Accessories for Z812 IS

I recently had a chance to purchase a Kodak Z812 IS for a very good price. I am fairly new to a camera of this type. I have had digital cameras for a few years but thought it would be fun to try to take some quality pictures.

My question is what are some must have accessories for this camera and what are some “nice to have’ extras as well. I will be using this outdoors more than anything else, taking pictures of my kids sporting activities and farm equipment working in the fields. Thanks in advance.

Get two KLIC8000 batteries and a charger, a couple of 2GB or larger memory cards and a card reader if your computer doesn't have on built in. Download both manuals from Kodak's web site - it quicker to use Adobe Reader's search function to find a topic than try to flip pages. Otherwise take lots of pictures and by the time you've taken 1500 pics you'll know if you need anything else.

My camera is not dissimilar to yours. You really want to buy stuff for it but the camerra is so self-contained you really don't need anything. It's downright frustrating. I bought a wicon (converter for wider angle. you can also buy a telecon). The flash on my camera is not so good so you might want to get a slave flash. Some people develop a yen for a tripod. Thwese cameras are very light so you don't need an elaborate tripod.
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Don Schaeffer
Kodak Z740 (38-380 mm equiv)
Opteka WiCon yielding .7X

Forget using a slave flash will not work with the Kodak Z812, and there is not external flash shoe, or connector.

Gary Bart
Sacramento, CA

Just received my 812. I don't see any treads in the lens barrel to attach

either a polarizer or skylight filter. There also isn't anything in the box as to how to attach either. I have seen various telephoto and wide angle options but nothing which shows in detail how they attach.
Lee

The adapter came with my Z740. It screws the lens when it is not extended. You screw the filters into the adapter ring. The idea of the adapter ring is to keep the filter beyond the maximum extension of the lens. You would need something like that to buy a wicon or telecon or any filters. I'm surprised it didn't come with the camera. When you buy a Canon camera, you must buy the adapter ring separatly.
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Don Schaeffer
Kodak Z740 (38-380 mm equiv)
Opteka WiCon yielding .7X

You need this

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=275&pq-locale=en_US

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DX3215,DX6340,DX6490,DX7590,Z7590,Z812is

It's not what you drive. It's how you drive it.

I'd rate a pair of KLIC batteries with charger as Must Haves. Charge them overnite. Per new FAA rules, keep a small plastic baggie to carry them in the camera bag or other luggage.

You can't have too many SD or SDHC cards for video. Keep them in a plastic housing & the same baggie for travel. I'd use the larger SDHC cards for video.

The Adapter is a must have for any kind of filters or Tcon. Don't bother with any WA adapters. They just don't work.

A tripod will make the camera rock steady. You may need it for panorama shops.

Your baggie can include a lens cleaner & brush.

Don't forget to take the lens cap off before turning the camera ON!

Only one answer from me: a spare battery. Because the definition of "finale" is, the point in the program when your battery dies.

Carter
P 8 5 0

Gary Bart:

"Forget using a slave flash will not work with the Kodak Z812, and there is not external flash shoe, or connector."

Actually, there are slave flashes made for digital cameras. I know this because I have one that I bought for my Nikon CoolPix 800 8 years ago. I got it from http://www.srelectronics.com/ for about $50 - $60. It works just fine on my Z812, and I suppose it would work on other Zx12 cameras as well.

Looking at the website, I did not see the one I bought, but give them a call, they may still be available.

I built a flash bracket that attaches to the tripod mount on the camera, and attached a hot shoe mount to the top of the bracket. There's a picture of one at the SRElectornics website.

Here's a little test I did with it last night:



The first pic is of the flash itself. The second pic is with the flash set to 'normal' (slave fires with first flash of camera). The third pic is with slave set to 'digital' (slaves fires with second flash of camera).

-Frank

GlennW said:

Don't forget to take the lens cap off before turning the camera ON!

Click to expand...

Glenn: I think this is the only point we differ on and it may be due to my having a Z612 rather than a 712/812. Looks to me like Kodak designed the lens cap to be pushed of by the lens and as the cap is secured to the camera with a cord there no danger of the cap getting lost. The cap retaining element is a very short nap felt like material which results in a low friction retention. Kodak even lists lens protection as built-in which, to me, indicates a more elegent design (though no more complex) than just a manual cap.

The only trick for this to work every time is have the camera pointed down slightly when it's turned on.