I purchased the Kodak pixPro FZ55 for several reasons: a) I needed a smaller camera that took up less space in my luggage and/or travel backpack; b) used Li-ion rechargeable batteries that could be charged either in the camera or in a small charger; c) took good photos, day or night, of people, buildings, and scenery; d) took good video using 32 or 64 GB SD cards; and e) cost less than $150.00 (for a point and shoot camera!). I received my camera in three working days, opened the box, read the instruction manual, charged the battery (comes partially charged), and put the camera through its paces for a week.

Likes and Dislikes: Look at the comparison photo of my “normal-sized” DSLR with carrying strap and regular lens, and the Kodak next to it. Camera fits in my hand. When I travel internationally, usually eight to ten days, I do not use checked luggage; I use only a backpack carry-on that actually fits in the overhead without being offensive to fellow passengers. To do that, the choice in cameras is obvious. Why not just use my cell phone? Because of the increasing number of folks who have lost ’em, dropped ’em, or had ’em stolen. Camera setup using on-screen prompts easy to understand and follow, menu choices easy to ascertain and follow too. Camera takes good photos outdoors as seen in several of the other photos. Zoom (telephoto) capability is average, as seen by the two photos with the white building and vehicles in the distance. Camera doesn’t compensate well when too much light is coming in as seen in one photo with bright vegetation and tree shadows, but that can be adjusted with better technique and composition. Macro photos tend to be “flat”, as seen in one photo, but I expected that without f-stop adjustments or using a tripod. Again, use of better technique would probably help. Also need to think about space and weight in the travel bag.

Zoom is smooth with normal low buzzing sound found in higher-priced point and shoot cameras. LCD screen is small, but I expected that because of the overall smallness of the camera. For me, I can still see the screen image fine. Indoor photos with flash are passable, but one must be close to subject due to reduced flash output. Flash turns “on” and “off” easily. Timer works well, 2s &10s delay with audible beep when ready to shoot. Use caution and a careful touch when opening the camera to insert or retrieve SD card and/or battery located in same slot, and check that camera is OFF when trying to access the port, located on the bottom corner.

DISLIKES: No external charger for the battery. Most digital cameras I have purchased in the past always came with an external charger. This one only charges the battery internally, unless you buy an external charger, which I would highly recommend one always have an external charger for extra/spare batteries for your camera! Also didn’t like you only access the manual by reading or downloading on-line. What is wrong with manufacturers today? They SHOULD supply manuals with their products, no matter what it is. Not have the end user go hunting for it, and many times when I went seeking a manual for a product I bought, if the manufacturer may have discontinued the item, they tend to remove the manual, and now it’s no longer available to access, even though you may have bought the item new, no manual with it is just dumb and lazy on their part. If I am printing it on paper, then they sure didn’t save any trees, and maybe I had to print it several times before I got the fomatting right to put it in a notebook or folder for future reference, wasting paper and more trees. Manufactures take notice, you ARE NOT doing the trees or the end user any favor by EXCLUDING manuals from your products!

LIKES:
Easy to use, but then I have been accustomed to digital cameras for a very long time, so I can navigate around them very easily, and I found this one very easy to navigateonce I checked out all the buttons and what they did. Has a nice LCD screen for viewing your photo’s after taking the shots, one thing I don’t quite understand is the “slideshow”, you get 3 options to pick from #1, #2 or #3, #1 just shows the basic snapshot and really does nothing. #2 will do some type of effect, as does #3, but to me, they make no rhyme or reason for even being there at all.

They don’t copy to your computer when transferring the photo’s to your computer, you’d have to use another program, like some kind of video editor to create a slide show with similar or like effects. And the issue is, it’s NOT a slide show of the photo’s in the camera or on the SD Card, it only affects the ONE PHOTO you’re viewing, so it’s not a slideshow by any means. When I selected it to see what it did, it just affected the one photo I was viewing, I had expected to see a slideshow of ALL the photo’s I had taken or be allowed to select a specific number to create a slideshow that could be saved as a video exported file from the camera, but none of that is possible. Waste of a camera resource in my opinion.

The photos are good, and I have attached a few here to show the cameras’ capability in low light conditions, the two photo’s of the same kitten (Cordellia-001/-002) are indoors in low light, the older cat (Apollo), taken outside is nearing sunset. Forgive the messy look of the floor inside the house, we’re in the process of removing the carpeting from our house, and we’re just starting work on it, so the floors look a tad messy for the time being.

Even with the Dislikes and the few faults it has, I can recommend the camera, it seems to take nice photographs, I haven’t tried videos as yet, I have some projects in mind for that for YouTube later on. I mostly purchased this camera for still photos when on nature walks or other outside activities that may be photo-worthy.

For the most part this has been a good camera. but for some reason, now the SD card won’t slide in to the slot like it did before. I have the hardest time getting it in, sometimes I’m afraid I may break the camera just handling it.

I rate this as highly as I do mainly because this camera is affordable, when even basic cameras are ridiculously expensive. The user manual is too basic and I have not been able to figure out how to access some of the menus this camera supposedly has–though it’s possible that those menus don’t really exist, or that the camera I have is not working right; I just can’t tell because the user manual is unclear and I only once accidentally found a hidden/broken menu. It would be great if there were detailed video tutorials for this camera. The color is consistently off on this camera no matter what setting or lighting situation I use, so a bit of photo editing is required. But this is an affordable camera, and it’s not complicated (since I have not been able to find most of the menus that the user manual claims exist), so I don’t regret buying it.

The camera was very easy to use and carry around. The picture quality was fantastic and it adjusted well to the changing light conditions. The size and the color of this camera are just perfect.