Customer Reviews

Kodak Easyshare M893IS 8.1 MP Digital Camera with 3xOptical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I had been using an eight year old Kodak digital camera (DC280 2.0 megapixel) and felt it was time to upgrade!....I narrowed my choices down to the Olympus FE-340, the Canon SD1100-IS, and this one....I actually purchased the Olympus for the extra Optical Zoom that it has but was so disappointed in that camera's picture quality that I returned it and purchased this one....I would still like to see what the pictures look like on the Canon but the screen on that one is considerably smaller and I just don't care for the way the controls are situated....this camera is very easy to use, my old camera still takes sharper pictures I believe but this one produces great pictures for the most part, 99% of my usage is for online so I can't really utilize all of the megapixels, but a huge plus in my opinion is that the battery charges right off your computer's USB port as well as coming with an AC charger, and I love this particular purple color!

I purchased a Kodak M893 IS (Silver) about three weeks ago from KodakAuctions.com on eBay for about $70 refurbished at auction. I have previously owned three other Kodak digital cameras. All three still work great with no problems whatsoever. I bought my first one (DC3400 2.1MP 2x zoom with Compact Flash Card memory)) over seven years ago at Walmart on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) for $99. There were almost no other digital cameras on the market at that time and definitely nothing over 3MP(It retailed for over $200 at that time.) It is a real dinosaur that weighs a ton and uses 4 AA batteries, but it has never failed to take a perfect picture. I don't use it anymore because of its size and weight and its' little 1.5" LCD and the AA batteries (even though they were Ni-Cad rechargeables - it was a hassle because I had to remove them to recharge them.) My second was a DX6490 (4MP 10x zoom with SD card memory and 2" LCD) that I bought for over $400 at Sam's Club about four years ago. It took (and STILL DOES take) beautiful pictures as long as you allow the autofocus enough time to focus in on whatever you happen to be shooting. It has an electronic viewfinder (which is a little tiny LCD in the viewfinder eyelet). I didn't like this feature at first because the screen would black out for a second while it loaded the picture that you just shot to memory and then it would show you a picture of what you just took for a second after that, meaning that you had at least a two second delay between shots unless you used burst mode. It has no dedicated optical viewfinder, only the electronic one. In fact, that was the reason that I returned this camera within the 30 day return period that Sam's Club offers. I then shopped around and still decided that I liked the DX6490 better than anything else that was available at that time. I went back to Sam's to purchase it again and they were sold out - including the one that I had returned. So I had to wait two more weeks until they received more. I still love this camera and have no regrets about repurchasing it, although you can get a Z712 (7MP 12x zoom) which is very similar to the DX6490 for less than half the money that I paid. The Z712 is is mostly plastic, though, and the DX6490 is all rubber-coated metal(kind of heavy and bulky - but solidly built). It uses a proprietary Li-Ion battery that has exceptional shot life. Plus, it came with the charger dock included. It is so nice to just plop the camera down in its' dock and it automatically charges AND you can use the Easyshare feature to download pictures to your computer at the same time. I don't use the Easyshare feature very much because it sends your pictures to a separate Kodak file. I find that it is just as easy to just pull the SD card out and plug it into the SD slot on my computer which sends pictures immediately to my Windows "My Pictures" file. It is nice to know that I have the option to use the Easyshare whenever I might desire to do so. Then there is my third Kodak - the V550 (5MP 3x zoom with SD Card memory). This is really an exceptional camera. It has a dedicated optical viewfinder (a feature that is very rare nowadays in point and shoot cameras)and a 2.5" LCD screen. It has an all metal body and is also solidly built. The V550 is the best all around camera that I have ever owned. It is compact yet comfortable to hold and takes great pictures all the time. It even shows a little green hand in the corner of the LCD screen after taking a picture to let you know that it was perfectly focused. It will show a yellow hand if the picture could have been better and a red hand if the camera thinks that you should delete the picture. The V550 also came with a charger dock included. The whole package retailed for $379 and I purchased it on the internet through AMAZON.com for $225. My wife really loves this camera, too. We always take it with us on vacation and anywhere that we think we may want to take a few pictures. It uses a KLIC-7001 Li-Ion battery (which is the exact same battery that the M893 uses) and has a very acceptible battery life - although not quite as good as the KLIC-5001 that the DX6490 uses. I must have charged this battery hundreds of times on its' charger dock and it still works great every time. I did buy a spare KLIC-7001 battery on the net just to have for a spare to bring along on trips and such and I have only had to use it twice since I have owned the camera. And now, the purpose of this review: the M893 IS camera.(8MP 3x zoom with SD card). 8 megapixels really seems like overkill. Since my V550 takes excellent pictures at 5MP and I don't plan on printing anything larger than 8"x10" anytime soon, I adjusted the MPs down to 5 MP on this M893 temporarily. This saves a lot of memory space on both the SD card and on my computer. This camera is almost exactly the same size as the V550, although it weighs only about half as much because of the mostly plastic body. The LCD screen is 2.7" and takes up about half of the back of the body. I don't like the fact that it doesn't have a dedicated optical viewfinder, but I guess that this gigantic LCD kinda makes up for that. The main reason that I bought this camera (besides the ridiculously low price) is that it has OPTICAL image stabilization(IS) whereas most of the other Kodak M-Series cameras come with DIGITAL image stabilization, and the fact that it uses the same battery as my V550 so I can swap them if I so desire. It has "Face Recognition" focusing firmware and "Perfect Picture" firmware and the ability to edit the pictures right in the camera before you ever download them. It will also shoot in 16:9 widescreen mode if you choose and it also has a panoramic stitching feature. This is really a nice little camera. It does not come with a charger dock like the V550 or the DX6490, but I can plug their AC chargers (5V DC 2A) directly into the M893 and it charges right up. The only thing that I really don't like about this camera is: when I press the shutter button there is a brief delay (noticeably longer than the V550) before it takes the picture. I suppose this is because of the Facial Recognition focusing and the optical image stabilization. It also seems to take an extraordinarily long time to load the picture that you just took into memory, all the while showing you a picture of what you just shot on the LCD. I have found that I can avoid this delay by pressing lightly on the shutter button and it immediately moves into focus mode for the next shot, bypassing the time it takes to show you the last picture taken. I have read several reviews from people who seem to really dislike Kodak cameras. I personally have had great experiences with all of mine. I have found that digital cameras are not toys and that if you treat them with care and protect them from abuse, they will last a long time and provide many years of great service and memories. I always keep mine in protective cases and never carry them loosely in my pocket or throw them around carelessly. This doesn't mean that there won't be an occasional bad apple or lemon, but overall I feel that Kodak is as good or better than any other camera for the money. I have owned this M893 for almost a month and I am very satisfied with it. I only gave it a four* out of five* rating because it did not come with a charger dock included as did my V550 and my DX6490. I would give each of THEM 5 out of 5 stars. By the way, I do recommend purchasing the M893. Even refurbished cameras from Kodak come with a full one year warranty. Thank you for taking the time to read all the way through this. I know that it was kind of long.

Kodak EasyShare M893IS 8.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver) Worst camera I've ever owned. I have had 3 Kodak EasyShare cameras before and loved every one of them. I bought this because of that but have regretted that decision ever since. First the lens kept getting stuck either in or out and the camera wouldn't take any photos. I sent it back for service. Got it back with a note that said nothing was wrong with it. Same thing happened when we were on vacation, I got stuck using the throw away cameras. Sent it back again, they said they fixed it but it happened again. The third time they did replace the camera with a "reconditioned" one. It has worked for 3 months but now the lens is starting to stick again.

Along with it not working properly the pictures are just horrible. The action pictures are to dark if you are inside. IF you use the inside setting there is no action setting. Everything is blurry, low light and just plan bad quality.

Don't buy this camera if you have children and want to take quick and fast photos. Focus is extremely bad and very very slow. Image Stablization is a joke.

I think I'm giving up on kodak and going with a Nikon or Canon.

I bought this camera in August 2008. It NEVER worked great. The flash is so intense that I seldom, if EVER, got a picture of my 1 year old with her eyes open! I tried every adjustment on the camera and every setting possible. NOTHING made that situation better.

Then, to add salt to the matter, recently it just stopped working. The lense won't open, it only stays on for a split second, enough to make an irritating noise, then blinks off again. New batteries, fresh charges. Let's just say it is the WORSE camera I have every owned, and I've owned MANY. I wouldn't even give it one star, but apparently I have too just to leave feedback!

The price is a good indication of how worthless this camera is...last year it was going for $[...]...I see they are practically GIVING it away now! (It still would not be worth it.) DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA!!!!

I experienced the same problem with this camera as others have. After pushing the on/off button, the camera starts to come on and then dies, with the lens stuck in the middle. I am sending the defective camera back for a refund.

Needless to say, I am EXCEPTIONALLY DISAPPOINTED that Kodak would put their name on a piece of junk that doesn't even work when it is new. And since others are posting similar reviews, it seems to me like the product is flawed, and now I associate the Kodak name with JUNK!

VERY DISAPPOINTING!

I've had several Kodak Easy Share cameras. This is the worst camera we've ever owned. Got it for my daughter for Christmas and she didn't have it 24 hours before the lens got stuck - just like others are saying here. The lens goes out and freezes. When we try to turn it on, the screen flashes, on, off, on, off. Put brand new batteries in and it still won't work.

It's going back 1st thing tomorrow and we won't be buying another Kodak.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS CAMERA, ITS SMALL, PRETTY, EASY TO USE, WITH GREAT QUALITY!!! THE BATTERY LIFE LASTS FOR MONTHS, LITERALLY!!! I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANY OTHER CAMERA!!!

My wife and I wanted to replace our aged Sony 3.2 MP camera. We were after something with good features, nice picture quality, and a large lcd for viewing and picture-taking. This camera did have all that and, at the time, got pretty decent reviews. We purchased ours and were quite pleased with it initially. Then it began to go from bad to worse:

1. My wife complained the pictures were blurry initially. I didn't have this problem, but believe it was due to a relatively long delay between pressing the button and taking the picture. An annoyance and not a concern if you use a steady hand.

2. If you are taking pictures indoors they'll be ok... just ok. However, the low light picture quality is not very good at all.

3. The final straw is quite common if you search the web: The camera won't turn on and won't charge. You try to turn the camera on and it will open the lens then beep and turn off. Attaching the camera to the charger (USB cable to a power cube or computer), the charging light comes on but stays steady green indicating a full charge. After several minutes, it goes off. That's it. There are many complaints about this and Kodak's only suggestion is you send it to them for service: at the cost of $88 plus shipping.

So, we're now out close to $200 and back to using our trusty Sony. It's a shame since the camera did have a nice display (as we wanted) and (I thought) the USB charging would be a very handy feature.

Buy a different camera. I say that for a few reasons...

1: This camera takes poor pictures indoors or in lower lighting and the camera has trouble focusing for a lot of the picutres indoors. Not optimal if you are taking pictures of your kids.

2: the battery life is extremely short, I am VERY unimpressed. The design of the wall charger is abysmal.

3: The controls can be difficult if you have large fingers.

4: After 6 months the lens became stuck out. Not amount of charging or coaxing will solve the problem.

I've had two other Kodak Easyshare cameras in the past and loved them both, which was why I chose this camera over the similar cannon model. If I could do it over, I'd buy the cannon.

Great small, lightweight and easy to operate digital camera. I am very happy with the video capacity which allows me to make home movies of my family and watch them on my computer.