Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The major pros of the Optio 550 are its overall image quality, 5x lens, battery life, feature set, and portability.The major downsides I've experienced are ISO noise, a slightly slow zoom and autofocus, and a delay in shutter release.A few other problems are ignorable or easily fixable in photoshop (vignetting) or can be largely fixed in camera settings (indoor photos).
Size and Build: I wanted a camera that is unobtrusive and the Optio 550 is certainly small enough.It is not a one-hand camera because of the weight, but it fits my hands (which I believe are slightly below average male size) very well.In addition, the build feels solid.
Image Quality: On the whole, very excellent.ISO noise is a problem (400 is unusable, 200 is marginal and will probably depend on your tolerance for grain, 100 and 64 are just fine) and so this camera isn't best for lots of shots in dark spaces, especially if the flash won't be able to illuminate the subject.In some of my images there has also been minor vignetting (slightly darkened corners) and according to dpreview.com, which has a good review, this occurs in wide-angle to half-zoom shots.Most of the time it is barely noticeable, and it is never a showstopper because a forum member at dpreview.com created a Photoshop file that can be used to easily correct the problem, which I have so far used a few times with good results... Cropping out the affected portion is, of course, another option.Otherwise, the image quality has been excellent, provided one sets and keeps the sharpness (and possibly also contrast, this seems to be more a matter of taste) down a notch from the default value.Outdoor images are, in my experience, sharp and detailed using the camera on full auto.Indoor images without good illumination are a bit harder for this camera, but forcing the camera to use ISO 64 or 100, in conjunction with the lower sharpness/contrast settings, will almost always give a very good photo.I am colorblind, so I will not offer an opinion on color accuracy.The comments of others on this aspect seem to be uniformly positive, however.The camera has three levels of JPEG compression, as well as a TIFF mode.The visible difference between ** and *** images is very difficult to see, but ** is about half the size.Users who aren't scrutinizing or heavily editing images will probably find that a very suitable compromise.The purist in me wants to use TIFF but my budget demands otherwise, so I usually stick with ***.
Battery life: Quite long.I was, for instance, able to go a week of casual picture taking (perhaps 15 pictures a day, no flash) with around two-three hours (all told) of nothing but reviewing pictures before it finally ran out.An AC adapter is not included, unfortunately, although a charger is.
The lens: The 5x optical zoom was a major selling point for me, and I have already appreciated its ability to get me up close several times.At this point in time, if you value small size and zoom capabilities, no other camera is its equal.It takes about 2 seconds to completely zoom in from a wide shot, which sometimes seems too slow.The Optio 550 has a 4x digital zoom also, but this type of zooming is best done after the fact with Photoshop or something else anyway, so I turned it off.
Feature set:Has full auto, full manual, an aperture priority and a shutter priority mode all of which operate as expected.Movie quality is adequate, but not great.The sound quality of annotations and movies is quite decent, however.Several filters (for color, softness, etc) are available which I haven't used.Modes for certain picture types (sunsets, snow, portraits, etc.).Of these, I've only used sunset and fireworks so far.The manual neglects to mention that fireworks mode sets a long shutter time, requiring the camera to remain motionless.3D and panorama modes.The continuous shooting mode is about a frame per second at full resolution.The flash can be on, off, on with red-eye reduction, autoflash, or autoflash with red-eye reduction.The camera will display a histogram on the lcd live or after the fact.There is a 3x3 grid overlay available on the lcd to help framing.There is a mode for taking movies more slowly, allowing playback to appear faster, in addition to time-delay and time-interval settings.Two macro modes.More that I don't have space to detail.
LCD: Sharp enough, bright enough.No adjustable brightness settings, however.In bright sunlight it is, as others have noted, difficult to see.You can also elect to turn it off.
Miscellaneous:The autfocus is a bit slow, there is a slight but noticeable lag between pressing the shutter release and the actual picture, and these in combination with the fairly slow zoom will probably make some action shots very difficult to capture.Includes ACDSee software, and USB/NTSC cables.The SD card that comes with the camera is an anemic 16MB, so buying a 128MB or 256MB card is a necessity.I use the user mode on the camera to hold all my indoor shot settings, which means that I am always only a turn of a single knob away from alleviating indoor image concerns.
Conclusion: Given all the positives, I think the negatives are outweighed.I think the Optio 550 offers the best overall quantity of features and quality of images for a "take anywhere" camera of any that I researched before purchasing.The price is excellent as well, considering what it offers.I am very satisfied.
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Product Description:
The sleek, sophisticated Pentax Optio 550 digital camera offers high-level performance and is convenient enough to make you want to carry it everywhere. The Optio 550 features 5-megapixel resolution, a 5x optical zoom lens, automatic operation (as well as a wide range of manual control), and compatibility with Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard memory cards.
Optics and Resolution
Featuring a 5-megapixel CCD sensor, the Optio 550 delivers image detail up to 2,592 x 1,944 pixels for print enlargements up to 20 by 30 inches. The exceptionally compact lens offers a high level of performance with 5x optical zoom. Zooming power can be augmented through combination with digital 4x zoom for a total of 20x zoom performance.
Storage and Transfer
Images are stored on either Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory cards. Images can be downloaded to either a Mac or PC via USB storage-class connectivity, which means the camera can be connected to any USB-based Windows Me/2000/XP and Mac OS 8.6 or later computer without installing any software.
Movie Mode
In addition to taking still photos, the Optio 550 is capable of recording up to 10 minutes of video at 15 frames per second, with 320 x 240 recorded pixels. The Optio 550 can also be used as an audio recorder, with up to 30 seconds of sound added to images.
More Features
With the 3-D image mode, the Optio 550 adds a totally new dimension to digital photography. Just take two shots following a simple set of guidelines to achieve shots that have a genuine sense of depth and perspective when seen through the special viewer provided
Other features include:
1.5-inch TFT LCD display
Optical viewfinder displays actual image zoom, which helps to conserve battery power by switching off LCD display
Digital filter mode provides effects similar to conventional filters, from sepia to color tones (red, pink, yellow, green, blue, and purple)
Built-in flash can be automatically set to fire; also includes red-eye reduction, flash-on, and flash-off modes
A range of shooting modes to choose from, including metered manual and shutter priority AE
Interval shooting mode lets you set the time to start shooting, the duration of the interval between shots, and the number of frames
Power and Size
The camera is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery (included). It measures 3.9 by 2.3 by 1.6 inches and weighs 7.2 ounces.
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