astounding features for price, 1 major flaw

When I saw the features the Kodak z1015 IS included for the price I was astounded. Super fast click to capture, wide light handling range, outstanding zoom range, great color rendering, optical image stabilization, LiON battery and charger included, etc.
All that is accurate but only part of the story.

Click to capture is almost instantaneous, but only if using the smart (fully auto with face recognition etc) setting. If you use the other auto settings it takes much longer to focus, get light adjustments, etc. For the camera to accomplish that so quickly in smart setting is amazing but then it "processes" the image as it downloads to memory. That takes a FULL 30 seconds for every 3 pics. It seems like an eternity. Even if you take 2 pics and wait about 25 secs to take the 3rd you still can't take a 4th for 30 seconds more while processing. This is the same using the internal (~45mb) memory or 4gb sdhc class 4 memory card. I don't have a class 6 but I've read on forums that class 6 is no better.
This may be addressed later by a firmware update but I would not count on it. It's possible that the camera is such a bargain because this limitation could not be overcome in the price bracket it would otherwise belong in. Despite the processing delay I LOVE the camera. As long as you keep the processing limitation in mind it should not be hard to work around (how often do take 4 or more shots in less than a minute). If not for this flaw I could not be more pleased.
Color and low light handling is just mind boggling. From the same location and indoor lighting without flash this camera will come up with an impressive color correct and not too noisy pic but my 3 year old canon sd 630 that cost the same amount would not have a viewable image. Of course the kodak won't fit in a shirt pocket but the canon only has 6mp and 3x zoom. These two cameras will compliment each other nicely though, Canon for those times size is primary, kodak when size is not an issue.
On the zoom front, the entire z1015 with battery I'm sure is lighter than the same focal length / fstop zoom lens for my Canon AL-1 35mm SLR. It is incredibly light for it's zoom power and small. The housing is plastic but has a solid but not heavy feel.
Things I would never think of doing on the camera can be done on this one, which is great in theory but senseless in practice. A good example is being able to crop a pic on the camera. Why with a 10mp camera with a 15x zoom and flash memory at less than $25/gb would cropping a pic on the camera be a benefit? It can be done on a pc much more quickly with the advantage of a much bigger display to make sure composition is what you want. The only way I can see this as a benefit is if you download directly to a printer and wifi or bluetooth would be needed to make that worthwhile. If you dig out a cable to connect to picbridge printer in all probability there's a pc attached to that printer.
This brings me to cables, the other big disappointments. My canon uses a mini usb connection, the same as my blackberry and many motorola cell phones like the razr. They are fairly easy to find, I must have at least 5. Kodak needed that extra couple of microns so they use what must be a "micro"(?) usb on the camera. Its the same as a blackberry but 1/4 the size. If you loose the cable I'm sure it will be hard to find and expensive. The charger for the included Klick 800 LiON battery plugs into an ac adapter "brick" that has a USB output. Remember those microns kodak freed up with the "micro" usb? They squandered them on another input on the camera for the ac charger. The battery charger must charge through the camera. Separate chargers are available for a price of course! The biggest disappointment is the two cables that have different connections into the camera but have the same standard USB male on the far end which have warnings not to mix them up. Would have only been half as bad if they were different colors but they are both black. 3rd cable disappointment is the camera's output to TV. The z1015 IS can record 30minutes of video in 720p HD stereo but the portable, camera bag output is through a two RCA jack connector that is extra of course and can't come close to handling HD or stereo or a separate hdtv dock which is approximately $100 but includes remote and sd card reader and usb input.
Overall I think this is an outstanding value, and even with the disappointments from the research I did there is nothing out that compares for the money.