Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm thinkin' 'bout buying a Nikon D-3100 as my "good" camera, and would appreciate any current owners' feedback. In the meantime: OK, this is a long review, but I think it will tell you everything you want to know about the Kodak C1550, both Pro and Con, if you read the whole thing. I've had the camera since October 2011, long enough to make a fair assessment, I think. This review has been updated as of 6-12-2012. This is my first foray into the world of digital cameras. I have always shot FILM before, which I still think will take a higher quality picture if you have a good camera (and good lenses). But I liked the idea that I could just shoot and shoot without having to worry about running out of film. And digital is OK if you're not gonna blow something up to billboard size. It can actually be pretty good. I wanted a small inexpensive camera that I could just strap to my belt and take along without a lot of bulk. To that extent, this camera has filled the bill. IMHO, it may not deserve a full four stars, but three stars would declare "It's OK", and it is a little better than OK. I would give it 3.5 stars. Here are my pros and cons: PRO'S: * COMPACT SIZE. I got a little Case Logic case to strap to my belt. Small, but big enough to hold the camera, USB cable (comes with the camera), spare batteries, and extra memory cards (if you need them). I can easily forget it's there on my belt. But always at the ready; I take it everywhere. * EASE OF OPERATION. Contrary to other reviews, it really is pretty user friendly. Which is good, because it really doesn't come with much in the way of an Owner's Manual. In fact the owner's manual SUX. Just play around with it, and you'll figure it out quickly. The SMART CAPTURE setting is good for most pictures indoors or out, in normal light, although somtimes ya might wanna use the flash to "fill in" if you're in the shade outdoors. You can set the flash so it's always on, but only do so when you need it in the shade, as it will affect batt life. And get fairly close, cuz this flash has a really limited range. You can get some REALLY good low-light pics at night, if you use the low-light settings and a TRIPOD (use the DELAY settings so you're not touching the camera when it goes off). But DON'T HIT THE "FORMAT" BUTTON IF YOU HAVE PICTURES IN THE CAMERA! It will erase all your pictures. * EXTREMELY GOOD RESOLUTION FOR THE PRICE, at least under certain conditions. You have the option of shooting in 16MP in 4:3 aspect ratio, or 12MP in 16:9, which will fit a modern high def TV or computer screen. I have taken to shooting in 16:9 aspect, and it has an amazing degree of clarity, even when you zoom in. You can read a car license plate from 200' away, and that's just from the screen on the camera; if you upload to your computer and zoom, the distance from which you could see small details increases greatly. * EXTERNAL AA BATTERIES. I intended to buy a different Kodak model, one with INTERNAL batteries; glad I didn't. With an internal battery, when it runs down, you are DONE for the day. You CAN'T take the batt out and replace it. With external batteries, you just slap in another pair and keep shooting. I think this is something you should think about if you plan on taking a lot of pictures. * BATTERY LIFE. I bought TWO sets of RECHARGABLE NiMH batteries and an Eveready charger. I always carry at least one spare set of batts with me. But it will take a LOT of pics with one set. I shot over 500 pics with one set, and over 200 more after replacing (had more batt life, but I wore out before the second set of batts did). So please don't listen to the detractors that say it has short batt life. I don't think most of them were using NiMH batts. And spend the money on a BATTERY CHARGER. It will save you lots of $$$ not only on the camera, but other devices you may have. I bought an Energizer charger which will charge AA's, AAA's, C's and also 9v! Good value. *TAKES "OK" VIDEO. However, my particular Micorsoft program won't let me rotate videos, just stills. Consequently, I now have a pic of a Harrier jet taking off and landing sideways. But let's be realistic, the camera is mainly designed to take stills. If you're gonna shoot a lot of video, you need a dedicated video camera, or at least something that will shoot better video than this thing. However, the AUDIO, considering it has a "pinhole" of a microphone, can be quite good. Took it to a free concert in Austin (during SXSW) and videoed The Cult. The sound, playing it back through a good sound system at home, was actually pretty amazing. I filmed the Jumbotron, and the altogether video was pretty amazing; I was 100' away from the stage! * KODAK EASY SHARE SOFTWARE. This comes with the camera, and is great. When you're ready to upload to your computer, just plug it in and it automatically puts the pictures in your existing picture library or other destination if you prefer. Kodak went bankrupt, of course, so they no longer support their EasyShare website. So, after downloading to your computer, you can upload to Shutterfly, the company to which they transferred the existing pic's of all of us current users. You can also share via Facebook, Twitter, and a variety of other places. The Gallery is great, because now you can access your Galleries from any computer ANYWHERE; all you need is your email address and password. I'm not happy with one aspect of Shutterfly. The Kodak site would let you post an "intro" to each album you upload; Shutterfly's site apparently does not. However, you can still caption any individual picture you want to. There is a CON, to the Easy Share system, which I will get to in the Con's. *Update, 6-12-2012: Kodak is transferring ALL (and my) photo galleries to Shutterfly.com, presumably intact, as of July 2nd. I'll let ya know how that goes. Hey, please ALWAYS keep your permanent photo files on your local hard drive, or trustble backup. CON'S: * SPEED OF FOCUSING. I will agree with the reviewers that say the camera is slow to focus. Mine is sort of cantankerous. Sometimes it will focus quickly, sometimes it will focus slowly. And if I'm trying to do a Macro (closeup), sometimes it will not focus at all. I've experimented with pushing the shutter button down halfway and giving the camera time to auto focus, or just "point and shoot", and in a lot of cases, no difference in quality of picture. But if you have the time, use the time to auto focus. UPDATE: After using this camera for awhile, I found that you can take some really high-resolution closups if you DO NOT USE THE ZOOM very much and get as close to the subject as possible without the Zoom. I caught a lizard with it, and you can literally count the scales! And a bird in my front yard and, well, you get the idea. I have owned a really good Canon EOS Rebel film camera in the past, and it's not fair to compare this cheap lil' Kodak camera to something approaching professional-grade. But even at thet, it really could be better at focusing quickly, even considering the low price. All-in-all, it's tolerable. To me, at least. If you're in doubt about a picture, take a couple more. You're not gonna run out of memory, after all. * SENSITIVITY TO MOTION. I took a cross-country train trip recently, and had a fair amount of trouble getting unblurred pictures when the train was moving and rocking back and forth, especially when trying to shoot a subject INSIDE the train; it did better on landscapes out the window. Again, it's an inexpensive camera, so you have to temper your expectations with that fact. *NO AUDIO WITH VIDEO WHEN PLAYING BACK ON THE CAMERA. Once you upload to your computer, you will have sound. To be fair, the manual says it HAS a speaker in the camera, so it's possible mine was defective. Again, something I can live with it that's the case. How good is the sound gonna be from a 1/8" speaker anyway? If anyone buys one of these and the sound in the camera works, please shoot me a response. *UPDATE: Several other owners of this camera have responded to me, that their cameras also would not play back audio on their cameras, so this must be how they designed them. Hey, at best you'd be listening to playback through a 1/8" speaker, so if that's what you want. But it still is a bit annoying that Kodak even lists "speaker" as a component in the camera when the speaker doesn't even WORK. Please refer to other comments in the review. *KODAK EASY SHARE SOFTWARE. Of course, and already mentioned your pictures would now go to Shutterfly if you choose, there is no longer an EasyShare website, even though the camera still has the software in it. One strange thing I noticed: I had to download new software when the transition from EasyShare to Shutter happened (to my camera). The camera USED to have the option of taking pictures in Black & White or Sepia. After doing the recommended download, those settings disappeared. I have no idea why the decided to omit those, or if it was just an oversight. Either way, it would have been nice to still have those choices available. Bottom line: If you want a GREAT camera, spend the bucks on a better camera. If you want a decent camera that will perform most of the functions that us "regular" folks need, this camera will suffice. I didn't have the time to do a lot of shopping; I needed one for an air show (Miramar) the next day. I trusted that Kodak would make a camera I could live with, and that's what I got. If you have the time, sure, do some shopping around. But I will say that this little camera takes really good pictures most of the time. I'm overall happy with the results. And since I have it already, I'm gonna live with the imperfections it has. I intend to buy a larger, closer-to-professional-grade camera (with a bigger lens and optical AND digital zoom) for those occasions when I'm more concerned about quality than portability. But this little camera goes a lot of places with me, and will continue to do so. Again, I give it 3.5 stars. It's better than just OK, and I do pretty much like it, although it does have its limitations. I really wish I could share with you some of the pictures I have taken with this camera, both portraits and landscapes, so you can get an idea of what you can do with this camera. But Amazon doesn't seem to accomodate for that, or at least I don't know how to do it. This camera will take some pretty good pictures, even great picures under the right conditions. Hope you find this DETAILED review helpful.