47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
Not perfect, but not bad. You get what you pay for.
I bought this for an upcoming trip to take snorkeling, but first wanted to test it out. So I went to a pool party for a 4 year old, and gave the camera to my 6 year old neice and told her to do whatever she wanted with it. I posted 2 pics above for you to see. I figured it a good score just for still working after a 6 year old dropped it into the pool twice, and once...
86 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
Tested at the store... Disappointed.
I very recently bought the new Fuji Z33 WP camera, but since I am unhappy with the high levels of image noise, I will be returning it and looking for a replacement. The other top camera on my list was the Olympus 550WP. I went to a major electronics store yesterday and had the opportunity to play with the 550WP. The salesman even let me put my microSD card into the...
This review is from: Olympus Stylus 550 WP 10MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics)
I bought this for an upcoming trip to take snorkeling, but first wanted to test it out. So I went to a pool party for a 4 year old, and gave the camera to my 6 year old neice and told her to do whatever she wanted with it. I posted 2 pics above for you to see. I figured it a good score just for still working after a 6 year old dropped it into the pool twice, and once even got a nice big scratch on the side, but still works great. The pics aren't perfect, a little washed out, but the only reason I bought this camera was to take it underwater, and the price. I'm sure if you spent more money for the canon it might take better pics, but these will do just fine for me. So if you are looking for a basic underwater camera that takes decent pics, more for photo albums than publishing, this camera is probably for you. The kids LOVED it, and if my 6 year old neice can work it underwater, everyone else should have no trouble.
The only Con I have is that the battery was almost completely drained after about an hour and a half underwater. Don't know if it uses up more power somehow underwater, but that is my only concern. Haven't tested it long enough to know if that is normal or not yet.
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I very recently bought the new Fuji Z33 WP camera, but since I am unhappy with the high levels of image noise, I will be returning it and looking for a replacement. The other top camera on my list was the Olympus 550WP. I went to a major electronics store yesterday and had the opportunity to play with the 550WP. The salesman even let me put my microSD card into the camera to save some test shots to view on my computer at home.
The image quality does not make me excited to buy this camera. The pictures show a significant amount of noise, even when I forced the ISO down to 100. Every shot without a flash looks pale and slightly hazy. With a flash, the image quality improved, but there is still an unreasonable amount of image noise. The best shots were taken of objects about 10 feet away. This was a good distance to prevent the flash from washing out the subject, but still providing an adequate amount of light to get a decent picture. Even those shots seemed to lack sharpness. They were OK, but I guess I expected more. I understand that there are trade-offs in image quality when buying a waterproof camera, but I had hoped that they wouldn't be this bad.
Besides image quality, my only other complaint was the couple of seconds delay between shots. The screen goes blank, so you can't even compose your next shot while you wait. The noticible delay upon startup and between shots was a deal-breaker for me when deciding if the image quality was acceptable.
On a positive note, the size and shape of the camera is pleasing and it feels well-built and sturdy. It is not too heavy, and I didn't feel like I needed to be overly protective of it. It's not ultra-thin, but it could easily fit into a pocket. Also, I really liked the menu graphics. The menu structure seems very similar to that of the Olympus weatherproof cameras from the last couple of years, but the icons on the 550WP are in color and are much brighter. This may seem trivial, but it definitely makes for a flashier interface than the couple of models just prior to the 550WP. I also tried out the Tough Series 8000 and noticed that it shares the very cool, updated menu graphics with the 550WP.
I wanted to like this camera and it was my top choice to replace the Fuji Z33, but I was not satisfied enough with the test shots I took to spend my money on it. The slightly older and mixed-reviewed Olympus 850SW that I tested on the same visit responded much more quickly on startup, on auto-focusing, and in recovering between shots. It felt fast in all areas and the pictures were much better than the Oly 550WP and the Fuji Z33 WP. The image quality on the 850SW wasn't perfect either, but I was much more excited about its performance than the two newer cameras. Since it has been out for a little longer than the 550WP and Z33, the 850SW can be found for a similar price. Without spending the extra $100 to step up to the next level of image quality and performance, I think my money is going to the Oly 850SW instead of the Oly 550WP or the Fuji Z33.
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This being the first digital camera I have owned, though I have used several extensively (including Olympus & Canon DSLRs semi-profesionally), the reader should bear in mind my limited frame of reference to other digital cameras. I am and have been for 35 years an avid film photographer. As digital photography has finally advanced to the level where a comparable finished photo can be taken with a camera affordable to non pros (or at least non-photogeeks!), I took the plunge.
The waterproof function was an afterthought in my case, though a welcome one. It has performed well in this regard. I mainly wanted not to worry or think about water and I haven't had to. The 550WP is not at all bothered by steady rain, splashes, and a dunk or two in streams, lakes, tubs, etc. Score one!
I am generally frustrated and critical of digital cameras (save DLSRs) for their automaticity. I have yet to see a model that allows manual and independent adjustment of shutter and aperture, so lets forget that here. The manual features available on the 550WP took a while to get used to (white balance, shot-by-shot ISO/ASA, exposure compensation, flash mode, etc.), but give predictable and useful results, if with less fine control than I would like. Again, apparently a very common if not universal attribute of point and shoot digital cameras.
Finished image quality, without further editing or processing is excellent, and I found none of the issues with grain, washed out images in bright light, shadows, or poor low light non-flash images. The one qualification I have here is also a bit of a compliment: flash shots, indoor and out are generally excellent, without much if any harsh reflection washing out, or other defects. Remarkably and easily so, such that I found it very easy to get very good shots, especially indoors (where reflection and overlighting are the most problem). My old Olympus and Canon film slrs, circa 1990 and 1994 are must more complicated to yield such flash shots. Where this is a criticsm is that there is a gap (how many lumens/lux I don't know, haven't had a seperate light meter in ages) between the light level where flash is neccesary and where not so. The camera, if allowed to, defaults to using the flash, if at low instensity, where if aperture, shutter, and ISO were truly and independently adjustable by the user, the picture would be well lit, and more naturalistic than any flash photo ever could be. But as above, the flash is remarkably unobtrusive and yields uniform lighting. Outdoors the flash shots are good also, and in all cases the flash is both ample, and finessed, by which I mean the flash does not simply ignite, nor simply alter the synchronization between flash and shutter, but flashes before, during, (seemingly) after the shutter, in pulses of varying intensity/width, which clearly alter according to lighting conditions and other factors. Good photos all around.
The various modes and settings seem intimidating even to an old shutterbug like me. In the end it took less than a week to master basic functions of what, where, and when. And again, these are all mostly comparable to other models/makes. My criticisms seem all to level at digital cameras in general (save DSLRs), rather than this model: lack of manual modes, inadequate audio or other feedback on shutter release, slowness of "winding"(it takes a second or two after a shot before the camera is ready even to begin composing again), and the lack of an optical viewfinder (the LCD is nice for review, but a real viewfinder is much easy and faster, things being equal, to frame and set shots).
I should say that I have fairly extensive experience using Photoshop (and earlier, more primitive photo editing software), going back to the early 1990's well before digital cameras were either affordable or of a quality that could then even compete with an Instamatic or Polaroid. That said, for purposes of retouching, color correction, or other processing to produce a finished straight photograph, the Stylus 550-WP largely shoots and prints without *any* need for post-camera work (effects for artistic and dramatic reasons are another matter). I count this as a big deal, since the early digital cameras I used around 2001 were not just lower resolution (MP rating is the most oversold spec besides), but full of defects: bad color, 'noise' and other digital artifacts, over-under exposure, distortion, et al. This model is mercifully free of virtually all of these. All of the criticisms in other reveiws of this model I have read, that weren't based on irrationalities, seem to me to be expecting images typical of a camera with a street price of OVER $500, rather than this model, in the $140-170 range.
As an experienced photographer making a beginning at digital photography, I can recommend this camera and a very good model for people like me and for others wanting a solid, basic model that produces excellent prints (I do print, a lot, and the final determiner of what is a good photo should be held as such an object rather than an image on a computer screen, no matter what the resolution; no display commonly available for under $5000 can display at full resolution a 10 megapixel image anyway). The addition of video w/ audio (I know, that is most models now), and a number of fine details of design and finish make this camera a great package for me. (I don't think I'll ever get over being able to shoot away with no concern about the cost of film or processing! You'd think there would be a real surge of nascent Annie Leibovitzs and Alfred Steiglitzs out there with all the practice this technology allows, but so far I don't see it. . .) A good buy, good optics,solidly built, dependable, from an exteemed camera company, with the limitations and caveats mentioned.
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The first Olympus digital camera I owned was the Camedia C-2 Zoom, launched in 2002. This was an extremely popular camera, not least because of its superb cost performance. Sales far exceeded expectations, causing Olympus' purchasing departments some trouble in keeping pace with demand for materials and parts. In my experience, the camera's popularity was well deserved. It was on the strength of this experience that I decided, in 2009, to buy the very latest Olympus ì-550WP. On the surface of it, this was a tough little package that combined the best features of earlier Olympus cameras at a modest (for Olympus) price.
Regrettably, from the moment I had it out of the box, this camera presented me with a long string of snags that, had I anticipated them, would have caused me to think twice.
Beginning with the battery/recharger (which in many cameras is conveniently combined into one), the mains plug worked only in some power sockets, not in others. The battery went flat faster than expected -- and to make matters worse, the charge indicator went from full to flat in the blink of an eye. This meant that my camera required two hours' recharging, and was unexpectedly out of action at the very moment I intended to put it to its first serious use. Part of the problem, perhaps, was that I had not realised, when accessing the flash card inside the camera through the camera cable, that there was a drain on the battery. Yet nowhere was I warned about this. Many digital cameras do not discharge when plugged in. I decided to use the "power save" feature to give me better prospects next time round -- yet this kept blanking out the display while I was framing a picture. And every time, the camera wiped out the settings I was working with. So I went to buy a back-up battery -- which cost me more than a tenth of the (not too cheap) camera.
I registered the Olympus software over the Internet, as requested, and Olympus confirmed the registration. Very soon, however, an ineradicable message came up on my screen, insisting on further registration for some plug-ins. This process hogged my Internet connection, which from my location in Africa was not a luxury easily to be afforded. As my broadband usage shot up profligately, I cut off the connection. On returning to the Olympus software, however, Olympus once more requested registration -- and the plug-ins I could not find. It was the Panorama feature that interested me the most. I clicked on the Panorama icon -- yet an unrelated Olympus pop-up appeared, obscuring the screen. When I tested the Panorama feature, it did not stitch well at all. The manual didn't say as much, but apparently this feature should only be used at certain distances. Yet even the correct distances didn't necessarily yield good results. Apparently a panoramic view should be taken in bright light in order to stitch without banding -- again no mention was made of this was made in the manual. One would think that the software could have addressed such problems.
These were only the beginning of my problems with the Olympus ì-550WP -- but let me pause first to highlight some of its strengths and attractions. The Olympus ì-550WP is undoubtedly very pocketable. It is a pleasure to carry around. And it is attractive -- one might say "cute". It is also waterproof to three metres or ten feet (but more of this in a moment). It does take some nice panoramic pictures, if distance and lighting are appropriate. The zoom works well, if jerkily. Also, it offers a macro feature and a super-macro feature (as close as 7 centimeters or 2.8 inches), which have performed well. The movie mode has also performed well. The camera has recorded smoothly and without any "skipping", as some digital cameras do. I also like its easy white-balance, ISO, and resolution settings. The camera also has an "intelligent" setting which generally works well -- but I have sometimes found it to be hit and miss (as the manual says it may be in some situations), so that I would rather rely on my own judgement.
But back to my troubles. These have been various, and I shall survey them (not all of them) quickly. Photography in bright light is good, but in subdued light without flash (often required in my profession) the Olympus clearly under-performs. Photos in subdued light are markedly more grainy than those taken with other digital cameras using similar settings. With this in mind, the 10 megapixel resolution of the camera seems academic. Cameras with half the resolution may outperform the Olympus ì-550WP. Bright lights (not least the sun) prove to be a problem, too. The camera repeatedly produces "shadow" images of overhead lights in strange places, or blue smudges from the sun, where this is well out of the "field of vision". The layout of the face of the camera presents problems. Consider, for instance, how a person would hold this camera without obscuring the flash, or closing the microphone. Even if the owner should learn the trick, this is by no means guaranteed for anyone else who might use it -- for instance, someone taking a photo of the owner. The anti-red-eye flash feature does not necessarily avoid red-eye. Finally, although it works, I am not much impressed with the underwater feature. After using the camera in water, it is difficult to clear the lens of water droplets, which tend to reappear every time one closes and opens the external "steel door" shutter.
I would have liked to speak well of my new Olympus camera, after my early experiences with the Olympus Camedia C-2 Zoom. All in all, perhaps the greatest strength of the Olympus ì-550WP would be as an "outdoors" camera used, for example, for beach sports, scuba diving, or sunny surrounds (but bear in mind those "shadow" images). It would also perform well in many situations where a flash is judiciously used. But it begins to reveal its weaknesses particularly in more subdued light without flash (dusky evenings or indoor shots), or for sporadic use in the wet.
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I was headed to the Grand Canyon for a rafting & photo trip. I needed a camera that was waterproof, and found at amazon.com the Olympus 550wp. It was priced right so I ordered it. It performed like a champion. On the raft we was soaked with in the first minute, as though we were scuba diving. The camera worked all through out the trip. You can see images of the pictures I took on my web site: [...]
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This review is from: Olympus Stylus 550 WP 10MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics)
We use this camera in wet, industrial environments. Previously, I'd buy cheap products that would last a couple of months. This camera stands up to the abuse our guys give it. We're very pleased.
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This review is from: Olympus Stylus 550 WP 10MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics)
I do love this camera for a variety of reasons, but the one thing that really irks me about it is the time between when you press the button and when it takes the picture- it's annoyingly long...
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So I bought this camera after I already have a nikon d3000. I surf daily and decided to check this thing out. What your paying is a deal thy definatly worth it. I take a wave, thn on the way swimming back take shots of other people getting barreled! Pic quality is good enough. The only thing that I suggest is if you decide to get it, when using in water buy the glass cleaner rain-x to clean the front lens so not as much water spots slow you down. Overall I can't even tell you how many cool pics I have got with this thing!
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This review is from: Olympus Stylus 550 WP 10MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics)
I used to take "professional" underwater photos and I love this little camera. I went to Three Sister's Springs and when I showed my photos to friends they thought they were postcards. They were shocked at the quality. Just remember for underwater shots, turn OFF the flash as all the flash will light up is particles in the water. I did have a drop of water on my battery when I went to pull out the card but as inexpensive as this camera is, I don't care if I have to replace it every 2-3 years.
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This review is from: Olympus Stylus 550 WP 10MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and 2.5-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics)
Its a very good camera for the price and functions like water-resistance and is also light in the hands. The picture quality isn't the best i'v used for 10 megapixel cameras but does a great job for every day shoots.
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