Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS Digital Camera

Good little camera.  It's shirt pocket small and takes very good pictures.  The automatic focus and exposure are reliable, getting things right nearly all the time.  Good zoom lens with lots of "reach" in telephoto mode.  It has manual overrides if you want to make your own settings.  I use this feature when making closeups.  I set the lens aperture as small as it will go to get good depth of field.  Other than that, the automatic mode works well. 
   The LCD display serves as a view finder.  In bright sunlight the display is hard to read, making composition difficult.  This is something you have to live with, an optical viewfinder that tracked the zoom lens would add greatly to the cost of the camera.
   The camera wants lithium batteries, which are not available just everywhere.  It will run on ordinary alkaline AA batteries but you only get about a dozen shots before the batteries need replacement.  The camera lacks a battery charge indicator.  When the batteries run down the camera just stops working.  You want to buy a couple of rechargeable Lithium batteries and a charger.  No-name batteries and chargers from the Internet are cheaper than genuine Kodak batteries and chargers and have worked well for me. 
   The 14 megapixel setting is overkill.  I set my camera for 5 megapixels to save memory space and download time.  Picture quality at this setting is excellent.  The smallest plug in memory card will hold hundreds of pictures at this setting. 
   The Kodak supplied computer software works, but it is fat and slow.  Picasa, a free download from Google, works faster and better than the Kodak "Easyshare" software.  Photobucket, a free web photo posting website, works better than the Kodak photo gallery site.  Pictures on the Kodak site cannot be linked to from other sites, which renders the Kodak site fairly useless.
   All in all, this is a decent point and shoot which takes fine pictures and offers manual control when needed.   I'm pleased with it.