Hello friends. I just recieved an early christmas present, which I was thrilled with. It was a nice Kodak Easyshare Z612 camera, with 12x optical zoom. I am an aspiring photographer, and a newb. I was just wondering how good this camera was for a new photographer? It seems to take nice photos. Please let me know if you own this model and your thoughts on it. I was also wondering what are some good, cheap, and easy-to-use photo editors? I have photoshop, but I'm looking for something that allows you to more easily reduce red eye, enhance pics, ect. If you know any good editors, please let me know. Thanks!

Specs:




A front and back pic of the camera itself


You can view some sample photos taken with the Z612 by clicking here


Thanks,

-- Perry

Awesome! Post your first good shots - we'd love to see them!

As for photo editors, you can't go wrong with iPhoto or, for a lot more power, Aperture.

I just checked out the specs and it looks like a GREAT camera for a beginner and way beyond. The lens is from Schneider which is one of the legendary pro-level lens producers.

You might want to give a look at Adobe's Photoshop Elements for something simpler and less expensive than full Photoshop to get started with. iPhoto is great on the Mac. And for Windows, check out this program - it is free and very good and fast - and it has red-eye removal and most of the other image adjustment features (levels, curves, brightness, saturation, etc) that the other expensive programs have.

http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html

I will! As of now im experimenting with different light sources, angles, tones, etc. I've got on okay shot on my billiard table, I'll spruce it up a bit and post it.I've uploaded a shot i like, its at the bottom of the post.




I have found iPhoto to be pretty good, for sharpening and red-eye reduction mainly. I was going to look into aperture, but it reccommends 1 GB RAM, and I'm only on 512 MB. When I upgrade to 1GB, though, I will most likely look into it. Thanks.




Thanks, jrrjrr. I completely forgot about this program, but I'm glad you reminded me! I'm downloading it now, and will begin experimenting with it. Thanks.



Thanks you guys for suggestions, and I'm very happy with the camera. When I get a nice shot together, I'll post for you to checkout and comment. Also, I'm thinking of getting a telephoto lens for it. This one or This One. Does that look like a good lens? And what kind of lens should I purchase for doing upclose and shots that are heavily zoomed in (like the classic shots of lady bugs on leaves, etc)? Thanks.

-- Perry

Click to view attachment

Join flickr, and post some of your photo's!

BaYlisS

Alright. My Flickr. Please comment on the few pictures I have uploaded. Thanks!

I've updated My Flikr with some new pics. PLease comment them with critiques! Link is in the above post or in my sig. Thanks!

i don't believe there's a way to change lenses short of tearing the camera apart. for a beginner, a good point-and-shoot camera is very good. once you start getting good and begin to "outgrow" it, i recommend a dslr or if it's too expensive, a film slr (just make sure to have them make you a cd when they develop the pictures. if you scan the developed ones, it'll be a lower quality)

You might consider getting a book or two about the various basic photography techniques - aperture, exposure, etc. When I got my first DSLR camera, a How-to guide was really handy to figure out what all those letters meant.