11 Years And Still Shooting - Kodak P880!!!

Now that's one beautiful image and the way red should be done.

Very nice pic that, Jarrod and somewhat more accomplished than my quick 'n' dirty one here.

And as for camera longevity, my Zenith EM which I bought in 1972 is still going strong and as I have a number of Fuji Velvia 35mm films, it still gets occasional use.

Good shooting, friend!

Robert.

Very nice picture and review, Jarrod! As Jim says, red the way red should be rendered. This is IMHO a great tribute to the old Kodak company. The P880 was and still is, age considered, a very good camera. The fact that you got 100.000 actuations from it and it's still clicking and serving you well is amazing. I still have 3 of them, of which 2 are regularly used. Nowhere near 100.000 clicks. So I hope they keep clicking for a long time :-D

Lovely image. I just wanted to acknowledge my appreciation for your composition and the output of the P880. How I wish I had bought it when it first came out. Treasure it.

Nice one, I loved my P880 and it was probably the camera that I have fondest memories of, and I have had many cameras, I still use a Kodak, an AZ526 and that is also excellent, I often wish I still had my P880

Great contrast colors (Red and Green).

Very good Red color resolution. 880 still kicks.

You've probably heard my P880 story - after waiting several years, I finally found one for $29 listed as "Not working - focus problems" from a camera store that didn't know a P880 won't focus well in a dimly lit camera store back room. As soon as I got it, I took it outside - works perfectly. It doesn't do well at high ISO (only 400!) but makes up for it with a great ISO 50.

I had so much fun with that camera. I should have kept it, just to use it now and then. It has a true PRO quality 24-140mm lens with aspherical and extra low dispersion elements. The P880 had every feature and then some (like pc sync for flash) that dSLRs had. It was very easy to use just looking into the viewfinder. It even had user preset WB modes. You can buy the Kodak external flash (a nice well built unit). The Kodak let you use the built in flash with it for a double flash system. It was spot on. You could never fool the flash system. Also the flash synced at any speed. So I could freeze water drips and other neat things.

I have hundreds of really nice pics from that camera. Me and it go back a long way.

God forgive the deceased as it was so good man ... Kodak P880/712 was just the beginning of the end.... Speaking specially for P880 it was a really good camera mostly in specs it made me to buy it over Nikon D40 at that time... But the manufacturing, mainly the materials and the components all were the cheapest of the market... No you couldn't go cheaper at that time... All Fuji equivalent models for example were so much better... in every aspect... The whole thing was like a high school experimental construction or a preproduction thing... You don't need to be expensive... but well though and mainly well built... I have a 12 years Tivoli model two & the sub, and I am in the process to sell it... I have manage to deal the half of the price for a 12 years old stereo thing... and don't think that the sound industry is slow moving... if you have a close look at the market everything today is Bluetoothed NFCed, etherned, and Internet connected... wified and app supported... Where is Kodak...? show me on of their consumer products that one could sell today... I sold P712 and right the next day buyer came back with the pop flash dead... I gave P880 as a gift to someone else and he never understood that I made him a gift... he told me just that this thing is over...

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www.spiridakis.gr

If Mr. Bond can make any sense of the above, then he is a better man than me !

No...

Sir Corey of Deane said:

If Mr. Bond can make any sense of the above, then he is a better man than me !

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Let me help you please Robert... and summarize a little... If P880 was any serious device then all of them would have been kept at least as a souvenir... as soon as you hold any... seriously any other camera from the competition then no... you couldn't go back to it... eternity to write o RAW file... eternity to focus... EVF so poor that at my last days with it I used to shoot blindly no EVF no screen... and the focus @ infinity & jpeg only.. this was the fastest way... Hey... and it was never any really cheap device... The first generation of P880 was sold at premium price...

Michael, thank you for replying and clarifying. I must tell you that my knowledge and experience with digital cameras is quite limited as my main subjects are shot on film; mainly for reasons of presentation. Digital, for me, is for what accomplished photographers like yourself would probably call 'snapshotting' - or 'snapshooting'. (Have I just coined two new words?) :-D

I have a P880 in virtually pristine condition which cost me a bunch of flowers so my evaluation of the cam is not connected to any particular price point and was already 7 - 8 years old when I had it but had been virtually unused for that time. I have given it a fair amount of use and am very satisfied with its output which I view on my 19-inch LG monitor with much satisfaction.

For the P880's introductory price, I must assume its build quality is on a par with similar models from other manufacturers. I also have a Sony H2 and Panasonic FZ18 and I can't see any difference in that regard. Regarding operational speed and EVF/LCD quality, for me they are satisfactory, and I don't use RAW so no comment on that.

Finally, Michael, DPR concluded their review on the cam thus:

"In conclusion then, the P880 is well worth consideration if you want a true wide angle zoom built into your camera, and though it's not going to replace a digital SLR (despite the implication in Kodak's publicity materials), and it only just falls short of a highly recommended".

Was it the slow RAW performance that marked it down from the top spot I wonder. But the fact is that it got a very high score on a photographic site that doesn't treat foolish cameras lightly!

Regards from Robert.

The fact that you got your P880 for the price of some flowers for sure gives you a fine POV...

Indeed it does! But the question I must ask you in light of your obvious disappointment with the cam is weren't you aware of all your perceived shortcomings of it before you bought it? No? You paid a 'premium' price for a camera without proper research then.

I go with DPR's review and the opinion of other satisfied owners.

Sir Corey of Deane said:

Indeed it does! But the question I must ask you in light of your obvious disappointment with the cam is weren't you aware of all your perceived shortcomings of it before you bought it? No? You paid a 'premium' price for a camera without proper research then.

I go with DPR's review and the opinion of other satisfied owners.

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Who is/are the satisfied owners that you are talking about...? jamesm007 went for a Samsung/Pentax years ago if I remember well... vaughanB the same... did they own now a P880...? and why they sold them.... I remeber vaughanB to tell the same as me years ago... about construction materials and responsiveness...

Chiue is posting from time to time some shots just in order to participate... he has a bunch of other cameras to play seriously...

The other guy from Australia I can't remember his nick name right now... was coming here just to remind us that other systems like m43 & FF are better....

I was maybe the last from the early adopters that sold/gift my Kodaks... Some others like you got the for 100$ and less... for sure... for that money is very good camera.... but for 600€ that I paid mine... just forget it... As for the dpreview and what they write in their reviews... for them all the cameras are good... and bad here and there... its just a game....

--
www.spiridakis.gr

Michael, for me, debating digital cameras is akin to a vegetarian discussing mad cow disease, and the camera at issue here is now over ten years old.

One can cherry-pick opinions at will, but once again I have to refer you to DPR's take on the cam and I'm sure you are out on a limb questioning the veracity of DPR's camera reviewing policy and thoroughness which has an excellent reputation. I find their reviews of the Panasonic FZ18, Sony H2 and Panasonic LX7 - all of which I own - to be spot on!

You quoted one forum member (no names, no pack drill) who once posted a pic taken with some smart phone which had weird colour and blown plasticised highlights and he implied, in effect, that such a photographic tool was all that was needed! So much for people's opinions, so I'm sorry Michael, I cannot give any credence to your views on the P880.

Spiridakis Michael said:

Sir Corey of Deane said:

Indeed it does! But the question I must ask you in light of your obvious disappointment with the cam is weren't you aware of all your perceived shortcomings of it before you bought it? No? You paid a 'premium' price for a camera without proper research then.

I go with DPR's review and the opinion of other satisfied owners.

Click to expand...

Who is/are the satisfied owners that you are talking about...? jamesm007 went for a Samsung/Pentax years ago if I remember well... vaughanB the same... did they own now a P880...? and why they sold them.... I remeber vaughanB to tell the same as me years ago... about construction materials and responsiveness...

Chiue is posting from time to time some shots just in order to participate... he has a bunch of other cameras to play seriously...

The other guy from Australia I can't remember his nick name right now... was coming here just to remind us that other systems like m43 & FF are better....

I was maybe the last from the early adopters that sold/gift my Kodaks... Some others like you got the for 100$ and less... for sure... for that money is very good camera.... but for 600€ that I paid mine... just forget it... As for the dpreview and what they write in their reviews... for them all the cameras are good... and bad here and there... its just a game....

--
www.spiridakis.gr

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All Jarrod wanted was to express his enthusiasm for a camera he still loves to use, even after eleven years (as I do, and many others here who still have it in full working order)

If paying € 600 for it back then was a bad decision (which I can imagine), then who is to blame........ ;-)

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Mart

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away.
Kodak DX7590, CX7525, Z980, P880, C875, P850, M583, P712, V570, DC3400, DC290, DC4800, Z990 MAX, EasyShare One (4mp), V610. Sony SLT a77II
( Lumix TZ40 my wife)

Blackbear wrote:

Blackbear said:

All Jarrod wanted was to express his enthusiasm for a camera he still loves to use, even after eleven years (as I do, and many others here who still have it in full working order)

If paying € 600 for it back then was a bad decision (which I can imagine), then who is to blame........ ;-)

--

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Mart... if it makes you feel better... yes that was a bad decision of me... among some other in my life... and it has been written to the "book".... as a bad decision of ME...

Now will that make poor P880 any better...? faster...? more reliable...? definitely NO....