Rating: 
Summary: Excellent image quality with very good portability
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: a decent camera PLUS 5x zoom in compact package
Review: the optio 550 is a solid camera with one big advantage over the competition: 5x zoom in a compact package. pros:
- 5MP resolution with good image quality.
- beats competition with a 5x optical zoom in a compact package (dimensions are 3.9 x 2.3 x 1.6 in, weighing 8.7 oz.).
- accurate color reproduction.
- low image noise at low ISO setting.
- allows a great deal of manual control.
- live histogram in shooting and play modes.
- very good macro capability.
- spot metering.
- long movie clips - up to 10 minutes each!
- convenient shooting priority play mode - a half-press of the shutter brings you back to shooting mode.
- decent night exposures with automatic noise reduction.
- no color cast when using flash.
- camera feels solidly built.
- bright, high resolution LCD monitor with anti-reflective coating.
- passive AF sensor helps with focusing.
- impressive battery life.
- price (compared to competition). cons:
- noise noticeable at ISO 100 and above.
- some purple fringing/chromatic aberration visible.
- some lens distortion from half-zoom to telephoto.
- autofocus speed could be better.
- shot to shot times not as fast as competition.
- no slow-sync flash setting.
- RAW format not supported.
- metal body scratches easily.
- high redeye occurrence.
- vignetting visible from half-zoom and wider.
- slow startup: >5 seconds.
- fastest continuous shooting speed is only 1 fps.
- slowest shutter speed available is 3 seconds.
- cannot physically access the battery or memory card while mounted on a tripod.
- plastic tripod mount.
- 16MB SD card is inadequate - be prepared to shell out more $$ for more memory.
- the batteries supplied are proprietary so add a few bucks to your budget for a spare. the optio 550 has a very impressive feature set, better than competition 5x zoom, and 5MP of resolution. there's not one glaring omission but there are enough minor ones that it got a 4 star rating. i hope this helps you in your buying decision. peace.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor image quality
Review: The Pentax Optio 550 5MP was light and easy to use, but I was unimpressed with the image quality. My daughter's 3MP Kodak produced sharper pictures. The image quality may have been better if sufficient memory had been included with the camera to store pictures at a high resolution setting. The16MB memory card included with the camera did not have sufficient space for even one shot at the highest resolution setting.
Rating:
Summary: Pentax hits the sweet spot with Optio 550
Review: This camera has all the features that are important to me: (1) 5x optical zoom [3x is not enough]
(2) compact size for carrying and travel
(3) 5 mpixel for resolution and prints up to 11 x 14 [or smaller enlargements of portions of the image]
(4) terrific battery life
(5) decent optical viewfinder with diopter adjustment for my glasses
(6) 0.1 sec. shutter release lag. Right now I don't see this combination of features available in any other camera. In the first two weeks of owning this camera I have taken some outstanding images including some macro close-ups. I have had some 8 x 10 prints made whose resolution rivals any 35mm prints that I've seen. The camera controls are well thought out and intuitive to use.
I have purchased a Pentax small leather case with a belt loop [camera and case also fits easily into a pants or jacket pocket], a Pentax remote control, an extra battery, and a 256 mb SD card that holds about 142 images at the 5mp/** JPG compression resolution. The camera is a little hard to hold as it is heavy and relatively small, but I use two hands. So far I am very pleased with this camera. Pentax may have come a little late to the digital camera game, but I think this camera has a combination of features that will appeal to a wide range of users like myself. Problem:
This camera has very high image noise at ISO's settings above 64. Other cameras using the same sensor have much less noise. The problem likely comes from too high sharpening used by the camera which Pentax could probably easily fix by issuing a firmware update, which so far they have not done. If you are looking to use this camera in low light conditions, it is probably not the camera for you, as you would have to do extensive noise reduction on images above 8 x 10.
This noise is not a problem if the ISO setting is set at 64 and the sharpness and contrast settings on the camera are set to low. Shooting always at ISO 64 does reduce the usefulness of this otherwise fine camera.
Rating:
Summary: Virtue of the small
Review: This camera is GREAT!
It fits in my bag and goes with me everywhere, it's easy to operate, the zoom gives you access to all the shots you want and the quality is superb - as good as film!
The user defined features allow you to set the speed and depth of field, as well of filtering the image, which is an awsome feature.
The main points of satisfaction are its size, the zoom and the quality of the pictures.
Thumbs up!
| 
