Digital Photo Frame

Good product. Fast delivery. Bought as a gift and the recipient is very pleased with it. No problems.

Handy little cam

After a few initial teething problems I am finally happy with my litte red video camera.

First comment, first and formost is that the Kodak customer services is dreadful, which is a shame for such a big company. I had to search long and hard for a help number which was an 0870 number, only to be on hold for ages, so I finally gave up after managing, eventually, to get through to their online 24/7 chat services.

My initial problem was that the camera kept on turning itself off of its own accord. This is not a battery related problem, as someone else has suggested, but is actually to do with the SD card you use. The SD card you use needs to be fully formatted or brand new, because any corruption on it will cause the camera to switch off by itself, so as not to corrupt the cameras own firmware.

The next issue was that I was getting a rather annoying high pitch buzzing noise on playback of my recordings, this is a known problem that Kodak are aware of and Kodak have issued a firmware update to solve this. The firmware update can be found online, on the Kodak website and since installing the firmware update it has improved the zoom, the ability to record in dim light and has removed the high pitch buzzing noise on playback. I recommend people update the firmware asap on getting this camera.

The firmware update is simple to do by following the online instructions, however, the online instructions at Kodak fail to mention that you need to name the folder for the update as"system" before it will work in your mini cam. I was told to do this during the online chat to a Kodak customer services representative. Hopefully I have just saved you the trouble of needing to contact them yourself!

So, with the initial problems fixed, this turns out to be a very nifty little camera for its price. The picture quality is very good in HD, but you don't get as much recording time using HD, as you may expect. I am happy to use VGA which gives the extra recording time, but the quality is a little grainier.

The microphone is great and picks up sound very well, even picks up if you move your hands about on the camera, so its very sensitive... so be careful or you end up with scuffling sounds as well as the sounds you wanted to hear (been there done that).

I have read comments about the camera not working well when unstable or moved quickly, but even though I have only had mine as a handheld video camera (no tripod), I haven't really had a problem with instability and I don't particularly have the steadiest of hands. So all I can say about this is that as long as you use it sensibly and as steadily as able, then you shouldn't have to many problems (I don't imagine many people needing to run about whilst recording with one?).

Comes supplied with 1x1/2 metre HDMI cable, 1x composite cable, 1x USB cable, 2x AA Kodak rechargable batteries and 1x Kodak battery charger, 1x spare/patterned cover (to swap from plain to patterned design, as per own choice), Basic quick start instructions only (would have preferred more comprehensive instructions), 1x black wrist strap and 1x suede/lint free carry bag (ok I guess for an extra freebie, but will buy my own hardcover case for protection).

It would have been nice if it had an SD card included, but that is probably wishful thinking really!

There are a few less flattering comments here about this mini video camera, but I would in all sincereity say that they are a little unfair... on the whole, for its current price of £45, you really couldn't get anything better than this and it is actually well worth its price. I have chosen the red camera and it is a lovely shade of metalic red, but is also available in blue, yellow, black and pink.

I am very pleased with this little camera and I give it 4 stars due to the initial set up problems, but now those are sorted I can't fault this impressive little camera.

Sports camera

fantastic piece of kit. is waterproof as promises, i had it in the pool every day under water and no problems at all. great quality pics and vid. only issues are slow shutter spead so not capturing moving action on pics very well and needs a flash for the camera. i would still recommend it to you though. easy sofware for facebook uploads.

+ another 5 stars for Kodak customer service

Great pocket video cam. Macro function, big screen, SD card, cheap rechargeable batteries, very good quality, external sound input, easy download....the list is exhaustive. I take pro videos with my Canon 7D and have successfully used this cam for footage where I won't risk the larger (12x more expensive) camera such as mounting it to the handle bars of my mountain bike. Great footage !

Since new the tiny joystick hasn't worked properly. This only annoyed me when the 16GB Sd card was pretty full and I could not easily go back. A quick email to Kodak and, though I had bought the camera in the UK, they quickly despatched a UPS courier to pick up the camera from my house in Brussels and delivered it back fixed 12 days later. No effort on my part at all and I was kept informed of progress all the way.

THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE I have ever experienced. If there was a 10 star rating I'd give it.

Very good for the price

The other reviews I read here convinced me to buy one for my son who was going on a school trip to the Isle of Wight. In my particular case the free silicone cover played a decisive role apart from the price and the reviews. It feels like a very sturdy design and of sufficient quality to take a beating from children.
As for the silicone cover one silly thing was that there was no hole for the carrying strap to go through (there are holes for everything else), so I had to carefully make one myself
One thing Kodak could improve upon was to add imagine stabilization to the HD recordings (without increase in the price, of course). If like in my case if you are buying this to give to your children don't expect to make much sense of the videos as the camera doesn't handle fast movement or shaking very well. The photos taken are good but for today's standards are of rather small resolution, the equiv. of a 3MP camera.
There was a firmware upgrade available that improved sound recording, so maybe image stabilization would be possible to achieve with a software upgrade as well, if only Kodak was willing to improve on that aspect of the device. In that case I'd have given it a 5 rather than a 4 star rating.
All in all, it survived my son's school trip, so it's good.

Handy, user-friendly very good quality cam

After reading a couple of both good and bad reviews about this camera I finally decided to buy it and have a go at it myself. I would describe myself as a normal user, who just wanted something easy, reliable and effective that would do the job of a camera/videocamera I could take anywhere. Well I would say this little device is perfect for the job.

Menus are easy to navigate, easy to setup. It jumps quickly into action as within 1 or 2 secs the camera is ready to make a movie or take a picture.

The picture quality is very good. The movie quality is superb - quite evident once you plug it into a big screen (in 1080p mode for instance).

The waterproof and casing is a very nice extra if you plan to take it outdoors (which YOU WILL). Wish there was a strap/purse thing to allow me to carry it on my chest whilst riding a bike or something that requires both hands...

With a 16Gb SDCard you can have around 3h recording time in 1080p mode and the battery seems to live long enough to allow it.

The only thing that did not impress me much was the time it takes to navigate between menus (like when you want to select a specific movie in playback mode). It does not take forever but you kinda wish it was more responsive.

I would give 4/5 stars to the hardware + software and 5/5 for the money-value.

Hope this helped!

Handy, user-friendly very good quality cam

After reading a couple of both good and bad reviews about this camera I finally decided to buy it and have a go at it myself. I would describe myself as a normal user, who just wanted something easy, reliable and effective that would do the job of a camera/videocamera I could take anywhere. Well I would say this little device is perfect for the job.

Menus are easy to navigate, easy to setup. It jumps quickly into action as within 1 or 2 secs the camera is ready to make a movie or take a picture.

The picture quality is very good. The movie quality is superb - quite evident once you plug it into a big screen (in 1080p mode for instance).

The waterproof and casing is a very nice extra if you plan to take it outdoors (which YOU WILL). Wish there was a strap/purse thing to allow me to carry it on my chest whilst riding a bike or something that requires both hands...

With a 16Gb SDCard you can have around 3h recording time in 1080p mode and the battery seems to live long enough to allow it.

The only thing that did not impress me much was the time it takes to navigate between menus (like when you want to select a specific movie in playback mode). It does not take forever but you kinda wish it was more responsive.

I would give 4/5 stars to the hardware + software and 5/5 for the money-value.

Hope this helped!

Wouldn't have been more surprised if I had seen rocking horse droppings!

Quick story. I was asked if I rated Kodak digital cameras. I said nope, get one of the bigger names. That person ignored my advice since she liked the redish colour of the camera - some great reason to buy a camera I know. Well I eat my words. It was reduced in price and it is excellent value for money. over 12 meg images, raw, jpeg, video and so easy to use. One other thing the panoramic facility is excellent. Its so easy to use.

I see that another reviewer moans about not being able to see the display in sunlight - well thats a problem with most cameras but for this price I am not going to worry. Now I am about to buy a Leica X1 or should I try the Kodak? Just kidding - Leica for me very day but I am knocked out on the value of this excellent Kodak camera.

5 stars give but one thing that does irritate me - why no sd card with the camera. Its like buying a torch without batteries. Luckily my friend realised that there was no sd card in it and bought one from Boots (Now come one would you wait 24 hours for Amazon to deliver at a lower price?)

Nice But!!!

Nice camera, good for personal uses but sometime pictures can be dull if there is no adequate light around the object, also note it doesn't come with a case.

Kodak Easy Share M530

I lost my old Kodak Easy Share camera and decided on this one as a replacement. It is very compact and easy to use and with higher mega-pixels.

The price at Amazon was very competitive and I think this camera is good value for the money.

Only criticism is that the memory card was a bit difficult to insert but it now works OK.

Kayaking on the Loire

We'd just bought an inflatable kayak as we live near the Loire and Allier rivers in France. We bought the camera to take action videos whilst on the rivers. The camera is excellent when static but quite shaky when walking. Faster action seems to balance things out. HD quality on a camera for just over £100 (best price Amazon-again!). Doesn't work so well at dusk or night time as it becomes very grainy due to lack of light.

It's been dunked a few times without any problems. It also had a tripod mount so I can attach it to my motorbike.
It's very easy to use, lightweight, aesthetic...and purple!

Value for money

Certainly value for money. Easy to configure and use. I learnt my six year old granddaughter to operate in fifteen minutes.Small,compact and easily carried. Photos easily transferred via usb cable or card reader. This is an ideal for first time digital camera user.
Best regards
Snuffy Arrod

Attractively priced straightforward snapper that takes very good pictures.

Apologies for starting this review on a negative but you would think that someone who can produce a 14MP camera would have thought of a better way of affixing the wrist strap than trying to thread it manually through a tiny hole - it really was frustrating or just maybe my lack of dexterity and patience was exposed .
Anyway the camera itself is compact and easy to use which is just as well where I am concerned. Anyone wanting in-depth technical detail & jargon better bail out of this review right now cos it ain't going to happen but I will attempt to give some useful information .
Having fiddled with that accursed wrist strap it's a relatively simple thing to assemble the charger , plug in and within an hour the camera is fully charged and you are ready to commence snapping if I may use photographic lingo. Actually taking photo's is a doddle with the"smart capture technology" which"
automatically sets camera settings including exposure, focus and ISO for clear, sharp pictures even in low light and challenging situations; and Intelligent image processing--reduces noise and clears up dark shadows for vibrant, crisp details and true-to-life colors.".What this effectively means is it frames the scene in an green perimeter on the viewfinder to give the taker a firm idea of what will be in the final picture and that it takes great pictures which indeed it does very well. The final pictures are truly stunning and without any fiddling or fussing with settings. Which may or may not put some people off depending how seriously autonomous they wish to be when taking photo`s.
There is 64MB of internal memory built, which is a tad miserly , but there's ample support for SD and SDHC memory cards. It also records HD videos at 720p resolution which is not too bad and has a 28mm wide angle lens unit from Schneider-Kreuznach optics which is presumably impressive .
It is easy to loads the camera's software onto your computer- you do not even have to load a disc just connect using a USB. The one load button for social networking sites is something I am about as likely to use as a wombat diviner so I cannot comment on how useful this is or how well it works When first connected to our computer the software gives you the option to add loads of logging info for all the networking sites- faceache & flicker etc .I passed on this option but I am clearly in the minority when it comes to this sort of thing so the more socially adept should find this option valuable
Basically the M580 is setting out to be a straightforward snapper and there is nothing wrong with that. It feels a little cheap & plasticky and it's on screen interface is rather clumsy but what it undoubtedly sets out to do it does very well. Serious photographers will find this too lightweight , disposable and simplistic but for the rest of us it's an option well worth considering.Just be prepared to wrestle with the strap .

Kodak Litium-ion Klic-7004 battery.

This is a much needed item as the power consumption of the Kodak Playsport camera is very high, this item is the same spec as the battery supplied with the video camera, you will need this to prevent yourself being caught out, highly recommended.Kodak Lithium-ion KLIC Battery For V1253/V1233/V1273/V1073

All good

KODAK camera battery - good genuine battery in original packing. Exactly as advertised. Delivered quickly.
............. Shame it's my camera that's not working!

Superb compact camera

Lets be realistic, you aren't going to get the same video quality or options as you would with a dedicated HDD HD camcorder in this little gem, but you still get some very impressive.

I bought the zi8 to replace my dedicated HDD Standard Defintion camcorder because it offered better video quality, while offering equal storage capacity at 32gb, equal battery life and also being compact enough to easily slip into my pocket (along side an iphone too) and still be discrete.

One small issue you will find here is that you don't have an optical zoom (like a dedicated camcorder would), but the digital zoom provided is pretty decent and with the latest firmware the shakeyness is acceptable.

You also won't get a wide range of options in the zi8, like you would on a dedicated camcorder. You get what you need though. Four settings for video quality (1080p, 740p and VGA quality) and the option to take photos. You get an optiont to playback videos and delete videos. You have the ability to zoom in and out. Not a lot, but its all you need for an on-the-fly camcorder.

The process of putting videos onto a PC is sooo simply. You either plug the camcorder in via the USB, or remove the memory card and slot that into your PC. Then it opens like an extra storage device and you can drag and drop the videos. Simple!

You also get cables for HDMI and VGA, so you can play the videos back into a CD burner and record them to CD if you wish. Couldnt be easier.

The camera also has macro and long distance focusing, which is changed by just flicking a switch back and forth ontop. Nothing complex there and it works a charm.

The battery life is around 1 1/2 to 2 hours, which is ok. If you need longer you can buy extra, replaceble batteries and swap them over. So no big issue there either.

You will however need to buy a memory card, because the camera has virtually NO internal memory. But a 32GB card isnt that expensive at around £40 and it gives you space for HOURS of 1080p footage.

The bottom line is that if you wan't a camcorder which offers HD quality footage, but with all the nice extras like optical zoom, perfect stabilisation, colour and focus options, then get an expensive dedicated camcorder.

But if you want a compact camcorder which offers HD quality footage, ease of use and minimilist options, then this will do you nicely.

The price on this is a great deal for what you get. I have no issues with it.

+ another 5 stars for Kodak customer service

Great pocket video cam. Macro function, big screen, SD card, cheap rechargeable batteries, very good quality, external sound input, easy download....the list is exhaustive. I take pro videos with my Canon 7D and have successfully used this cam for footage where I won't risk the larger (12x more expensive) camera such as mounting it to the handle bars of my mountain bike. Great footage !

Since new the tiny joystick hasn't worked properly. This only annoyed me when the 16GB Sd card was pretty full and I could not easily go back. A quick email to Kodak and, though I had bought the camera in the UK, they quickly despatched a UPS courier to pick up the camera from my house in Brussels and delivered it back fixed 12 days later. No effort on my part at all and I was kept informed of progress all the way.

THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE I have ever experienced. If there was a 10 star rating I'd give it.

A few software updates away from perfect

This photo frame seems to be exactly what I was looking for in terms of cloud computing. With a lot of products and services being moved to the cloud (data servers storing data remotely) it seemed the natural progression for digital media such as music, film and now photos have followed the same path.

The frame itself is a little plasticky, but generally firm and of good build. I normally expect Kodak products of be of an inferior quality, but the everything from the design to the materials used are good choices. The glossy finish of the frame is a finger-print magnet. Thankfully the screen itself is matte which guards against glare.

As you probably know by now, the controls are all located on the 7" touch-sensitive screen itself with basic controls from moving between photos, to viewing different albums. Annoyingly you can only view one whole album, or ALL your photos. There isn't a way I can see as of yet of viewing"select" albums. Perhaps something that could be fixed in a software update. There are a variety of transition effects.

There are a few niggles that could be fixed in an update. These are the ability to adjust the brightness setting of the frame. It looks great, but can be a little bright at night. The ability to set the start-up/shut-down time of the frame only from Kodak Pulse Online, and that the frame only updates itself every 15 minutes (each 1/4 of the hour) are annoying. When I load pictures onto the frame using the Kodak Pulse software online, I would like to view them on the frame instantly. Making this this a frame that should only be considered if you are close to a constant wireless internet connection at all times to maximise the functionality. That said the ability to set what time the frame starts-up/shuts down remotely is brilliant.

Kodak Pulse Online is the selling point of this frame, and it again feels like it could do with a software update. You can update photos from kodak gallery and facebook, but lets face it, many of the tech savvy would appreciate it being able to grab photos from Flickr or Google Web Albums too. Within facebook, it only seems to grab those pictures that are perfect 4:3 ratio. It doesn't download those cropped or those narrow pictures taken with the camera on it's side. A flaw, because uploading the same photos manually to the frame displays them with the black bars on either side of the picture.

Connectivity is fantastic. You can view pictures from USB, SD Card and MS PRO DUO. Every base here is covered for the mainstream user. These ports are hidden behind a compartment that is flush with the back of the frame.

In conclusion a good first attempt by Kodak that will only get better with future updates, assuming Kodak are the sort of company that continues to support this Pulse range which I believe has proven itself. It just needs a few updates to be worth the price tag.

Kodak easyshare

I like this camera which I got as an upgrade to an earlier easyshare model. It is easy to use. Bigger than I expected, not one you could put in your pocket or handbag. Great zoom, great clarity.
It takes a long time to charge the batteries but it does seem to work with my other rechargable batteries so I guess ordinary batteries would work ok also. The earlier model had a special battery which could only be replaced by one the same so this is a better feature. Also only came with an American battery charger which I had to add an adapter to. This was also supplied but I feel they could have supplied a UK battery charger. I hope I can use an ordinary charger which would be easier.
My son-in-law tells me it is not slr and I should have asked his advice........... oh well I'm sure I can manage without it lol.
It can also do other things like send images straight to facebook etc., haven't tried this yet. Also doesn't need special software which the other one did.

Not Kodak

This is not made by Kodak as stated unbranded make good lead all the same but this type of description should not be allowed if it is not really made by the said manufacture