Customer Reviews

Kodak Easyshare Z650 6 MP Digital Camera with 10xOptical Zoom and Easyshare Printer Dock (Series 3)

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Good value when bought thru Amazon. The camera is very small, but full featured. Full auto still shots produce great photos, yet if you prefer, it allows aperture/shutter speed priority for more control. The buttons, switches and controls are placed where they are easy to find without looking and the on-screen display lets you see what you will get. I recommend this camera.

I just purchased the Kodak z650 and have taken a number of pictures. It's easy to use and learn all the functions. Before buying this camera I looked at a number of cameras. I picked this one because of cost, zoom, and mega pixels. I looked at the Kodak z740 which is being replaced by this model and for a few more dollars you can get this model which takes better quality pictures and has the histogram feature.

A read reviews and a number of people complained about having the zoom without image stabilization. Well, when I took pictures at full zoom, even using the digital zoom, the picture was shaky in the view finder but came out clear. The 10x zoom is very nice even without image stabilization.

The price of this camera for the features is incredible. That is why I picked this camera over others. Read the reviews. This camera gets good reviews, even from the professionals. For the price you won't go wrong.

I am very pleased with this camera. I bought it in hopes of replacing the Canon Sure shot that I had that took blurry pictures. This camera is the nicest digital camera I have seen. It is below a SLR digital, when in reality, it takes about the same kinds of photos as an SLR digital. If you are a professional photographer, you could do wonders with this camera and get awesome results. The LCD screen will show up fuzzy when viewing the image..BUT, once you take the photo, it comes out crystal clear. I am very much pleased with the performance of this camera. When I figure out how to work the image sharing on Amazon, I will show you some sample images from some of the modes the camera offers. I think anyone who buys this camera, and reads about all of the features and knows how to work it properly will love it. Like anything, you need to read instructions to see how it works, what does what, etc. From each mode I tried, this camera took a nice clear shot with amazing detail. Anyone who buys this camera will not be disapointed. It is a quality item. Also, very light weight and small. Great camera with a very affordable price.

This is my second Kodak digital camera and like my old one I just love it. Flat out it takes some of the best pictures I've seen or taken for that matter. It's rich in features. From almost full manual PASM control to automatic point and shoot to multiple 'scene' settings for differing situations. Power up to first picture is quite quick. Shutter lag is quite small (no more missing those action shots!). The 10x optical zoom does lack stabilization but in good light and with a good shooting stance you won't generate much image shake. Macro photography is, as I've experienced in the past with my CX4230, exceptional although using the flash for extreme close-up work can generate shadows on the image due to the location of the flash unit. Natural light and no flash eliminate this problem. That all being said I do have some complaints; The door covering the memory card slot feels flimsy and could easily be damaged or broken. The 'joystick' used for navigating the menus is small and hard to use for fumble fingered guys like me. It takes some getting used to and can slow you down changing modes or settings if you're in a hurry. The camera seems to have some trouble getting focus in low light (I like to shoot at the beach at sunrise) and the extremely bright and annoying green 'low light assist' lamp cannot be turned off even though the Kodak FAQ page for the Z650 says it can be. All in all though, this is a great camera! It's got some heft to it so it feels like a real camera and not a tourist toy. It comes with a (plastic) 55mm adapter which allows you to fit any number of filters to the camera, though the included lens cap will not attach to a standard 55mm filter. Speaking of the lens cap, it's the one true disappointment with this camera, it does not stay on very well at all. The slightest tap and it will fall off. This can be somewhat solved by leaving the 55mm adapter on the camera as the cap fits that much better. I highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for an ultra-zoom model for a good price. You can't go wrong here.

When you're looking at a camera, you rarely read much detail about the software. The manufacturers only focus on the camera details. While this a great camera, the software and limitations of the proprietary Easy Share program make uploading your pictures a terrible experience. If you are happy with the Easy Share software, this camera will work fine for you. However, if you are like me and prefer to use advanced photo editing programs, you will despise this camera. Yes, it comes with a USB connection. But Kodak has limited you so that ONLY the Easy Share software recognizes the camera to transfer pictures. You cannot access the camera or pictures through My Computer, Windows Explorer, or any other photo software. You MUST use the Easy Share program to transfer pictures, and then they go into Kodak "albums" in the software. I did not believe this could possibly be true with a USB connection, but after spending 20 minutes on the phone with Kodak support, I was assured it was designed this way. The camera will not be recognized by Windows XP or anything other than the Kodak Easy Share software. Besides this being annoying, it is problematic if your software crashes and you have no other means to get your photos off your camera.

It is cumbersome to continually switch the photo destination to this or that folder if you choose to organize them differently. Kodak always wants to create a new folder within a folder. It's truly awful. The software also does not display the photo name, size, date taken, etc. You can resize only by printed size (4x6, etc) as opposed to pixels. For many users the software will be fine, but if you are accustomed to advanced photo editing, organizing, and so on, you will be severely limited.

I am debating between returning my camera because of the software issues, or buying an SD card reader to read my pictures independent of Kodak's software.

Just got the camera. I used to own Canon S70, which is better in everything besides the zoom. Unfortunately, my old canon was stolen, so I had to look for a temporary replacement, until I can afford a nicer one. Well, my search stopped at this Kodak. I got it for $200 only, which is great.
Everything works great so far. I cannot comment on the life of batteries, but I bought 4 recharchable ones and a recharger, so I doubt I would ever run out of power. I also got a 512M card, as the medium picture size is around 2-2.5M each.
Zoom works fine. I would say it's great for such camera. Of course you cannot zoom fully and expect that leaves on a tree would be in perfect focus, but it takes great pics in full zoom, so if you question that capability, disregard all negative feedback on this issue.
It takes pics in nice color. I would say 'full' color. Blue is blue and green is green. I've heard that Kodaks were good in this, so i can only confirm that rumor now.
As for the rest of functions, I have not had enough time yet to experiment with everything, as the school has already started for me, so I only have so much each day to devote to my new toy.
I hope I'll have time in a week or so to post more comments on other features, but to all who are considering this camera, I would say this:
it's not too small, but fits in one hand nicely,
it's 6M pixel, so takes nice resolution pics, which are below 3M each
it has nice zoom
it takes nice color

So, for this camera with its price, I gave it 5 stars. If you are looking for superior performance or quality, look at cameras that start at $700 or $800 - you would not find anything in this price range that would satisfy your need. (I am looking into buying a $800 camera myself, so I've done a lot of research trying to get a nicer bargain with a cheaper camera and found out that there is too much of a gap between any 'cheap' camera and what I really want).
Hope I could be helpful

Excellent camera. Love it. Too good picture quality. Zoom is excellent but only problem is that there is no Zoom in movie mode. so once you start recording, you cant change zoom. also it supports upto 1 GB SD card only. otherwise great camera

This purchase was to replace a 3.1 MP Kodak EasyShare camera bought in 2001. I have been extremely pleased with its performance. I needed more zoom capacity, and I've got it! I can crop my photos and still print poster sized prints from them with clarity. It is easy to use and sized perfectly for your hands.

Here are some of the major problems with the EasyShare z650 for me:

Like other people have mentioned, if your hand accidentally grazes the lens cover, it's going to pop off.

I needed a camera with a better zoom capacity because I take a lot of outdoor wildlife shots. However, I never really use the full 10x zoom because there's no image stabilization. The lack of stabilization is really apparent when you're zoomed far out. It's sort of tricky to hold the camera perfectly still and not end up with a blurry print.

And finally, I'm taking this camera with me everywhere which is a bit of a problem because it's huge! There is no way to subtlety bring this thing anywhere.

With all that said though, I love my camera. I've taken some of the best shots of my life with it. This weekend, I'm off to Yellowstone and practically drooling to capture animals, geysers, etc. with my 650. When using the zoom, you just need to be conscientious of stabilization and brace your arms against your side to hold the camera perfectly still.

This camera's also great for someone who wants to improve their photo quality but doesn't want a manual camera. There is an auto function for picture taking (will automatically adjust flash, etc.) but there's a host of other options as well. The two I've used most often are `museum' which keeps the flash and sound off and `night portrait' which adjusts for taking close-up photos at night.

Overall, I'd recommend this camera...but be aware of the short failings.

This was a birthday gift I bought for myself, and I have been very happy with it! My only complaint is that my computer system is not that old, and I was unable to install the accompanying software because I don't have Windows 2000 or higher. Luckily, I had already installed an older version of EasyShare software, and that works just fine. I have used the camera to take fabulous shots of my 10 year old playing soccer (10x zoom works great for this!) and also of my newborn. Both types of pictures turn out great! Would recommend this camera to anyone for general picture-taking.