Pentax Optio 555 5MP Digital Camera w/ 5x Optical Zoom

Rating:
Summary: an excellent pocket camera
Review: This is billed as an upgrade to the earlier Optio 550, and when my much used & much appreciated 550 went over a cliff with a grad student (the student survived, the camera, alas, did not)I went straight out and ordered a 555. Good news/bad news. Good news is that I find the 555 has all of the things that I loved about the 550 -excellent resolution, remarkably good automatic exposure even in very weird lighting situations, the VERY nice 5x optical zoom that has allowed me to get some really good "up close & personals" with my study birds, and downright AMAZING batery life (I took my 555 off for a week in Wales, filled up a 256 Meg card with pix -many using flash- & STILL had plenty of battery when I got home.)It also seems very rugged & forgiving (although I am keeping it away from cliff-diving grad students!. SO, what's the bad news? To be honest I don't see much of a difference bewteen the 550 & the 555. The lens is still slow coming out, there is still a noticeable lag between pressing the shutter release & the picture actually taking, so this definitely ISN'T the camera that you want if split-second timing is critical. Other than that however I would say that if you want a really light-weight high resolution field camera with a good lens, look no further (DO get a big memory card however, you will be eating up a lot of bytes very quickly).

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional picture quality, fast, small problems
Review: This is my fourth digital camera in as many years. Overall, this is far better than the Olympus Camedia line and the Sony DSC-W1. I haven't had the opportunity to work with Cannon's, and I think that would be the closest contender for wht you can get in this camera.

The pluses of this Pentax are the crisp, extremely accurate colors, which are, if anything, on the bright side. But mostly they are spot on. Secondly, the flash is fast and powerful and most importantly, the focus is extremely fast and accurate even in the flash mode. By contrast, the Sony DSC-W1 is much slower in terms of 'locking-in' the focus in low light settings, as is the Olympus Camedia C-50. As a result, you have to be much, and i mean much steadier to get a good flash shot with the other cameras in low light settings (less so with the Olympus). I am not - i like to whip out the camera when my kids are doing fun things and shoot three or four quick shots indoors, and my Optio shots are consistently great, while the Sony's are such a blur that many get
deleted.

Another plus is the battery. While I had selected the Sony b/c i thought i would prefer the simplicity of being able to recharge AA's anytime, or buy replacements, i found the Pentax battery extremely long lasting - something like their promo literature says, along the lines of 500-600 shots. since it is lighter than 2 AA's, the camera overall is lighter than most running on 2-AA's.

I will say, however, that it is a bit of a hassle having to carry to Pentax battery charger, when if you use the Cannon or Sony you just need to take the standard AA Ni-Mh charger, which i take along anyway for flashlights etc. So now i often have 2 chargers, and thats a pain.

Another big plus is the very quick record time for the typical full 5 mp high resolution photo. My very unscientific method of using my watch stopwatch indicates its about .3 seconds, which was definitely faster than the Olympus or Sony. However it compares to other cameras, its the fastest I've ever experienced, and i've never felt slowed down even in some river rafting action moments.

The next thing I really like is purely subjective - the size of the lens is at least double the diameter of any compact 5 mp camera.
Now that is completely subjective, but my engineering background tells me that if you double the amount of glass that light passes through, you have reason to believe you will be improving the optical clarity of your images. somehow, for all the pictures i've blown up to 5 x 7, it seems like the Pentax photos are crisper with better color - could this be why?

Another plus - excellent closeup features. With 2 macro settings, I have always been very pleased with every kind of closeup.

The drawbacks are all important to me - but when it comes time to pack a camera, unless i need the wide angle lens of the Sony DSC-W1, this Optio is hands dwon my favorite.
Drawbacks:
- Movie mode is an embarassment to digital photography! try playing 320x240 on your computer and you will get eye strain! The movie looks like a moving short-cut! Check out the Sony or Kodak (and possibly some Cannon's) - they offer a resolution of 640x480 which is essential if you want to enjoy any movie clips on your computer.

- the proprietary download cable is another insult designed simply to make you buy another Pentax product. Again, take a lesson from Sony, which uses the standard mini-USB to USB cable for downloads rather than the Pentax-proprietary to USB cable. If you lose that cable on the road, you have no way of downloading your photos and you are jammed until you can mail order another from Pentax. If they would only have the courtesy to let you use the standard cable as Sony does, you could go to any electronics store, or use a friends. Plus, if you carry a portable hard drive or some such thing that uses the mini-USB to USB, you will already have the download cable, while with Pentax you must carry 2 cables.

-limited wide angle viweing. the Sony has noticably better wide angle viweing, something like 28 mm, vs something like 35-50 mm in this camera, Sony also has a screw on wide angle adapter which this camera does not.

- its time for Pentax to update the viewfinder. I'm sure they are working on it, but at least another .5 inches would help this camera ALOT.

- increase the size of the font of all the info in the viewfinder. All the newer cameras with the larger viwfinders using larger font as squinting to read critical information is just not fun.

Thats my take - this camera is far better than some of the competitors, and I hope Pentax is listening and will make some improvements, as i love this extremely functional camera now, but can't wait for the next model!

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Camera!
Review: This is the best camera I have own so far. Lots of cool stuffs. You don't have to be a professional to operate this camera. It's design for beginners as well as camera buffs. Excellent battery life! And most of all, considering all the features built into this camera, the price is very reasonable.