Kodak Easy Share 5500 - Perfect for Special Projects, Printing, Small Office Use!

Being someone with a small home office AND a growing desire to print pictures as I go, from home, this seemed like the perfect option.

I picked it up at Best Buy, during the after Turkey Day frenzy, and managed to get it for $199 PLUS three free packs of color ink cartridges. What a deal! To top it off, there was an 'open box' of photo paper that I got for half price, and there was nothing wrong with it, other than the outer packaging being torn. So basically, I was ready to go right from purchase!

I used and used and used this printer, so much so I thought I might burn it out or something! Thing is, I was in charge of putting together a retrospective on my grandfather for his 80th birthday. So I gathered many, many photos from a wide range of sources and scanned them all in on this printer, quickly and easily, then did a little color correction and began the printing process. All contained within the printer and the included software, I was able to get my project done! Normally, I'd use something like Photoshop, but the options within Kodak's software are surprisingly good.

Here's a breakdown of my opinions....

SCANNER: Love it, love it, love it! If you have a ton of old photos you need to scan in, this machine will save you so much time and effort! So long as you space them wide enough apart (say 1/2 inch or so around each photo), the software automatically recognizes each as a separate file and auto-designates them as such. Meaning, you scan 6 photos at once, just one click! You can keep scanning screen after screen and in about 40 scans, I did all the photos for my presentation... we're talking like 200 pics!

PRINTER: There are two separate trays: one for 4x6 photos and one for traditional size paper. LOVE THAT! Makes it so easy to select a bunch of photos to print and just let it do it's thing. Or, you can select a bunch of photos and print them out on a full size sheet, saying you want to include four files on a single page. You have so many options for printing and collating and creating double-sided prints, it's AWESOME!

SOFTWARE: For the casual, nonprofessional user, the photo-correction software is just fine. No need for anything special or expensive extra with this set up. You can correct red eye, do auto color correcting, crop photos, adjust sizing, and turn your images anywhere 360 degrees. You can also make precise color correction to your needs or desires. Want everything to come out sepia or black and white? Done. Want a blue tone or to remove a blue tone? Done. It's simple and quick, best I've seen included with hardware to date, and I've been buying computers and printers since I was a geeky kid in the 80s!

FAXING: I cannot comment on the faxing just yet, since I haven't had the opportunity to use it as of yet, but I will update my review if I find anything interesting to report. I have a feeling it will be just fine, judging by my usage thus far.

A WORD ON VISTA: Oh and Vista users, don't fret, it works FINE with Windows Vista, in addition to the older operating system, XP, which I have also used with this printer.

PRICY INK CARTRIDGES ARE A THING OF THE PAST! That's right! Kodak decided to think about the customer and realize how ticked we get when we have to replace ink... it's way too expensive for no real reason. Color is under $15 and black and white is under $10. Can you believe it? Wow, I'm impressed! Nice, nice, nice, don't think twice. Get it!