Zoom
A typical 3x optical zoom range, with good performance.

36mm	108mm	4x Digital Zoom

The Kodak V550 zooms over the equivalent of a 36-108mm range, fairly typical for its class. Though a little soft at wide angle, with some noticeable coma distortion in the trees, the V550's lens still performs quite well. The 4x digital zoom takes it out to 12x total with the loss of quality that digital zoom creates.

Macro
A small macro area with good detail and high resolution. Flash exposes fairly well, but flash illumination is uneven up close.

Standard Macro	Macro with Flash

The Kodak V550's macro setting performs well, capturing a small minimum area of 2.17 x 1.62 inches (55 x 41 millimeters). Detail is strong and resolution high, with only a moderate amount of softening in the corners from the lens. (Most cameras have some softening in the corners in macro mode.) The flash throttles down pretty well, but its light doesn't reach the lower left corner of the frame. (Plan on using external lighting for your closest macro shots with the V550.)

Distortion
Moderate barrel distortion, though low pincushion.

This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel--usually at wide angle) or inward (like a pincushion--usually at telephoto). The Kodak EasyShare V550's 0.8% barrel distortion at wide angle is average among the cameras I've tested, although I personally feel that this level is too high. At the telephoto end, the V550's 0.03% pincushion is very low.

Barrel distortion at 36mm is 0.8%

Pincushion at 108mm is 0.03%

Chromatic aberration
Moderately high, small effect on images at edges.

Wide: moderate, top left @ 200%	Wide: fairly bright, top right @ 200%
Tele: quite low, top left @200%	Tele: quite low, top right @200%

Chromatic aberration is rather high at wide angle, showing about 6-7 pixels of moderately bright coloration on either side of the target lines, but decreases to very low levels at telephoto focal lengths. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Corner Sharpness
Some softening in the left and right corners of the frame, strongest effect in the lower right corner.

Slightly soft in the upper left corner.	Much softer in lower right corner.

The Kodak V550 produced soft corners in a few shots, though the lower right corner seemed to have the most visible effect.

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Moderate warm cast with both Auto and Incandescent white balance settings. Less exposure compensation required than usual.

Auto White Balance +0.3EV	Incandescent WB +0.3EV

Color balance indoors under incandescent lighting was just a bit warm and reddish in Auto white balance mode, and the Incandescent setting resulted in a more yellow color balance that looked more pleasing overall. The Kodak V550 only required a +0.3 EV exposure compensation boost to get a good exposure, much less than average for this shot. Overall color is a bit dark and yellow here, making the blue flowers very dark and purplish. (A very common outcome for this shot.) Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulb, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the US.

Outdoors, daylight
Good color balance, very bright colors. Better than average exposure accuracy.

Auto White Balance, Auto Exposure	Auto White Balance, Auto Exposure

Outdoor shots generally showed accurate exposure with slightly blown out highlights. Shadow detail also tended to fall apart, but nothing that would raise an alarm for a consumer digicam. Exposure accuracy overall was better than average, the camera requiring less exposure compensation than we're accustomed to seeing with consumer digicams.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
High resolution, 1,250 lines of strong detail.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,250 lines per picture height, with extinction at around 1,600. (The camera did produce slight color artifacts at lower line frequencies though, visible in the full-sized res target shots.) Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail. Beware that while you might be able to make out what looks like distinct lines at numbers higher than those we've mentioned here, the camera is just doing its best to continue interpreting the lines. If you zoom in and follow them from the wider portions, you'll see the lines converge and reappear several times, so the lines you see at 1,500 and higher are really only artifacts generated by the camera's imaging system.

Strong detail to 1,250 lines horizontal	Strong detail to 1,250 lines vertical

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Fairly sharp images, with some blurring of detail from noise suppression.

Pretty good definition of high-contrast elements.	Subtle detail: Hair Noise suppression tends to blur detail in areas of subtle contrast, as in the darker parts of Marti's hair here.

The Kodak V550's images are reasonably sharp, without any strong over-sharpening or edge enhancement on the camera's part. (Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.)

Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears. The crop at far right shows this, with darker areas of Marti's hair showing only limited detail, even though individual strands are quite visible against her cheek in the uncropped image. (The level of detail loss shown here isn't all that obvious on prints 8x10 inches or smaller though.)

ISO & Noise Performance
Moderate noise at the normal sensitivity settings, very high noise that blurs detail at the higher settings.

ISO 80	ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800

The Kodak V550's lower ISO settings produced moderate noise, with only slightly blurred detail in the dark areas. As the ISO setting increases, so does the noise level and the amount of blurring that results, and its images at ISO 400 are quite soft indeed. At ISO 800, noise is high, though not as bad as it could be. ISO 800 is available only at 1.8 megapixel resolution, because the camera combines several sensor pixels for every output pixel reduce noise levels. When printed, ISO 200 photos looked OK at 8x10 inches; ISO 400 ones were marginal even at 5x7 inches, but looked fine at 4x6.

Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests
High resolution with good overall detail, though high contrast and limited shadow detail. Pretty good low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images under average city street lighting and slightly darker conditions.

Normal	+0.3EV	+0.7EV

Sunlight:
Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

The Kodak V550 had a little trouble with the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above, producing very high contrast with washed-out highlights and deep shadows. Noise suppression is visible in both shadows and highlights as well, contributing to the loss of detail, made more severe in these areas. Exposure at least did not wash out the highlights when exposure compensation was set to zero adjustment, but the +0.3EV image shows better skin tones. (In "real life" though, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.)

Low light:
Our low light testing revealed some limitations in the lens and sensor's ability to gather and process light, but the Kodak EasyShare V550's performance in this area will be more than adequate for most consumers, provided they know to switch to "Night Landscape" mode for after-dark photography. Shutter speeds in the normal exposure modes are restricted to 1/2 second and shorter, limiting usage to normal indoor illumination levels, or outdoor shots at dusk or earlier, even with the ISO set to higher values. The Night Landscape mode forces the ISO setting to 80 for minimum image noise, but permits shutter times as long as 8 seconds. The net result in Night Portrait mode was that our test images were bright as low as 1/4 foot-candle, which is about 1/4 as bright as average city street lighting at night. Color balance was slightly warm from the Auto white balance setting. The camera's autofocus system worked unusually well, able to focus on the subject down to the darkest light levels we test at, even with its AF-assist light turned off. Do keep in mind though, that the very long shutter times associated with Night Landscape mode absolutely demand the use of a tripod or other camera support to get sharp photos. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux
ISO 80	3.2 sec f2.8	6 sec f2.8	8 sec f2.8	8 sec f2.8	8 sec f2.8

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Slightly oversaturated color (especially reds and blues), very typical of consumer digital cameras. Generally good hue accuracy.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located towards the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center.

Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life. The Kodak V550 follows this trend, though it tends to overdo the strong red and blue tones a bit. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc. The V550 did render skin tones a bit on the pink side in most cases, but our sense is that most consumers would find the V550's bright color very appealing.

The other important part of color rendition is hue accuracy. Hue is "what color" the color is. Here, the Kodak V550 did quite well. Like most digicams, it shifts cyan colors toward blue, to produce better-looking sky colors, but the rest of the hues were quite accurate.

See full set of test images with explanations See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Our random "Gallery" shots showed very pleasing color across a wide variety of subjects. (See our Kodak EasyShare V550 Photo Gallery for more shots taken with the camera.)

Coverage
Optical viewfinder tight and skewed to the upper right. Very good accuracy from the LCD monitor.

36mm eq., optical viewfinder	108mm eq., optical viewfinder
36mm eq., LCD monitor	108mm eq., LCD monitor

The V550's optical viewfinder was quite tight, showing only about 80% frame accuracy at both wide angle and telephoto lens settings. However, the LCD monitor showed close to about 100 percent frame accuracy, though my standard measurement lines were just out of frame in the final shot.

Coverage and Range
The V550's small flash has a limited range, produces a slight blue cast in combination with typical incandescent room lighting. Our standard shots required more exposure compensation than average.

36mm equivalent	108mm equivalent
Normal Flash +1.3EV	Night Portrait Mode

Flash coverage was rather uneven at wide angle but very good at telephoto. In the Indoor test, the flash on the V550 underexposed our subject at its default setting, requiring a +1.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment to get reasonably bright results. Even here, the exposure is a little dim, with a strong pink cast. The camera's Night Portrait mode produced slightly brighter and more even results, though with a stronger pinkish-orange cast from the room lighting; no EV adjustment was required, fortunate since the EV adjustment is disabled in this mode.

Even at eight feet, our closest test range, the flash did not quite illuminate the DaveBox target adequately. This agrees with Kodak's own spec of 7.9 feet for flash range, a bit on the short side, although not uncommon for a compact camera model.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80	1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80	1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80	1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80	1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80	1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80	1/125 sec f4.8 ISO 80

Print Quality
Good print quality, great color, very usable 11x14 inch prints. ISO 400 images are very soft at 8x10, acceptable at 5x7, great at 4x6.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon i9900 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5000 here in the office. (See the Canon i9900 review for details on that model.)

With the Kodak EasyShare V550, we found that it had enough resolution to make very crisp 8x10 inch prints. At 11x14, its prints were a bit softer looking, but more than adequate for wall or table display. At high ISO, image noise levels are held in check, but at the cost of rather soft-looking images. ISO 200 photos look OK printed at 8x10 inches, but ISO 400 ones are marginal even at 5x7 inches, but look fine at 4x6. Color-wise, the Kodak V550's images looked really great when printed on the i9900, with bright, vibrant color. Users who prefer more subdued, technically accurate color saturation levels may find the V550's images a little too bright, but most consumers will probably find the V550's bright, snappy images very appealing.

Kodak V550 Timing
Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

Startup/Shutdown:
Power On to first shot	2.2 seconds
Shutter response (Lag Time):
Full Autofocus Wide	0.31 second
Full Autofocus Tele	0.95 second
Prefocused	0.086 second
Cycle time (shot to shot)
Normal large/fine JPEG	1.94 seconds
Flash recycling	5 seconds
Continuous mode	0.31 second 3.19 frames/second (3 large/fine frames)
Download speed
Windows Computer, USB 2.0	539 KBytes/sec

The V550's performance ranges from quite fast to just average, depending on what you're trying to do. It starts up fairly quickly, and has a very fast shutter response when the lens is set to its wide angle position. At the telephoto end of the lens' range though, the lag time of 0.95 second is on the slow side of average. On the other hand though, if you "prefocus" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure, it's blazingly fast, with a shutter delay of only 0.086 second, among the fastest on the market. Shot to shot cycle times are average, at about 1.9 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and it can capture up to six shots this quickly before it has to slow down and wait for the memory card to catch up. Continuous-mode speed is quite good, at a bit over three frames/second, for up to three shots in succession. The flash takes about five seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, about average for this class of camera. Connected to a computer, download speeds are fast enough that you probably won't feel a need for a separate card reader, but nonetheless aren't as fast as many cameras currently on the market. Bottom line, while not a first choice for sports or other fast-paced action, the V550 is responsive enough (particular at wide angle lens settings) to handle most family photo opportunities.

See full Picky Details page.

Battery
Short battery life with the LCD on, very good when LCD is switched off.

Operating Mode	Battery Life
Still-image capture mode LCD on	58 minutes
Still-image capture mode LCD off	384 minutes
Image playback LCD on	106 minutes

The Kodak EasyShare V550 uses a custom rechargeable 3.7V, 720 mAh LiIon battery for power. The table above shows maximum run times based on our power measurements and the rated performance of its battery. Given the short run time with the LCD enabled, you should definitely consider purchasing a second battery to pack along on extended outings.

Storage
No card is included with the Kodak EasyShare V550, although it accepts SD/MMC cards; 28.5MB RAM is built into the camera.

Image Capacity with 28.5MB Internal Memory		Fine
2,567 x 1,932	Images	17
	File Size	1.6MB
2,304 x 1,728	Images	21
	File Size	1.3MB
2,048 x 1,536	Images	26
	File Size	1.1MB
1,532 x 1,164	Images	43
	File Size	659K

I strongly recommend buying at least a 128MB card, preferably a 256MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.

See full Picky Details page.