Olympus Camedia D-550 3MP Digital Camera w/ 2.8x Optical Zoom

by Olympus

Product Details

Product Manual [5.11mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 7.5 x 4.1 inches ; 1.7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000068BRB
• Item model number: SP-550
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,109 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 8, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Sporting a similar design to previous Olympus D-series digicams, the D-550 Zoom features a 3-megapixel CCD, 2.8x optical zoom, and a 3.6x digital zoom. With its familiar film-camera style and high-resolution imagery, the D-550 is a great choice for vacation photos as well as family snapshots.

Optics and Resolution
The DS-550's 3-megapixel sensor captures ample detail for sharp prints at sizes up to 8 by 10 inches. For a serious amateur photographer, 3 megapixels is a great resolution, providing enough detail to perform some cropping and still have crisp prints.

The all-glass autofocus Olympus lens has a 2.8x zoom range that's equivalent to a 36-100mm zoom lens on a 35mm camera. For technophiles, its aperture ranges from f2.9 to f4.4 depending on the zoom setting, with a normal focal range from 2.6 feet to infinity. There's also a 3.6x digital zoom, but remember that digital zoom tends to reduce the sharpness and detail of your image, so it's best used sparingly.

To compose your images, either use the traditional camera viewfinder or the 1.8-inch LCD display (also used to review the shots you've taken). Having both types of viewfinders offers the best of both worlds: if you're used to a film camera or want to conserve battery life, use the viewfinder. If you want to see exactly the picture you'll be capturing, use the LCD display.

More Features
A sliding clamshell lens cover simultaneously protects the D-550's lens and provides a simple way to turn the camera on and off, and the all-plastic body feels both lightweight and durable. While the D-550 offers automatic settings for point-and-shooters and beginning photographers, there are several manual features for more adventurous photographers, including macro mode, adjustable white-balance settings, exposure compensation, and the ability to shoot black-and-white and sepia images.

Power
Power is provided by four AA batteries (alkalines are included). We recommend getting a set or two of rechargeable nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries and a charger. A digital camera will kill a set of alkaline batteries extremely quickly, especially if you're using the camera's LCD display, so they aren't recommended except in a pinch. To ensure you'll always be ready for action, we recommend having two sets of rechargeables so you can always have one set in the camera and the other set in the charger.

Movie Mode
In movie mode, the camera captures silent video clips at resolutions of either 320 x 240 pixels (up to 33 seconds per movie) or 160 x 120 pixels (up to 148 seconds per movie). The limited duration and resolution of your movies guarantees that this feature won't replace your camcorder, but it's perfect for when you just want to capture a quick movie and e-mail it to a friend or relative.

Storage and Transfer
Images are stored on SmartMedia memory cards. The included 16 MB card holds approximately 21 images at the camera's default settings. SmartMedia cards are reusable, but if you tend to take more than 21 images per outing (or plan to use the video feature much), then you'll want a bigger card. A 64 MB card will store well over 100 pictures. With most cameras, the brand of memory card you use is irrelevant, but genuine Olympus cards have a panorama feature not found on cards from other manufacturers. This feature makes it easier to stitch together a series of pictures you've taken into a single panoramic photo, and may justify the slightly higher price of the card if it's a feature you plan to use frequently.

To transfer images to your computer, simply attach the included USB cable between your PC and your camera. Your computer should automatically recognize your camera and let you move the pictures to your hard drive.

Size
At 4.6 by 2.6 by 2 inches and 8.5 ounces, the D-550 is fairly thin and small, making it easy to bring along on outings--but it won't easily fit in your shirt pocket.

Contents and Recommended Accessories
The package includes the camera, 16 MB SmartMedia card, four AA alkaline batteries, USB cable, video cable, carrying strap, and software on CD.

Everything you need to get started is included in the box, but we recommend these accessories to make the most of your camera: a carrying case, a set of NiMH rechargeable size AA batteries, and a higher-capacity SmartMedia memory card. Compatible accessories for this camera are listed near the top of this page.

Product Description

Optics and Resolution The DS-550's 3-megapixel sensor captures ample detail for sharp prints at sizes up to 8 by 10 inches. For a serious amateur photographer, 3 megapixels is a great resolution, providing enough detail to perform some cropping and still have crisp prints. The all-glass autofocus Olympus lens has a 2.8x zoom range that's equivalent to a 36-100mm zoom lens on a 35mm camera. For technophiles, its aperture ranges from f2.9 to f4.4 depending on the zoom setting, with a normal focal range from 2.6 feet to infinity. There's also a 3.6x digital zoom, but remember that digital zoom tends to reduce the sharpness and detail of your image, so it's best used sparingly. To compose your images, either use the traditional camera viewfinder or the 1.8-inch LCD display (also used to review the shots you've taken). Having both types of viewfinders offers the best of both worlds: if you're used to a film camera or want to conserve battery life, use the viewfinder. If you want to see exactly the picture you'll be capturing, use the LCD display.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

136 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For me, the perfect digital camera, December 3, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus Camedia D-550 3MP Digital Camera w/ 2.8x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I've tried out many different digital cameras over the last three or four years, from Kodak to Olympus to Canon to odd ones like HP. I've tried cameras that cost anything from $150 to $1000. So, when it came time for me to give up my never-used 35mm Canon SLR, I knew exactly which digital camera I wanted to replace it with.

A few years back, I tried out a friend's Olympus Camedia camera with the same body as this one. It was only in the 2-megapixel range, as opposed to the 3 megapixels of this model, but I was always really impressed with the quality of picture it took. For a point and shoot digital camera, the shots were just amazing.

So I didn't have to look very far before I found this camera, the Camedia D-550. And it's certainly lived up to the expectations I'd developed from using the friend's camera.

In my opinion, this is what really makes this camera stand out from its competition:

 It looks and feels like a camera. Some digital cameras go out of their way to be all futuristic and oddly shaped, which I find annoying. I want to be able to hold a camera with my hands, not my fingertips.

 The design of the navigation software is excellent. I've used cameras that go to the extremes of interface design, and I've hated it. I used a Kodak camera once that used menus and control panels that were so big and colorful, it was like it was designed by Fisher-Price. Sure, it looked friendlier to use at first, but when I actually tried to find anything, like how to change the size of my pictures, it was too big and clunky. On the other extreme, some companies make cameras that use a completely bare and technical interface that's impossible to understand. With the Camedia D-550, all of your important tools are no more than two button presses away, thanks to the intuitive design of the interface. If you want to switch to Macro mode, you just turn the camera on and press "Up" twice. If you want to change the size of the pictures you're taking, you just hit the menu button and press left on the wheel that pops up, and you'll see a nice list. Not too invasive, not too technical.

 Streamlined features. A few years ago, it became popular to pack as many different things into a camera as you possibly could. Sound recorders! Movie cameras! PDAs! Cell phones! Put everything you'd ever want in one device! I thought this was a terrible idea. If you want a video camera, get a video camera. A still camera can't possibly hold more than a tiny clip, so why even bother? While this Camedia D-550 does come with the ability to take video clips, it doesn't assume that video will be your primary use of the camera like other models sometimes do. The feature is there, but you can easily ignore it.

 Rugged body design. Olympus sells a similar Camedia to this in features and price, but a different body. I borrowed one for a weekend, and was constantly having trouble with the lens that stuck out of the camera body. The lens cap would fall off all the time, and I just wasn't careful enough with it. When I had my 35mm SLR, I just put a UV filter over the glass of the real lens, and didn't worry about scratching it, but you couldn't do that with the other Camedia lens. With the D-550, you avoid the problem entirely. When you turn the camera off, the lens retracts into the body of the camera, and is covered by the sliding panel that's part of the camera body. It's a brilliant design that keeps the lens safe, and the speed of the lens movement is quick enough that it's not annoying. I love that my camera is so tough. Though I haven't dropped it yet, I have the feeling it would survive a drop just fine.

 And, of course, the image quality. Even with plain old point-and-shoot simplicity, the colors are vivid and sharp, the exposure is just right, and the low-light pictures are just incredible, which is important to me as a hater of flashbulbs. The other day, a bird fell down our chimney and got trapped in the upper grill of our fireplace, beyond where we could see. So I stuck the camera up into the fireplace and had someone point a dim flashlight where we thought the bird was, and I got a pretty decent picture of it! The bird ended up getting out of the fireplace and flying out the window just fine, by the way. :-) The macro feature is pretty cool, too. My desktop picture on my computer is a photo of an ant I took with my D-550. People are really impressed that the ant takes up 3 inches on my screen.

When you consider all the excellent features this camera has, then realize that it's much less expensive than similar cameras, it seems like a no-brainer. I would have easily paid twice what I did for the D-550, and still felt like I was getting a great deal. This camera is going to last me a long, long time, and I'm loving every minute of it.

99 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad camera in any respect., July 5, 2002

By 

Rheumor (New Orelans) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Olympus Camedia D-550 3MP Digital Camera w/ 2.8x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

The D-550 is another of the Olympus line of clam shell cameras dating back to the old (non-digital) Stylus models of the mid-80s. In that sense, the design is tried and true and I like it for its compactness and its ability to protect the lens from those with a penchant for losing lens caps. For the vast majority of digital camera users, this camera will meet all of their needs well into the future. The D-550 trumps the recently released D-520 by offering resolution at 3 megapixels, which with some software manipulation (similar to TV line doublers) claims to raise the maximum resolution to an effective 6 megapixels. I've played with interpolation and am not a believer, and I have stated in numerous reviews of other digicams that resolution beyond 2 megapixels is generally wasteful. The question here is whether the D-550 is worth the 50% premium it carries over the D-520. This cost jump is a function only of the increased resolution. This higher resolution can be worse than unnecessary for *most* applications, it can make the camera less user-friendly. Aside from the fact that it raises the initial price of the camera, operationally it requires greater battery use, usually involves longer lag times between shots, takes much longer to download to a PC and especially prolongs both phases of e-mailing photos (your uploading the file and your recipient opening it). These latter issues are, in my opinion, the most important, as the real purpose of digital cameras is being able to integrate them into the world of personal computing. [note: For those folks whose needs are enlarging photos beyond 8" x 10", higher resolution is required] The other features of the D-520 worth noting are its very adequate 2.8X optical zoom *plus* a vaguely helpful digizoom (do not accept digital zooms in place of optical zooms; they are not equals), its ability to operate off readily available AA alkalines (though it will accept rechargeables and these make more sense in may ways), its easily expandable memory (it uses SmartMedia, not quite as good as CompactFlash cards, but close enough) and an adequate number of user-controllable settings, all of which can be handled automatically if you prefer. The only drawback of significance has been slow focus on the Olympus digital cams, resulting in more blurred pics than I think acceptable (and this even with my 700, self-stabilizing model!). Personally, I'd take the D-520 and use the money left over to buy a bigger memory card and some rechargeables.

78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even better than the D-510 but still has one flaw, November 20, 2002

By 

Mrmako (Nebraska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus Camedia D-550 3MP Digital Camera w/ 2.8x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

The Camedia line continues to be a great all around camera for the average person to use. I bought this one after using my father Camedia D-510 extensively. It is simply and easy to use, with a basic manual that answers your questions. The onscreen directions are usuable, but could have been better. I havefound the pictures to be quite clear as I expected. It was easy to use on pick up, I only went to the manual occasionally to find specific features or answers.

Forget those Mac switch ads: It is VERY easy to transfer your pictures to the PC via a USB cable. They fixed one thing in this regard in that you have to activate the camera when plugged in to transfer. The older model just drained your battery as it turned on immediately and stayed on. The transfer wizard is useful for transferring to the PC, but you can also just treat this as a removable drive so why switch? The LCD window is great for taking up close shots and looks to be inprovved over pervious versions as well. This is a point and shoot camera and is one of the best at 3.0 MP. It offers everything I need, plus I can make mini movies with ease (no sound).

The only problem is the camera lens door! They did not fix this problems! You have to open it of course to shoot, but if you do not open it all the way the camera will not take pictures and this can be confusing for some as the viewfinder is blurry. You must make sure to click it all the way open. I have learned to live with that, but when I am taking shots it is too easy to shift the door slightly back inward and cause the camera switch back to view mode. This is the only flaw, it will frustrate you greatly when it happens, but I have adapted to taking pictures in a way to avoid this.

I had hoped they had fixed the door, but did not. Either way I love my camera and still recommend the product. Search around for competitive prices.