A great flash for owners of Kodak Performance (P850, P880 and P712 ) digital cameras.

I purchased the Kodak P850 digital camera in Dec. 2005. I enjoy photography as a hobby and I purchased the P850 due to it's having a hot shoe for a flash (in addition to the camera's own flash) and an image stabilizer. I had been wanting to purchase the P20 flash, but didn't see it in an actual store like Best Buy, WalMart, etc,. When I received a $100 gift certificate from a relative for Christmas from Amazon.com, received a $30 credit for applying for their credit card and saw Amazon's price of $128.94 (versus the price of $149 at some other online stores) the deal was done. Note: I have since purchased Kodak's P712 camera in October 2006 and have found the P20 flash to work seamlessly with it.

Details:

Bounce Head: The flash has a bounce head, which enables you to tilt the head from 45 degrees to 90 degrees and reflect the flash from a ceiling, rather than point the flash directly at your subject(this is nice for shots of people indoors).

LCD Display: There is a LCD display that shows mode function (manual or auto), the flash range (this depends on your aperture setting, the battery level, the zoom's focal length, the power ratio, auto and manual zoom indicators and and auto OK indicator (which lights up and indicates after you take a picture to indicate that your subject was in the correct range and exposure was correct). The LCD is backlit in low light situations by pressing the mode or zoom button.

Buttons:
Buttons on the flash include On/off, ready or test light, mode and zoom buttons.

Power:
The flash runs on two AA batteries. I would recommend using rechargeable Ni-Mh batteries, but any type of AA batteries will work.

Zoom:
The powered zoom (on the flash) is able to be used either manually or automatically. The flash interacts with the camera and the camera sets the zoom automatically if you use the auto setting.

The flash attaches to the camera by sliding the flash's bottom into the camera's hot shoe and turning the ring on the bottom of the flash.

Ease of use:
This flash is intended to be used with Kodak P850 and P880 cameras. Without getting too technical, the flash can be used manually by setting your amount of flash you wish via the manual mode and adjusting the flash's focal length manually using the zoom button. I have run the flash on auto settings and have noticed a great improvement in low light settings versus using only the camera's flash. Per the stated specifications, the range is 1.6' to 105' depending on your aperture setting; the flash will interact with the camera and show you the minimum and maximum flash range when you press the shutter button halfway on your camera or when the ready light is on. Lest you think that the flash can only be used by experienced photographers, you can run both your camera and the flash on Auto for both zoom and mode. The camera interacts with your Kodak P850, P712 or P880 camera and you can take picture automatically without having to adjust any settings on either the camera or the flash. As with most flashes, there is a ready light that glows steadily when the flash is charged, Kodak recommends you wait a few more seconds to assure maximum output. The flash also has a power save feature built in that switches the flash to stand-by after 5 minutes of inactivity (which turns off the display and ready light). Power is restored by either turning the flash off and back on or by pressing the shutter on your camera half-way.

The upshot:
If you own a Kodak P850, P712 or P880, I would recommend this flash. The flash interacts with these cameras on any mode run on the camera and is easy to use, even if you don't know much about photography. It extends the flash range of your camera and can be used with or without the camera's flash. Pictures taken of large groups or in low light or at longer distances benefit from a more powerful flash than is included with the camera and the bounce head is also useful when you don't want harsh shadows or too much light directly on your subject. More experienced photographers will appreciate the ability to manually adjust the flash's zoom and flash settings.