Compared to the Kodak P880 we still have this Z980 is a giant leap backwards! The batteries take a long time to recharge (even when new) and don't last any length od time. Charge them up, take a few pics but the next day they're dead again! Our P880 battery lasts for 6 months easily when shut off. The Z980s lens cap is worthless, popping off whenever the camera is turned on. There are no threads for a UV filter so the lense is at risk constantly. You can't manually adjust the zoom with the non-existant lense barrel on the Z980 as we can with the P880 so you're stuck with a powered zoom which is completely inaccurate. The P880 was a great camera and our main problem with it is a won't stay on when you want it to. If Kodak had taken its design and bumped up the megapixels to the Z980s level it would have a fantastic camera. I've noticed that Kodaks newest Z981 comes with 8 batteries rather than 4. Being used to Canon A1 35mm SLRs with a motordrive I appreciatte a heavy camera which is much easier to hold steady. Maybe Kodak has figured something out as far as the Z980 eating batteries but I'll never purchase another one of their cameras.

FIRST REVIEW; The noise has to do with the "continuous focus" -- the camera is constantly focusing on different objects as you move it around. If you go into the menu screen and you can change that option to "still focus" and it will only focus when you are ready for it to by pressing the shutter down half-way. This will eliminate all that noise you hear. One exception is when you are in 'smart-capture' mode, the camera automatically revertsback to "continuous focus". This is my observation, of course -- if I'm wrong, anyone can feel free to correct me! SECOND REVIEW; For a 'fixed-zoom, point-and-click camera', the Z980 is wonderful and is quite a nice step up from my old Z740. When I compare my pics with professional, large-file photos from high-end Canons and Nikons, etc -- sure, I can detect a little picture-noise in my pics, if I look really, really, really hard. For the money I can't complain about a little picture noise. I CAN complain about one thing. In many cases (not most cases) the "I'm-in-focus" indicator (you know, that little square box and bleep-tone) that tells me it's okay to shoot, sometimes lies. I get quite frustrated to see many pics turn out fuzzy after the damn thing told me it was in focus. This seems to happen most when using the zoom. The stabilizer is on and I try my best to hold still, broad daylight, fast shutter, the whole works -- but still fuzzy. Not all the time, but may times.

I live in Las Vegas. Things here move fast, I don't have time to collect cameras, lense, tripods, etc, so the Z980 is perfect for me. Throw it into the car, and it is ready when I am. I don't expect to make a living in Photograpy, just want to take good pictures, without all of the hassel. Most of my Photos are outside, and with our abundent sunshine, I have really beautiful photos. For my money this is the camera. I looked at a Nikon D90, but for the most part the Zipper will do all I need.For about $600.00 less.

Having owned canon a1 and f1 cameras for many years I took the plunge into the digital camera world. As far as I am concerned, this camera should shake the digital world like the canon ae1 program and a1 did back in the 70's. It has a lot of bells and whistles and to get the full benefit out of this camera, take the time to know it.

Any camera stands on its image quality. A 12 mp camera produces 5/6 mp resolution.......i don't know how is it possible.purple fringing & grains are the main weakpoint for this camera.High iso(>200) is useless. Night photographs are okay.Manual functions are useful.

I bought this camera 3 days out of the box it broke. Took it to the store the store said contact kodak. Kodak told me they would fix it for 50 dollars less than what i paid for the camera all together. My advice is to stay away from KODAK all together.

Very Excellent

The camera takes good pictures. But it a small issue and the kodak repair center made it worse. Then went we sent it back again... WORSE. They have now replaced it. But you know what. The customer service was so bad... I never will buy Kodak again. I don't want to own this product. It would have been better for them if they had refunded my money. I tell eveyone that asks me that Kodak is a horrable company.

The Z980 is good but whats not good is if you want to use an external flash only the Kodak P20 is compatible.If you use any other external flash with flash setting off- the flash does not fire,if you use it with flash setting on- both the external and the camera flash fire.You cant use yr own special purpose flash .I still have a Kodak Dx6490 and you can use an external flash of yr choice.I tried asking Kodak for help-did not receive any except advising me to buy theP20.

I am responding to a couple of other reviews that people have commented on about noise coming from their camera. Mine to makes this noise. I also am not an expert on cameras. Would call me a novice. But I am pretty sure the noise is from the continuous auto focus. If you go to menu and scroll down to AF control. There are two settings, Continuous AF and Single AF. When I put my camera in Continuous AF you hear the noise, when I change it to Single AF the noise stops. I was concerned in the beginning about this noise also. I have had my camera about 4 months now and am still learning the camera and digital photography. So far all my pics have come out great! Inside and outside. Have been playing around with all the different settings. For example I took a pic in Smart Capture of a friend playing his guitar on our covered patio with lights on at nighttime. The pic was not too good. Swithched the camera to scene and used the backlight because he was sitting with the light behind him and it came out beautiful. Hope this helps someone.

I used to use a 35mm film camera and had three lenses. I took hundreds of pictures. Then digital came out so I moved with the times. At first I had a small point and shoot but I missed doing the shots that I could take with my 35mm. However I did not want to dive in really deep with the cost. I wanted to stay under $500. For a decent DSLR with lenses was going to cost me much more than that. I then saw a sale at Costco for this camera for $300. This gave me the features I was looking for. Is it the best camera...no but it does what I want. Does it have it's flaws...sure. I have taken shots indoors, outdoors, long telephoto, Macro, Super Macro, Sunset and I finally got a decent picture of the Moon. I could never get a decent picture of the moon with my 35 mm because my telephoto only went to 218mm. With this 24x zoom (624mm equivalent) and 12 mp, I finally got one. So bottom line, I like what I got for the price I paid. Would I have loved a better DSLR...of course but I did not shell out a $1,000 either.

Had for 2 weeks. Took good pics in bright light. Seemed to be no difference in mp settings. Wouldn't focus right for close ups. Went for Lumix fz28. That camera works correctly. Kodak was easier to use. Lumix is complicated.

I have had this camera for 2 months now and i'd have to say i am disappointed somewhat, the color is great but the detail of the pictures the z980 takes is noisy.. believe it or not i have tried the 6mp mode and have gotten better quality than in 12mp mode... i don't get it? has anyone tried this comparison?
the 12mp pictures are bigger in size only not quality of the picture , when i zoom in on a 12mp photo its more noisy than the 6mp mode... what did i buy for $450 ? I think kodak was trying to sell its second shutter button more than the image quality this camera takes.. for a 12mp camera it does not live up to its quality.. The photo's look pretty good if you don't zoom in on them, if you do all you see is noise and color that is saturated. Too bad i had high hopes for this camera.

ok its been a month now and i am always comparing my new kodak z980 to my old 10mp canon powershot a640 and what i notice on the kodak and a fuji i had awhile back is that most pics when i zoom in they are not very detailed, they almost seem like slightly blurry crayon, i don't get it? but i did take some pics outside and they are sharp as can be, so kinda mixed thoughts here. I hear a alot about the lens cap keep falling off and in away thats kinda good because to just view the pics on the camera when you turn it on the zoom lens pops out a bit and pops out the lens cap which in a way is good because if it was on tight it would not be to good. My canon is able to view pics on the camera without the zoom extracting. I also find the menu a tad slow on the exit it takes a bit long to get out of the menu , i do like the stitch function on it , it gives me quick panoramic pics up to 3 pics. ,... i also like the quick 5 shot mode it takes 5 very quick pics at once for action shots . over all its a good camera but just wish the pics were sharper when you zoom in on them when you view them on your pc .. but like i said out side with lots of light they come sharp.

I try to buy American products because the written instructions and customer service are usually better than foreign brands. Kodak is my first major exception. Incomplete manual and foreign-speaking customer service charges $15 for the rest of the manual! Kodak saved a few cents but lost me as a customer in the future (was going to buy their printer, but not now).

I have had this camera now for two weeks. I am very impressed. This Kodak Z980 Digital Point-and-Shoot will give any DSLR a run for it's money. Bought the Kodak Z980 for a back-up to my DSLR and I am finding out, that I am using this 'new' camera more and more. I haven't touched my DSLR in two weeks. May no longer be my back-up camera. Kodak has come up with a 'winner' and great photos.

So far i took some outdoor pics and i have to say it takes awesome photos. I also took some pics indoors at a play center with my son and i was a little disappointed in the pics in lower light, mind you i tried some different settings other than auto but still were not that great but im no pro so maybe if i played with the manual controls they may have come out better... but at home it takes very nice pics with home lighting. I still have issues with the HD video and actually the standard video's 640 x 480 quicktime format , they dont seem to play well on my pc and i have the latest version of quicktime ... having said that i do play the video's on my western digital media player and they play fine..

I purchased the camera because I like doing photography as a hobby. I liked the Kodak because of the 24x optical zoom and 12 mp. However it makes a slight whirring noise from inside the camera. I don't think it affects the cameras operation in any way. It does take sharp quality pictures.

this new 24x cam has been really good thus far... i've had it for about 3 weeks... i also have olympus's 570-uz (their last mega-zoom cam @ 20x zoom - before their now new 590-uz 26x)... and admittingly, i like the new kodak much better than the 570-uz. and i did not like the "on-paper" specs of the 590-uz 26x model; "big whoop" it is @ 26x optical vs. kodaks 24x and other firms 24x entries, (pentax, canon, etc.) the specs for the kodak z-980 to me for outweigh any of these other new ultra zoom cameras out here on the market as of right now. i have a 32gb sdhc card in my z-980 and there were no problems in it being used so far, no need to format it, and of course at the std 12mp mode it can take well over 7,000 pictures... and up to 80 mins. of regular video (but not in the HD video mode...no matter what size card you put in the z-980, the maximum amount of HD video will always be a mere 29 minutes!!!.... so beware of that).

now in another review someone else mentioned they heard a "sensor noise"... or some sort of noise coming from inside the camera. yes, i do too!!! at first i thought it could be a defective unit, then i thought it may just "go away" after being on for a while... but neither is the case so far. the noise sounds like a combination "ticking / grinding" sound... and it is constant. i have never heard this or any kind of noise coming from any other camera of any kind... and i have wrote kodak an e-mail asking them how come this camera does "make noise" but as of today (5/27), they have not given me an answer back yet. i hope the noise is not anything bad... and perhaps as the other person said; it is just a sensor, etc... but it is very strange to hear it...!

the pictures taken are great, the ease of use of the unit is great and no problems to report, no dislikes... at all. just a little unsure about the noise.

anyone else that has this cam and heard the noise as well... let us all know...

i have used this camera quite a bit and found the higher mahr 2500 and up last a bit longer

Seems like a good camera so far , the build quality seems cheap, mine makes some slight noise from inside the camera seems like the image stabilizer? anyone have the same noise? HD movies and very nice but seems like my pc does not play them very well the seem to pause slightly and i have a 3.4ghz machine with 512 video ram XP and 2gb Ram.. my old canon video as avi ran great.. pros: great pics , great zoom , light,....

I like the camera but have noticed the batterys don't stay charged more than a half hour. Is there anything i can do?