Review on Kodak Easyshare Digital Camera Stabilized by Robert Pierce

I really like this camera. I had a Canon S2 that I sold after seeing my friend's P850. Conclusion: using this camera is much more interesting. The LCD doesn't have the highest resolution, but it's much better than Canon's Rotating LCD 2.0. I'm comparing this to a Canon because I used to have a Canon and that camera is also a benchmark for comparison. I like the battery. I have a camera dock and it's great to just put my camera on it and not have to worry about the battery or charging the batteries. I bought two extra batteries because Kodak offers them cheap. Image stabilization works great on this camera - better than Canon. However, focusing takes longer. Canon focuses quickly and is much more responsive. For my needs, however, this is not crucial. I like to take a lot of pictures without flash. However, whenever I turn off the flash and turn the camera off, the flash is set back to auto. This is very frustrating. Maybe I need to look into the user settings and see if that can help. I am very disappointed with the video mode. It makes good movies but doesn't use MPEG-4 compression like other Kodaks. It was probably a matter of time. I think I read that the successor to this camera will use MPEG 4. A few weeks ago I bought a $139 Kodak 530 from Office Depot that uses MPEG 4 with image stabilization, and it blows P850.3 stars from me for an ultra-the camera's zoom is pretty good. I gave Canon 1 star for resting on its laurels. I think there will be much better ultrazooms in the next year or so. Kodak's next model looks great, the Sony H5 looks fantastic and the Canon S4 needs a serious overhaul. Until then, I'm enjoying the P850. It's a *fun* camera that's fun and takes great pictures.