Epson PhotoPC 550

Opinion: Purchased several years ago as a reconditioned camera. GREAT to put in your jacket pocket, works well in subdued light if you use the correction feature in the software. Also takes excellent pictures IF you use the highest resolution, gets grainy if you try to blow-up from low resolution. Recommended for no larger than 4X6 or 640X480

Opinion: Excellent image quality...easy to use. I've taken some very good pictures with this camera, it's light, and compact. The software allows for easy correction to the images...

Opinion: if you can't take a camera with you at all times, how do you expect to get good pictures? who wants to take giant 2meg pictures of boring stuff with a heavy camera. not me. that's why i got this thing. the epson 550 takes the best 640x480 pictures out there i have seen...and 74 of them on an 8mb card. the batteries are AA and last forever. construction is very sturdy. feels like it's made of rock. camera has been discontinued for almost 4 years, but is very pricey due to it's cult following. expect to pay 130-230 on ebay. see a reduced pic i took at www.geocities.com/spufc (the front page pic) the other pics change constantly so they are from different cameras, both film and digital. the photopc 550 was rated #1 by both cnet and zdnet in 1998, before they replaced the reviews. search for the epson 550 in yahoo and check out the camera fan sites.

Opinion: I rated the construction average because although this camera has held up for 2½ years of almost continuous, go anywhere, let anyone use it duty, it does have a flimsy battery cover. It was often taken when a Nikon 900 I had would get left behind while the Epson 550 was stuffed in the pocket. (The Nikon, despite gentle treatment, died anyway.

I initially rated features as "Poor," but then thought about the voice annotation, pocketability, and great battery life. Wish it had flash and a zoom. Can't really say I miss a power-hungry LCD.

Image quality was pretty good in its day, but I will readily admit that new cameras do better. I have seen a few new cameras that are worse, though when they are operated at 640x480. Saturation is usually very good--almost too much. White balance varies--two pictures taken within a few seconds of each other that should be the same may not have the same balance. Low light is great for its vintage, and indoor hand-held turn out better than one would expect.

Ease of use--super simple.

Value--got it late 1998 for $200, then bought an 8MB SmartMedia for about $25.

Yes, I am searching for an upgrade to the Epson 550. But after having such a sweet little pocket camera, I bet I will give up something (like a 10X stabilized zoom, CD-RW or Microdrive, and a LITTLE bit of image quality) in order to have a camera that is so easy to always have at hand in the pocket.

Opinion: Good 'plain jane' digitial camera.