HIGH-ISO PHOTOGRAPHY: I often take pictures at conferences, etc., where the light’s not so great, and often that’s a real limiting factor. I ran a link a while back on the high sensitivity of the new Nikon D300, and plan to try one of those out sometime soon. But for conference-photography, something smaller, and cheaper, is better.

I ordered this relatively cheap Kodak camera and it came yesterday — actually, a couple of weeks before it was supposed to ship. It has a “High ISO mode” that goes up to an amazing ISO 12,800, comparing to the ISO 400-1000 that’s the typical maximum for compact cameras. (Image size drops to 3 megapixels, but since I’m usually shooting for the Web that’s no big deal.) Fooled around with it last night and it appears to work well, even in very low light. Weirdly, however, Kodak included a rechargeable battery, but no charger. It runs on lithium AAs too, though.

And it’s supposed to shoot HD video. I’ll report on all of that, later.