kodak V550 or another?

[rryu0212]

I need to purchase a camera before next week when I go on a ski trip with family.

So far, I'm considering the Sont T9 or the Kodak V550, but I'm leaning towards Kodak V550.

Am I making the right decision to go with the Kodak V550?

Are there other cameras in the same price range as the Kodak V550 ($349) that might also be a good competitor?

I'm mainly trying to find a camera with great image quality and also looking for a good flash.



THANKS.

[Homer J.]

I highly recommend the A610. It offers both full manual and full auto, has great battery life, and takes awesome images.

Heres an example from the a620, which is the same camera with 2 more mp's, resized

[kcmargulies]

you may want to look at the Kodak V570 since it also has a super wide angle and shoots real panoramic shots with good Kodak colors.

as an option, you shoot one shot, move a bit and shoot another one and then once again, shoot a third.

what is unique is the camera automatically stitches all three shots together into one seamless panoramic shot in about 10 seconds. of course, the camera also shoots in normal mode.

here are some examples...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=16999596

good luck!

[slipe]

Friends were looking for a small camera and I recommended the V550 to them. They are very happy with it. The LCD is high quality and the MPEG4 movies fit a lot on the card. Optical quality is very good.

I set the software up so all they have to do is push the download button on the dock. It opens Easyshare, makes a folder with the current date as the title and downloads the images into the folder. Then it deletes the images from the camera. It isn't my preferred method of downloading and organizing, but it is perfect for them.

The T9 appears to be a dynamite little camera. It has true optical stabilization and takes good photos at ISO400. That combination should give much better than average limited light capability. It also has a high quality LCD. Some people don't like the sliding cover. You have to use Memory Stick Pro to use best quality movies and that is a little pricier than SD.

The V550 has an optical viewfinder and the T9 doesn't. I find it a lot easier to quickly acquire an image in dynamic situations using the optical viewfinder – especially when zoomed. Both LCDs are better than average in bright light and some people never use the optical viewfinder.

Neither camera has a great flash range. All of the earlier Sony T series cameras had a pitiful flash. I suspect they still have the same flash but use the higher ISO capability to extend it to a decent range.

Both cameras have permanent internal memory you can use to keep an album of your favorite photos in the camera to show on the high quality LCD screens. I like that much better than giving you a useless throw-away memory card.

The V570 does have some limitations. It is a full f-stop slower with the normal lens, which would be a little limiting. The flash range is also shorter because of the slower lens. The V570 has no optical viewfinder. It would be great for scenery and interiors though.

[Homer J.]

The V550 is a good kodak camera. The V570 isalso pretty good, but not as vesitile because itjumps from 23mm to 39mm, which could be annoyingunless you plan to take all landscape pictures. Just remember to have at least 3 batteries, as the battery life is pretty bad (120 pictures), due to the hi-res screen. At least kodak's batterys are only$20 US, which is cheaper than most.

[mtclimber]

The V-550 is an excellent camera.The flash works well out to 10 to 11 feet. It is small, handy,convenient, and a good value.

If you can tolerate larger physical sized cameras, there is the Canon SD 450, SD 550, and A-620 along with the Casio Z120, and the Fuji F-10 and E-900, which are strong contenders andthat all fit within your budget guide lines.

If video clips are important then the choice is the Kodak V-550.

If low light level shooting is important, then it is either the Fuji F-10 or E-900.

If small size+manual controls+AA batteries are important, then it is the Casio Z120.

Take your pick.

MT