Kodak’s line of cameras have always been a source of terrific models.  Admittedly, they’ve had some missteps, but for the most part, you can count on a Kodak to come through in the clutch.  And today, you’ll get the perfect example of such a thing with our review of the Kodak M550.

The Kodak M550 is a twelve megapixel camera that offers a 5x optical zoom and supplementing 5x digital zoom, a 2.7 inch LCD monitor, the Kodak Share Button to allow one-button file transfer to your computer for easy uploading, Kodak Face Recognition,  Smart Capture technology, blur reduction (basically image stabilization with a few improvements), an onboard battery that charges inside the camera, video capture, a panorama mode that lets you cobble together a panorama display from three separate shots, in-camera editing software with the Perfect Touch system, a variety of scene and color modes, burst shooting, white balance, thirty two megs of onboard memory with support for Secure Digital memory cards, and direct printing.

This thing is literally stuffed with features, the resolution is only slightly lower than the highest I’ve seen in a compact digital camera, the zoom is surprisingly long range (5x is definitely not standard) and here’s where things get truly awesome–Best Buy has these suckers selling for a whopping hundred and thirty bucks.

A hundred and thirty bucks for a camera with this many features!  I don’t mind telling you that that’s really rather amazing in terms of sheer value.  If you’re looking for a new camera, I can’t imagine you doing much better in overall terms than the Kodak M550–a camera that packs an incredible amount of features into a tiny amount of cash.