etc. before they would take any action. Quite frankly, I’m too busy to mess with all of that stuff, so we just ate the cost, bought a new cartridge, and then had the same thing happen again! I would REALLY caution people to think twice about the printer dock. While I like the cameras, Kodak has a real defect in the dock product, and their customer service people should be ashamed of themselves for the lack of assistance with the problems that we had. A product that crashes after a few months of operation is hardly a bargain, and certainly has caused more frustration and inconvenience than it is worth. My next home printer system WILL NOT be a Kodak product!
Comment by David — February 3, 2008 @ 10:18 am PST
The Kodak EasyShare software SUCKS and is irritating at the least. The software
tries to install itself from every Kodak kiosk CD created and hopefully that will be enough to turn consumers to other methods of creating picture CD’s. There, I feel better now.
Comment by Edward A. Byrnes — March 26, 2008 @ 5:25 am PST
@ everyone who is wondering how to do anything with this camera
my advice is to get another (better) camera thats not a 4.1 flaming pile of shit.
Comment by anonymous — April 8, 2008 @ 3:54 pm PST
I purchased this Z760 model in December 2005 along with the docking station and could not be more pleased with it. In my opinion the pictures have always come out great and the camera is very user friendly. I download many pictures through the computer and send them to my family and friends. So far, so good.
Comment by Margaret — June 26, 2008 @ 11:20 am PST