Olympus D-550 Zoom

Olympus D-550 Zoom

D-550 Zoom Review, by Nikki Echler McDonald and Carla Thornton August 21, 2002

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• Reviewed by: hbls

  Strengths: Easy to use and takes great pictures for the price.

  Weaknesses: I use the camera alot and now the shutter button is having issues.

  Overall: I love this camera but now the shutter button only works occasionally. Am considering trying to replace shutter button and spring. Anyone have any similar issues? I see that these items are sold online so is that a hint of the problem ?

• Reviewed by: jjv43

  Strengths: Excellent picture quality. Simple process to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer. Multitude of quality options for pictures.

  Weaknesses: The shutter delay from pressing the button to when the flash happens can be annoying when trying to capture a picture of a baby who moves a lot.

  Overall: Overall, this camera takes excellent pictures. I process them using a Canon color printer and am very satisfied with the resulting pictures even when using different size prints as small as 2" X 3". One of the features I find remarkable and haven't read in any other review is the ability to crop a picture right on the camera. You can take a picture from a distance and then crop it on the camera without losing the original picture. The camera crops it at the same quality level as the original, then creates the cropped picture as a separate picture on the memory card. You can use the original to crop it again in a different way or re-do the cropping until you're satisfied. The quality of the print of the cropped picture is as high as the original. Also, the ability to copy the picture on the camera and reduce the pixel size for e-mailing is a great feature. I would highly recommend the camera.

• Reviewed by: hzsheikh

  Strengths: good sharp photographs like the reviews say, useful picture modes, good battery life with rechargeable AA's, fits well in the hands

  Weaknesses: heavy & bulky,red eye, low light photographs grainy with weird specs here and there, no manual aperture priority or shutter priority, bad on/off design , movies have no sound, crappy software

  Overall: This is not a bad camera for the price but I would go for the Canon A60 -even though it's only 2mp, its got a lot more functions and its smaller. the olympus does take very good photograps in the day time with good contrast and colors - skin tones come out slightly dark but this can be fixed by meddling with the EV settings. Night photographs however aren't so great. they come out grainy and the graininess increases with the ISO. Also, the pics have very annoying weird small circles here and there (if anyone knows how to fix this problem plz tell me). The movies are limited to 33sec when shooting at 320x240 and they have no sound.(canaon does) The card size is limited to 128mb which is really stupid. the software is pathetic - difficult to use, slow, has very little features. you'll definately need to use some other tool for even basic editing. Even the ACDSee FotoCanvas is a lot better. Overall this camera is a good buy because it does its basic job of taking photos really well. I've become somthing of a photography enthusiast in these past few weeks so i've found it lacking in some manual controls - However This is great for someone who just wants a point and shoot though it is a bit bulky.

• Reviewed by: stans

  Strengths: Excellent photo quality. Easy to use and navigate. Makes an nice "every day" camera with a few more controls than a plain point and shoot unit. Macro mode better than most.

  Weaknesses: A bit heavier than I anticipated. Wish it came with rechargeable batteries and a wider wide angle.

  Overall: Very happy. I've finally stopped using my 35mm cameras and switched to digital almost exclusively. Picture quality is excellent for a 3 Meg, but can show a little high contrast. Like the fact that it uses AA batteries, but you need to buy a set or two of rechargeables. A bit heavy because it does use 4 AA's, but very comfortable to hold. Easy to come up to speed quickly if you are familiar with the Olympus Stylus film cameras. Others have commented on a shutter lag (time from pushing the button to actual shot captured), but I have not noticed an a difference compared to Sony/Canon/Fuji/Nikon. Note that prefocusing eliminates the lag on all of these.

• Reviewed by: teamplus7

  Strengths: Great pictures like all the reviews state. Good battery life.

  Weaknesses: The pop flash broke off in 10 days. Olympus will not admit the design is fragile and prone to break off. Warranty did not cover and cost to me was minimum charge of $143.

  Overall: The 1 second delay in shutter snap is really a problem when taking any pictures other than "stills". There are better cameras on the market.