Nikon Coolpix S550

10.0 megapixels | 2.5" screen | 36 – 180 mm (5×)

User reviews

Average rating: 3.63
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konstantin321
0 out of 0 users have found this review helpful
By: konstantin321 posted on Apr 8, 2010 UTC

Opinion: I made a mistake buying this camera for everyday use.
If you are planning to take picture anytime when it's
less than full daylight, stay away from this camera. For
example, concerts, night clubs, bars, at dusk/dawn.
Terrible quality and during the day, quality is
questionable. Pictures are choppy and i tried every
possible setting. The design itself is faulty. Slow start
up. And I'm not even being picky - these are some
serious issues with this camera. I think I should have
gone with Canon or Panasonic.

Problems: slow start up
poor image, day and night
low quality for the money you pay

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Roland Novitsky
0 out of 0 users have found this review helpful
By: Roland Novitsky posted on Mar 16, 2009 UTC

Opinion: Got it yesterday as a b-day present for my sister.
Chose Nikon because already have Canon EOS D20 and Panasonic DMC FZ30. This is our first ultra compact experience. Design is great, slick and comfortable. I was amassed by simplicity and comfort of use. The menu is pleasant for an eye and the brain in the same time.
30 pictures i took in a day light were fine but .....

Problems: but ... when the camera locking on target it makes annoying clicks. May be i am spoiled but i didn't like it.
ISO higher then 200 gives horrible noise.
NEVER use automatic ISO indoors!!!! Camera cranks it all the way up to the end and pictures come out as if they were taken with a mobile phone.
Bottom line - i went back to the store and switched it with CanonSD1100is. It looks ugly and not as "user friendly" as Nikon BUT THE IMAGE QUALITY !!! OH MY..
You can't compare ! And Canon is faster too !

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Roland Novitsky
0 out of 0 users have found this review helpful
By: Roland Novitsky posted on Mar 16, 2009 UTC

Opinion: Got it yesterday as a b-day present for my sister.
Chose Nikon because already have Canon EOS D20 and Panasonic DMC FZ30. This is our first ultra compact experience. Design is great, slick and comfortable. I was amassed by simplicity and comfort of use. The menu is pleasant for an eye and the brain in the same time.
30 pictures i took in a day light were fine but .....

Problems: but ... when the camera locking on target it makes annoying clicks. May be i am spoiled but i didn't like it.
ISO higher then 200 gives horrible noise.
NEVER use automatic ISO indoors!!!! Camera cranks it all the way up to the end and pictures come out as if they were taken with a mobile phone.
Bottom line - i went back to the store and switched it with CanonSD1100is. It looks ugly and not as "user friendly" as Nikon BUT THE IMAGE QUALITY !!! OH MY..
You can't compare ! And Canon is faster too !

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Pedro S
0 out of 0 users have found this review helpful
By: Pedro S posted on Sep 25, 2008 UTC

Opinion: Stay Far AWAY. I really wanted to like this camera, as its really tiny and has a five times zoom, but its just not very good. I felt I owed it to the interent community to give you the heads up. At first I thought maybe it would get better, but the great majority of my photos were coming out blurry. Colors look dull, and they certainly aren't sharp, dull as a butter knife. I'm on the water alot, and even if a boat is simply floating, forget about a clear shot. Its kind of a joke. Looking at my iPhoto gallery from the last couple months, you'd think I was in a really wet climate. Blue skies look dull grey. Yuk. Movie are alright. I was just in Central America, and most of the pictures are blurry. Monkeys look like furry black things in trees. And I was 10 feet away. The zoom hardly seems like 5x, seems more like 3. I guess its no surprise that they immedialtey came out with the optically stabilized S560 a couple of months later. I'm mad at myself for not immediately returning it. Just took it to a wedding, 3 out of 5 pictures are worthless. I am ordering a Canon or Panasonic.

Problems: Blurry Pictures

Night photos come out basically all black, like you're in a closet, and yes I've tried all the 'night modes'

Dull Colors.

If theres any Sun, its as if you were aiming right at the sun and a mirror.

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jphardee
0 out of 0 users have found this review helpful
By: jphardee posted on May 16, 2008 UTC

Opinion: This is an excellent "everyday use" camera in my opinion. I also own a Nikon D200, but I like to have a small camera with me at all times (I live in NYC) and this is my most recent one. I love the tiny body and the easy and direct features. It's a simple little camera, but the image size and quality are excellent for my intended purposes. I have taken a lot of product images for the website I work on and they have been very good. I've even shot some jewelry and that worked well.

Problems: I am scared about damaging the display and the body. Both are really glossy and pretty.

I also don't like that the HSB cord and the audio visual cord are attached. I like seperate cords.

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helenarome
0 out of 0 users have found this review helpful
By: helenarome posted on Apr 8, 2008 UTC

Opinion: this camera is quite expensive compared to the picture quality that it delivers.

for a 10mp camera, the image is very bad. unless you have your flash on, then you could see more details. indoors and low lights without flash are just terrible.

outdoor image is just normal. i think that every camera would give a good outdoor picture.

again, for a 10mp camera, the image is usually stored as a <2mb jpeg file. this is a very small size for a good quality picture. i'm sure the printout wouldn't be beautiful.

the lcd screen itself is quite bad. it's always blurry and you can't see the image well in there.

electronic vibration reduction only has two options set: auto or off. and when you put it into auto, it usually goes off especially in a critical condition such as low light places. it was as if there's no evr at all.

night pictures would be quite ok as it took most of the light in. but only if you're using it on a tripod, i guess.

my friend got herself a lumix fs3 which is much cheaper than this nikon s550 and yet it delivers a better quality image than this one. i should've got that one in the first place

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