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This is described as a pocket camera, it is 9x5.5x2cm, the width expands to 5cm with the lens open. It weights just over 150grams. It has a huge 5x3.8cm TFT display but also does have a viewfinder, however this is close to the edge and I think you would soon prefer to use the display except in really bright light.

There are four buttons below the viewfinder and a five position unit to the viewfinders right that control most of the cameras functions. The wide/telephoto rocker is top right with the shutter mounted on top. To the left of this is the flash toggle and the on/off button. Working though the menus is simple and adjustments easy to make.

See also: Digital Cameras

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There is a mini USB socket under a rubber bung on the right side and a power jack on the left side but as the unit is supplied with a docking station then you are more likely to perform these actions using the dock, I found the dock only works when powered.

The docking station sits by the PC waiting for you to drop in the camera, once inserted press a button on the front on the dock and Windows has another icon in My Computer, files can be transferred quickly to the PC. As standard this is only supplied with internal memory, however it can also accept SD cards. It cannot however be used as a storage medium as files can only be taken from the camera. However with stick drives etc being so cheap this is unlikely to be used as such. If you right click on the camera icon you get a rather different properties screen with three icons General, Events and Colour Management. Well worth a trawl to see the actions available.

Daylight images were fine as were flash images taken within a metre or so after that the image was not good. In fact I found better images were taken when you turned off the flash in reasonable light but as the exposure needs to be longer there is a danger of camera shake.

The same can be said when taking images using the 3x optical zoom, detail however is good providing you can hold the camera still enough. I was on the 22^nd floor of a building in London and saw a building that no one could definitely identify I took an image of it and when I got home viewed the image on my Panel with no magnification and it clearly shows a sign saying what it was. Distances are not my greatest forte but I guess it was around four hundred metres away plus the twenty two floors of the building I was in so the 3X SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH C-VARIOGON Optical Zoom Lens seems to do it's job, I had the camera taking images at 3.1MP at that time. Somewhat pointedly it turns out the building I was in used to house MI6.

The Kodak V550 has five possible image resolutions and I state the possible number of images each can take on the supplied internal memory. 5MP is 17, 4.4MP is 19, 4MP is 21, 3.1MP is 27 and 1.8MP is 43. With memory cards being so cheap I would suggest that at least a 64MB card should have been included.

For those who think the camera colour is important it is also available in silver. However I do have another gripe in that no case is supplied and while the lens is protected the TFT screen will get scratched in a pocket or bag without one. I note from my Internet searches that some companies do a memory card and a case for only a few pounds over the basic price, while this may be good offer I think these items should have been in the box.

You can buy it direct from the Kodak site for £249.99 (free delivery) or from various sites from just under £200 or around £210 upwards with case and memory card.

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=7103&pq-locale=en_GB&color=midnight_black