The rapid deployment of embedded image processing applications have forced a paradigm shift from complete hardware and software based implementations providing best performance and lowest cost, respectively towards a hybrid approach, namely, application specific instruction-set processor (ASIP). In this paper, we evaluate the applicability of CuSP, a softcore DSP-ASIP, for image processing applications. CuSP has a Crimson DSP processor core and hardware accelerators directly coupled with the core offering improved performance with flexibility. Results show that CuSP offers performance improvement over standard softprocessor MicroBlaze by up to a factor of 36 times. Crimson DSP core alone gives up to 5.3 times lower execution cycles than MicroBlaze.