Customer Reviews

Pentax Optio 550 5MP Digital Camera w/ 5x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

As someone who strted taking photographs 40 years ago with a Box Brownie, worked his way up through various SLRs, and basically lives & dies in public presentations on the basis of slides, I confess that I was VERY sceptical about going digital. The Pentax Optio has changed all that. I have been using this camera for about a month now, and my poor Canon F1 has stayed in its case. I am simply STUNNED with the quality of the image, the ease & accuracy of the "point and shoot" features, and the impressive array of options that Pentax offers me. Battery life seems excellent, the camera has survived a tough month in the field in high humidity/salt air being jostled and banged (and dropped at least once) in transfers from boats to dories to shore, and the 5x optical zoom lets me get reasonably close to my birds (it still isn't a "real" telephoto, don't be confused, but it beats the heck out of other digital cameras that I have played with). Downsides are that the enclosed 16mb card is a joke, I didn't even bother with it, get at least a 64mb & start shooting. The lens DOES take a while to extend, and there is a slight-but-noticeable delay between pressing shutter release & the actual image. This is annoying in an "action" setting. In addition, the viewscreen, while brighter than I expected, is invisible in bright sunlight. The biggest problem with this (the optical viewfnder is just fine for actually taking photos) is that messages like "memory card full" may not be conveyed to you unless you look really closely -I lost half a dozen pictures from not paying attention. Overall I am VERY impressed with this camera, it is light, portable, versatile, gives me very high quality pictures, and seems tough enough to stand up to a demanding life on off-shore seabird colonies. Go for it.

I purchased the Optio 550 to replace my original Kodak DC215. I was looking for a camera with decent Optical zoom, good photo resolution, and not something so big I would dread carrying it around.

So far I have been VERY pleased with this camera. It weighs significantly less than the Kodak, and is a good deal smaller too. It's a little big to put in your pocket, but I was able to get a reasonably small camera case which will work very well.

The pictures I have taken so far have all been very good quality, and you can't beat the 5MP resolution :) Connecting it to my computer was a snap, and the menus and options while a little bit criptic, provide easy access to lots of features.

I only have 2 complaints with this camera. 1) You will DEFINITELY need a larger memory card. The bundled 16MB card will only hold 4 pictures at the highest quality setting (below TIFF). However, this is true with every single digital camera I was looking at so I can't hold it against Pentax. 2) The movie mode does not support Optical zoom, only digital zoom. I have no idea why they did this, but for some reason you cannot use the optical zoom while shooting movies. Granted, this is a still picture camera, and I will probably seldom use the video mode, but it seems to be a very strange oversight.

I would DEFINITELY recommend this camera to anyone who wants a relatively easy to use camera, that takes very good pictures.

Pros: Very compact for its specs; comprehensive feature set; high-quality images; long battery life.

Cons: Autofocus speed average at best; continuous-shooting mode only 1fps; no slow-sync flash setting; no RAW mode.

I recently brought the Pentax Optio 550 and this camera has a wide range of possibilities. THe colors are vibrant, the 5x optical is awesome, the 5.03 mexapixels are nice, and the wide range of options is awesome. The microphone records at 64 kpbs and can record somewhat decent clips. I have only taken 100 or so pictures, but most of them have turned out very nice. Only two possible down sides, though they are easily compensated for. First of all the noise levels at 400, and even 200 can be hideous. Just go to user mode and set the ISO to 64 or 100. Then set the Exposure Compensation to +1 or +1.3. Secondly, the movie mode is not of high quality, as it only records 320 * 240, however, given that this is a digital Camera, and not a video camera that is acceptable I have two 256 MB lexar card and those are definitely useful.

I think capitalism is a fine thing. Everyone deserves their fair profit.

I read the PC World "Editor's Choice" review and bought the camera for less than $500...and still got $50 back on the rebate. That's a net of $450. I also did a lot of other homework. Many side-by-side comparisons. I read the Consumer Reports Digital Camera issue which didn't rate this camera because it was too new.

Today you will be hard pressed to find the camera for less than $599. Although it is still worth every penny.

I am surprised at the speed with which online retailers responded to the demand. Maybe the camera is in short supply. It should be!

Pentax has developed a great product. Even if the price has gone up 25% in two weeks, you will still get a wonderful camera (others have outlined its features so I do not have to) and after your $50 rebate (Hurry)you will have many chances to share the love ;-)

Get a 256MB SD card right away. The little 16MB that comes with it is good for about 16 high quality (or 50 lower quality) stills. I took about 300 photos in two days. There was still battery power left and the color was as good as my 35mm SLR.

Just outstanding!

In addtions to the comments of the previous reviews, I would like to mention four other settings for the Option 550:
1. The "Dawn/Dusk" setting allowed me to take pictures in very low light, sometimes of very dark objects. [Note: In such instances, I should have used a tripod or other stabilizing method.]
2. The "Snow/Sea" setting allowed me to take pictures of some backlighted objects.
3. The "Distance" setting allowed me to shoot through glass with little back reflection.
4. The "Recording" setting, allowed me to record over 8 hours of voice/music on a 256 card. [Note: I'll need help in making the recording more audible, however.]

In brief, I am very pleased with almost all of the 800+ pictures that I took on a recent trip to Italy.

4/2004 Addition: I have had the camera about a year now and have a major criticism about the ACDSee software: Whenever I transfer photos to the computer with ACDSee installed (or uninstalled) the file type is changed to ACDSeeJPG. The first time I took out red-eye and transferred the photo back to the SD card, the whole SD card froze up; I have not been able to reformat that card in the Pentax Optio 550, in Windows, or in DOS. The second time I (mistakenly) transferred a photo back to the correct folder on the SD card, all of the photos were distroyed, but this time I was able to reformat the SD card on the Pentax Optio 550.
Since then, I have tried to uninstall ACDSee, but when I copy photos to the computer they still arrive there as ACDSeeJPG.
I have communicated with ACDSee tech service a couple of times but have not resolved the problem.

As a person that loves photography, I longed for the day that digital would rival 35mm. That day is here! I received the Pentax Optio 550 and took it for a field test. I took images of nature and did several macro exposures of different plants and flowers. To my amazement, the photos were razor sharp, with an incredible sense of depth. The color saturation was superb. The camera is compact, the body is sleek and made of aluminum alloy, perfect for travel. Above all, it is easy to use. Pentax you have a winner and you deserve your five stars!

As a photographer since 1971, I have seen many stunning changes in the art, business and technology of photographic imaging. Now these achievements are celebrated in this perfect tool, the Pentax Optio 550 5MP. The design and features are exceptional. My first hand-held expedition produced beautiful landscapes, the color and clarity rendering the best images I have ever seen. I now appeal to the industry...how about inventing printer and paper technology to match the image creations of these cameras?

I bought my first digital camera (a Kodak DC 280, 1 MP) three years ago. It's worked fine, but I've wanted something that could fit in my shirt pocket and had good optical zoom capability. As of last winter, these were mutually exclusive requirements. When the Pentax Optio 550 was announced in February, it seemed to be what I was looking for. I bought one last month, and it's been just about everything I could ask for. The pictures are excellent, the size and features are terrific, and the battery life is great. As some of the published reviews have pointed out, the lens is a bit slow to emerge, so it's not the best camera for an impulse shot of some fleeting phenomenon like a car crash or hummingbird. Learning all the features may take an hour or two. Unlike the Kodak and some other competitors, the Pentax didn't come bundled with any software. And some standard accessories (like an A/C power adaptor or extra battery) are somewhat difficult to find. But overall, this is a terrific little machine that so far has no real competitors.