By David Ponce

Kodak just took a big swipe at the pocket camcorder market with the release of the Zi8. Get this: it’s got 1080p recording along with face tracking, image stabilization, an external mic jack and a 2.5-inch LCD (0.5 inch bigger than its main competitor). You’ll of course be able to upload videos directly to YouTube but unlike competitors, to Facebook as well. Recording is dumped on SD cards, which are a dime a dozen these days and can give you limitless recording time while on the go. Not so with the Flip UltraHD, which has limited internal memory.

Best part? It should retail for all of $179, a full $20 less than the aforementioned camcorder (which we reviewed here, by the way), which does 720p “only”.

It’s nice to see Kodak isn’t just sitting around crying that the core they built their business on is disappearing, but are actually doing something to remain competitive.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Crunchgear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I won’t pretend to be a professional photographer, but I have taken a few good shots here and there. Growing up in the digital age, I never really dealt much with film cameras, except with my old point-and-shoot camera from when I was a kid. I know that I’m missing out, having never shot anything with Kodachrome film. Unfortunately it looks like I won’t have many opportunities in the future either.

Kodak has announced that they are ending production of their Kodachrome film. While many photographers swear by the colors produced by Kodachrome, it only amounts for around 1% of all still film sold by the company. It’s difficult to describe how it is different from other still films, but you’ll probably at least recognize this photo, which was taken with it. If you happen to stock up on this stuff, you’ll want to use it up and have it developed by next year sometime. Currently Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons Kansas is the last place that still processes it, and they will only continue to do so through 2010.

[ Kodak ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Shane McGlaun

I like digital photo frames and each time someone comes to my house that doesn’t own a digital frame, they leave wanting one. With digital frames, I can display images of the kids and other events without having to print off gobs of pictures and find a place to put the pictures on my wall.

Kodak has announced a new digital photo frame called the Easyshare S730, but has left out some important details about the device. The import bits missing are exactly how large the screen of the frame is and what the frame looks like. Pricing for the frame will be $139 and it will ship in September.

The frame features touch sensitive controls on the frame bezel, 1GB of internal memory and a rechargeable battery good for an hour away from an outlet. A memory card reader is built-in as well for viewing images without having to upload them to the frame. Other features include the ability to play video and music and a collage feature.

[ Kodak ]