Kodak's Bad product, Bad design, Bad service.

I've owned this camera for over 3 years, paying a price of around $500. It was my first and a fine beginner's camera - albeit with an extremely slow and irritating shutter speed, and bad image quality due to compression. It was okay and easy to use - until hell broke loose. -_-

After about a year and a half, I faced the E#45 Problem. The lens mechanism did not work. Right in time for my graduation. The warranty had just passed but Kodak repaired it for free apart from S&H. I had to take pictures with an old Olympus 35mm.

It worked okay for another year and a bit except the lens broke again, and grinded inside the camera refusing to come out. The warranty was over so I did not bother to call Kodak again. I found a way to get the lens in and out by tapping the camera and then turning the lens in a counter or clockwise motion.

This summer during a family vacation the Camera got the black screen. Taking pictures of Parliament, it was fine. Then the screen went black. Nothing wrong with the hardware. I could preview the older pictures and they looked fine. All the new pictures were black. Stupid malfunctional lens.

Called Kodak again. The camera has been discontinued, and refused to repair the camera. However by paying $200, I would receive a newer model in replacement. The Kodak V550... which retails now for only a little bit more than that.

Horrible experience; and now I have no functional camera.