Thanks for your input Asa!
Believe it or not, it was your thread the one that reassured me I do not need to upgrade to anything fancier than my stolen Kodak Z710 (I understand the only difference between your Z740 and the Z710, are the megapixels 4 & 7) - I'm not even a skilled photographer as you are! But, from time to time I obtained some really good pictures
The eBay seller has not responded to my claim. A friend that travels often to Santiago (I live at the countryside) offered to take the camera to Kodak to have it checked. Maybe it is a minor problem ..... Although the camera had no accesories at all (cables, etc), it looks as if it were brand new and I got it for US$ 14.76 (plus the exaggerated US$53 for shipping from USA to Chile). I don't know if the Seller would have to refund the shipping expenses as well in case eBay favours me, so maybe it´s not a bad idea to get a repair quotation from Kodak-Chile or whomever is their repair shop.
What do you think?