So, if it's 26mm (35mm equiv) at the wide end and it's got a 24x optical zoom then it'll have a focal length of 624mm (35mm equiv) at the long end. Given the probable size of the unit that must mean the sensor is tiny... and it's got 12 million pixels crammed onto it!

That doesn't sound like a recipe for good quality photos to me. The Kodak noise-reduction engineers must have been working overtime on that one!

Kodak and 'must have' in the same article.

Add "at gunpoint", and it all makes sense. Though my first digital camera was a Kodak DC215, and at the time there really was nothing as good at the price - I was specifically waiting for something with broadly comparable specs (bar resolution, of course) to my trusty Olympus Mju Zoom 35mm, and Kodak delivered. Only possible downside was that it was fixed focus, but that wasn't always a bad thing in practice.