Kodak V550 VS. Canon Sd400

[Rsottoway43]

Hello Everyone,

I am new here and seem to be in the right place to find info on digital cameras. I am in the hunt for my first digital camera and am having a difficult time deciding which camera to go with. At the moment I am stuck between the Kodak V550 and the Canon Sd400. Just wanting someone here to give me user feedback on both of these cameras to help make my decision. With the Sd400 is there a docking station that can be utilized or not?

Thanks for any help that you all can provide,
Ryan

[gary_hendricks]

Some opinions on the Kodak V550.

The camera is great. The LCD screen is pretty big for a camera this size. Much bigger than the Cx model. You can also adjust the brightness of the LCD screen to your liking or for certain lighting situations. You can set the screen to go off after a certain time period or not at all and comes right back on with a touch of a button.

It's also very easy to use (there is no need to read the manual to figure out how to use it--no frustration) and I love all the features it has. What I love the most of course is it's size. I really wanted a camera that I could take with me everywhere since I love taking pictures, but I didn't what to have to drag a big bag around with me to do so. This camera fits into my relatively small purse along with my wallet, a PDA, keys, pocket calendar, tissues, etc, everything I consider to be esstentials without making the purse hard to zip or bulky.

The camera has several settings for just about any lighting condition, situation, and activity. And the pictures come out just as good on high zoom as they do on no zoom. You can also zoom in WHILE you take videos, a feature the Cx model, as well as a lot of other brand cameras do not have. To make room for more pictures you can lower the picture quality to 4.4MP, 4.0, 3.1, and 1.8. To conserve battery power (which is very good I must say) you can use the viewfinder which takes a picture of exactly what you see in the viewfinder, nothing is cut off.

Another great thing about this camera is that it doesn't take a long time to boot up. You can take a picture a second or two after turning it on which can be very convenient.

I love that this camera comes with a dock (for recharging and/or transfering) and a very nice one at that. It also comes with a photo printer dock insert, a wrist strap, and a carrying case. It's not the kind of case that will protect your camera if you drop it, which is find for me cause I keep it in my purse, and it's thin enough that it doesn't take up any extra room, while offering some protection from anything in my purse that might scratch it. (I really could have used a bag like this in Europe.)

The only downside to this camera is that the internal memory does not hold very many pictures on the 5MP photo quality option. That is not too big of a deal since most people automatically buy memory cards for their cameras. I have a 512MB memory card and it hold 308 photos on the 5MP option, 344 on the 4.4MP option, 379 on the 4.0MP option, 469 on the 3.1MP option, and 757 on the 1.8MP option.

There is also some editing that you can do right on the camera before you transfer it to your computer. The Kodak photo editing software is okay; it's basic and fun to play aroung with. I just use HP Image Zone and transfer the pictures using the camera wizard since I have XP. I had the software installed on my old computer but don't have installed on the one I have now because I didn't need it.

In conclusion, this camera is well worth it's price and it has everything and more that an amateur photographer could ever want or need.