…I’m bringing KodakBack. Oh, Kodak EasyShare, I missed you. I missed the true-to-life colors. I missed the razor sharp images. I missed being able to open Photoshop solely to crop an image or to tinker around with B&W, sepia, etc. I. Missed. You, you user-friendly, breathtaking, little minx. You should disown your cousin, the C643 — she’s a whore who is bringing down the family name.

After one day with this beautiful gadget, I feel totally qualified to write a review. Why bother waiting a few days with a few different kinds of lighting conditions? I’m ready *now. And never you mind that I’m just a wannabe photographer and that words like “aperture” and “exposure” and “ISO” make me go a little googly-eyed. I’m still totally qualified. Really.

Ah hahahahaha. Okay, seriously, these are just my initial thoughts, and I’m a total amateur. However, I know what I like, and I know what looks good to me. Keeping all that in mind, let’s g’head to the review, shall we?

First, I like the weight of it in my hand. That sounds so corny, but well, it’s true. It’s a substantial camera without being clunky. Holding it made me feel like Mommy was letting me play with the big girl camera as a special treat for being such a good girl.

Those familiar with the EasyShare system will understand immediately what this camera is telling them via the good-sized LCD screen or the niftly little Electronic View Finder. Kodak didn’t mess with their tried & true user interface. At least for the auto and scene modes, but I’ll get to that in a second.

This Kodak has a few more scene choices than my previous Kodak. And just tinkering with those a little makes me wonder if I’ll ever go ahead and use the manual settings — it seemed like there was a “scene” for everything. Okay. I’ll totally tinker with the manual settings because D taught me flash = bad. And this camera wants to use its flash. Unlike its whore-ish cousin, though, it doesn’t force the issue with the “YOU’RE SHAKING ME” hand on the display and craptastic pictures in the upload. But I digress.

Now, even previous/current EasyShare users are going to have to read the manual to figure out how to work the more advanced settings, as Kodak has stuck a nifty little jogwheel on the back to help you maneuver through those. But once you realize you just need to use the jogwheel, you’re good to go.

As for the in-camera editing tools, I have no idea how well those work. I prefer Adobe Photoshop for any editing I’m going to do, solely because it’s easier to see the stuff on a 17″ monitor. The LCD screen is good-sized, but a computer monitor it ain’t.

Speaking of the LCD screen, Kodak has addressed my complaint about that, too. (Yes, they totally read my bitching about the C643 and released a camera more suited to me. :nod:) On my C643, the LCD showed me great photos which when uploaded, looked nothing like what the LCD had shown. I’m pretty sure that LCD screen laughed at me. A lot. The Z612’s screen renders the photo the way I’m going to see it on my monitor, if smaller. B-E-A-U-tiful.

Anyway, I had no desire to go tinkering with things like f-stop, ISO settings, etc. (See my previous comment re: photography terms.) I just wanted to hunker down and start shooting beautiful photos. Now, that’s not to say I don’t fully intend to mess with those settings, but it just didn’t happen today.

What did happen today was that I rediscovered my love for Kodak’s EasyShare cameras. If you go look at my Flickr page, you’ll see a few shots taken with this thing. (And I mean “a few.” I haven’t been able to part with the camera long enough to get everything uploaded.)

Keep in mind, every last one of ‘em was taken indoors on a fairly overcast morning with no flash or tripod nearby. Amazing stuff, no? (Wait. The picture of my bulimic cat was taken with the flash. She puked right afterward. My bad.)

At any rate, for the money (around $250), I am *thrilled with this camera. Is it a D-SLR? No, but it doesn’t claim to be. Is it a good intermediate step for people who are done with the pocket point & shoots but not quite ready to jump in to the D-SLR market? Absolutely.

Now I’m off to take more pictures. Wheeee!