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12/04/09
At least, that was what they were telling the troops (me included) when I worked for them.
12/04/09
For those not in Rochester, EK is headquartered there. EK's employment in Rochester peak in 1983 with about 68,500 people. It now has less than 8,000 there.
IMHO, EK's downfall is the result of denial. EK demonstrated the first digital camera concept, built the first DSLR for the US military and NASA, and designed the Apple QuickTake 100, the first consumer digital camera. Unfortunately, senior management in the 90's adamently denied that digital photography was going to overtake film as quickly as it did. I remember being told that it would be about 2010 before digital would overtake film.
In the 90's, they brought in George Fisher, their first and still only outside CEO. George came over from Motorola, in a time when Motorola ruled the cellphone industry. Unfortunately, George's efforts to quickly turn the 100+ year old behemoth was, IMHO, sabotaged from within. His division managers kept their heads in the sand and denied that EK needed to change quickly.
I had high hopes that EK would be able to use OLED to recover -- or at least stabilize -- but that's now impossible. Someday soon, I completely expect to read that Kodak is being bought-up by an investment group and liquidated piece-by-piece.
Can anyone think of any other company which has suck so far so quickly?
12/04/09
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12/04/09
Given the approximate time you were there, I'd bet there was a lot of pressure to cater to Wall Street's myopic, "make this quarter look good" mentality and not the long term survival of the company. It's unfortunate that this is much too common.
On that, I have to admire the Japanese mentality of driving toward 5-, 10-, or even 20-year goals rather than just this quarter's or this year's results.
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11/18/09
11/18/09
Some people like not having a contract with their camera.
11/18/09
Thanks for the homework; I'm sure this will help many a holiday buyer.
11/17/09
11/17/09
(Disclaimer : I got it with BicCamera gift cards, and that's the only mini cam they have).
The feeling is awful, buttons are indeed very confusing and unpractical, making the interface nothing short of crap-tastic.
Besides, any shot in darker than daylight conditions is barely watchable.
It does the job somehow, but there is so much better out there (...unless by out there you mean Japan. The mini cam market is inexistant here) #pocketcamcorderbattlemodo
11/17/09
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11/17/09
As cool as the flips are, they were premium priced and only had integrated memory. I like flipping cards in and out, having the flexibility instead of always having to download files to a computer (usually huge files) before you can shoot again. #pocketcamcorderbattlemodo
11/17/09
11/17/09
You might want to look at cameras with a different form factor (think Sanyo Xacti with 5x optical zoom), which are not that much pricier and much more feature-rich. #pocketcamcorderbattlemodo
11/17/09
12/24/09
saving 80 bucks.
11/17/09
I bought it from Newegg (it's currently on sale at Target for $150) and a 16GB SDHC card.
I normally record at 720P/60FPS with image stabilization and face tracking on. The battery lasts for about 40-45min at a time. That length of video on the stated resolution takes up just over 2GB of video. (I've not yet recorded one big video. I've been meaning to hit record and let it go until the battery runs out to see the limits.) If you purchase the Kodak Zi8, you shouldn't need more than a 4GB card (to have a little extra space).
The video quality, while watching it on my MBP, looks OK. The color reproduction looks nice and it runs smooth (60FPS). When I attach it to either my HDTV or my parents LDTV, the video looks great. The built-in mic isn't the best, but, as stated in other comments, you can plug in an external mic (I'm using the mic from my Singstar game on my PS3). #pocketcamcorderbattlemodo
11/17/09
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11/17/09
I do most of my shooting outdoor during the day and sometimes at night. And most of my video is of action sports like wake boarding, skiing, motocross, stuff like that. The Zi8 does perform better in perfect lighting conditions but the image is soooo shaky, almost making the video unwatchable. The funny thing is, I think it has an image stabilizer. #pocketcamcorderbattlemodo
11/17/09
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11/17/09
Aside from that. The Zi8 seems to top the charts in all of the performance tests. As far as size is concerned, I like large and slim over short and fat. By far, the Zi8 appears to have the largest screen, not to mention, it fits flat in my pocket, like a cell phone. It's a good shape, IMO.
The Zi8 is extremely light and plasticy. It *feels* very cheap in your hand because you expect a good gadget to be heavy and dense. Despite that, I still think it leads the entire category, it's brilliant, IMO.
2 more things: It currently goes for $149.99 everywhere I looked, including my local CompUSA, which makes it an extremely good value, and it has a microphone input which makes up for the internal speaker. #pocketcamcorderbattlemodo
11/17/09