The Eagle Eye is a compact video/still camera that comes with a bundle of accessories.

There’s both a 110 volt and an automobile adapter for recharging the battery in-camera; a second lithium battery; two adapters for mounting on different size straps; another adapter for mounting on handlebars; several adhesive cushions for mounting on a helmet; a USB cable and a mini-HDMI cable.

It’s shaped like an oversized mobile phone from ten years ago. The outside case is completely rubber coated, making it less likely to injury should it take a fall.

On its face is a small 1-1/2″ LCD for and menu buttons for entering camera settings. The LCD is tiny but is a welcome feature since it lets you review your photos and videos in the field.

Left: when held down for two seconds, powers the camera on/off the camera; otherwise is the shutter release for still photos.

Right: when held down for two seconds, puts the camera into review mode; otherwise is the shutter release for videos.

Inside is the lithium ion battery and slot for a standard SD or SDHC card.

There are also two connectors: one a USB cable and the other a mini HDMI cable.

Given that it weighs only 6 ounces or so, it is comfortable to wear and is not obtrusive.

Without further testing, I don’t think you’ll want to use this for taking those all-important wedding photos.

Here’s a still taken indoors which I’d rate as just “acceptable”.

As folded, it easily fits in the outer pocket of my camera bag so is always available when I’m carrying my external flash.

To counter this tricky lighting, the A55 offers D-Range Optimization that compresses tones to preserve detail in both shadows and highlights.

This feature is not unique to the A55; Canon offers a similar feature which it calls Auto Lighting Optimizer and Nikon uses the moniker Active D-Lighting.

However, the A55 offers five levels of D-Range optimization. To use it, press the dedicated D-Range button on the top of the camera to reveal the DRO menu item and toggle between Auto, Lv 1, Lv 2, LV3, Lv 4 and Lv 5.

In the high contrast winter photos below, you can see that the D-Range reveals much more shadow detail at Lv 5.

For the last few years, HDR has been popularized by using software to combine multiple images within the computer. The A55 is one of the first to offer it easily and automatically in-camera.

While it may not produce acceptable results in all situations, I’ve been happy with many of the A55’s HDR images that I’ve captured.

Note that HDR is not available unless the A55 is set to capture JPG only images (not RAW).

When set to use this feature, the A55 captures six successive images and merges them to produce a single image with lower noise.

Once again, it’s simple to use. Press the ISO button and set the topmost item (labeled ISO) between Auto and 25600. Press the shutter release to capture the scene and a short time later after it is processed, the image is written to the SDHC card.

Above, you can clearly see that the noise level of the rightmost image is significantly less than the leftmost image even though it was captured at a higher ISO setting. I experienced an equally reduced noise level in several other images that I shot in low lighting conditions. So I find multi frame noise reduction to be a very useful yet unexpected feature.

Note that multi frame noise reduction is not available unless the A55 is set to capture JPG only images (not RAW).

With the A55, you can create a panorama automatically. First, you set the mode dial for panoramas. From the shooting menu, you can select either 2D or 3D panoramas.

For 2D panoramas, you choose a direction for panning: left to right, right to left, up to down or down to up direction and a format: standard or wide.

For 3D panoramas, you choose a direction for panning: left to right or right to left and a format: 16:9, standard or wide.

As its name suggests, to capture a scene you press and hold the shutter while slowly sweeping (panning) the camera in the chosen direction. After a specified number of images are captured, shooting ends and the A55 stitches together the separate images to create the panorama and writes a single one to the SDHC card.

It’s as simple as that. You’ll want to take a few test shots to determine the speed at which you should sweep the camera. To guide you, the A55 displays helpful text messages in the viewfinder with shooting suggestions.

The 3D panorama will appear as a 2D panorama if you do not use a 3D television nor special eyewear.

I really enjoy the ease at which I can capture a landscape using the Sweep Panorama.