What’s In The Box?
The packaging and contents were quite different between the two cameras, however. With the Samsung S850, I was given a generic white box that just said “Samsung refurbished camera” on it. This didn’t offer the best of presentation, but we’re going for value here. Inside the box was the camera itself, a lanyard, USB cable, and AV cable, as well as the instruction manual. You’ll need to provide your own memory card, but that’s the case with nearly all cameras these days. I can easily do without packing in a measly 16MB card.
The Kodak Z885 came with slightly better packaging, wrapping a generic brown box with a glossy white sleeve. The sleeve only had a sticker telling me the model number of the camera, but the Kodak EasyShare sleeve — which notes that the camera is factory reconditioned — did look more like “real” packaging. Inside, you’ll find the camera, a lanyard, USB cable, instruction manual, dock adapter, and a couple of AA batteries.
Refurbished Digital Cameras In The Field…
I’m more of a Canon guy myself, so it took a little while to get used to the user interface on these two cameras. Having done so, however, I can say with confidence that I am pleased with the build quality and feature set on both cameras. Giving the context of a consumer-minded point-and-shoot, the picture quality is also quite good. The pictures above of the XS Cargo store were shot using the Samsung S850, as are a few pictures from my Flickr photostream.
If it wasn’t for the packaging, I would really have no way of knowing that both the Samsung S850 and the Kodak Z885 were factory refurbished. They really looked as if they were brand new. Having said that, there are unscrupulous retailers online that will take advantage of this observation and sell as new. Geeks on the other hand is proud that they are offer these types of products and all refurbished products are clearly labelled. Even though the retail price on the Samsung S850 is still in the $300 range, Geeks.com is selling the refurbished camera for $79.99. The same can be said about the Kodak Z885. It retails for about $300 as well, but Geeks.com has it for $94.95. That represents a savings of over 68%!
Saving a Bundle in a Refurb Paradise
Unless you are absolutely bent on getting the absolutely newest product on the market, you can save yourself boatloads of money by buying a refurbished product instead. While they retail for about $300 new, the two refurbished cameras in this review can be purchased from Geeks.com for under $100. Try finding a new camera for under $100 that offers the same features, build quality, and reliability as these two. The Kodak, in particular, is noted as being one of Geek.com’s best sellers. It also receives among the least number of customer complaints and returns.
Go ahead and let your buddy blow $300 on a new camera. You can get something just as good for 1/3 of the price, spending the extra $200 on whatever else you’d like. Yes, sub-$100 refurbished cameras from Geeks.com are the real deal.
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