No firmware update to 550 says Pentax!!

Here is a reply from Pentax in response to an email I sent asking if the 555 corrected the 550's noise problems at higher ISO's and whether there would be a firmware update for 550 owners:

"Thank you for contacting PENTAX USA, Inc. We are sorry for the
response delay.

The Optio 550 came out early in 2003, and Pentax is moving into
the Optio 555 camera when it begins to ship in the last quarter of 2003.

The release of the Optio 555 is not meant to correct problems
with the old model. New products will often incorporate the latest in

technology, which will often enhance camera features and quality across the board. However, that is not to say that the older technology was problematic or error prone. Rather, it is a way by which a leading company can stay abreast of the market, and continue to adapt to the ever changing technology world. Therefore, the Optio 555 is not a corrected or fixed Optio 550. It is a new camera in its own right. Also, when a new product comes out, it is not uncommon for a company to offer a consumer rebate to facilitate the quick movement of the older product to make way for the new.

Pentax has not found the Optio 550 to have any problems with
picture quality, noise, or performance. The Optio 550 camera line

operates properly, just as Pentax has intended it to operate. Also, there are no firmware updates eminently planned for the Optio 550, since its current firmware is programmed properly and is fully functional to Pentax standards.

In these fast-moving electronic times, one can always wait for new
products and technology that are always just around the corner, but at the
cost of foregoing great products today. Yet, the fact remains that the
Optio 550 is a great camera. It is not an Optio 555, but then again, it is
not meant to be.

If you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns,
please feel free to write or contact our Dealer & Consumer Services
department at 800-877-0155.

Sincerely,

Pentax USA, Inc.

Christopher Pound
Digital Products Group"

I wonder what to think when a manucfaturer finds it's just fine to take its customers for idiots.

So, 555 is a totally new camera, nothing like being a "fixed" 550 which was perfect by the way with no "problems with picture quality, noise, or performance." No kidding.

"In these fast-moving electronic times" 550 was a perfect camera only a few months ago but is no more, when 555 is today perfection and probably why it's soooo different on many points.

In clear, they didn't fix anything through the 555 as there was nothing to fix. Just a brand new generation.

My bet is the famous 550 "perfect noise" has been kept as is. Or those guys would have bragged it was fixed.
How much you get paid at Pentax to answer customers with such non-sense?
Because I know many that would do better for quite nothing.

Are they joking? "Came out early in 2003"? Trying to make it older than it is? I bought mine the very day stocks were available here - in May. The month of May could not be regarded as "early". This is not an old camera.

Pentax won't be getting my business again if they dump us like that. And I will be advising people not to buy Pentax products if that is their attitude.

Neil33 said:

Here is a reply from Pentax in response to an email I sent asking
if the 555 corrected the 550's noise problems at higher ISO's and
whether there would be a firmware update for 550 owners:

"Thank you for contacting PENTAX USA, Inc. We are sorry for the
response delay.

The Optio 550 came out early in 2003, and Pentax is moving into
the Optio 555 camera when it begins to ship in the last quarter of
2003.

Click to expand...

Cyberman said:

Pentax won't be getting my business again if they dump us like
that. And I will be advising people not to buy Pentax products if
that is their attitude.

Neil33 said:

Here is a reply from Pentax in response to an email I sent asking
if the 555 corrected the 550's noise problems at higher ISO's and
whether there would be a firmware update for 550 owners:

"Thank you for contacting PENTAX USA, Inc. We are sorry for the
response delay.

The Optio 550 came out early in 2003, and Pentax is moving into
the Optio 555 camera when it begins to ship in the last quarter of
2003.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

As one of the owners of the 550 ,PZ-1, Super Prog, SP500 and a nice collection of KA* mounts I am totally shocked at Pentax's responce to their 'perfect' product. They seem to have decided that it's more profitable to reuse and tweak the old into a new package and resell it back to us. Fair game Pentax but your responce just solidified my decision to NOT purchase your *istD and instead dump your gear and move on to Nikon .... a company that seems to 'know' their customer base and support it. I just can't see the financial sense of having to take a loss trading in the *istD to get the lastest 'fix' each time you improve it. So comes to an end a 30+ year love affair.

PS: I will keep the SP500 as it was made by the REAL Pentax company.

leloup said:

I wonder what to think when a manucfaturer finds it's just fine to
take its customers for idiots.
So, 555 is a totally new camera, nothing like being a "fixed" 550
which was perfect by the way with no "problems with picture
quality, noise, or performance." No kidding.

Click to expand...

Recently i get a response from Reflecta, the Spanish representative of Pentax:

" En cuanto a los problemas de ruidos hay que
tener en cuenta que se trata de una evolución con lo cual el modelo habrá
resuelto todos los problemas existentes.
Atentamente,
REFLECTA S.A. "

My translation:

"About the noise problems you have to note that this is an evolution so the model will have resolve all the problems that exists.
Best Regards
REFLECTA S.A. "

So.... you get the difference???

Like i said, i'm going to Barcelona to the Sonimag Fair in order to look and try (if its possible) the new 555, until then.... i'm still wainting. I'll report to you what i'll see there sorry that i'm not an expert like our friend Gordon but i'll do my best.

Perhaps it could be a better idea to try de 450 since there is a firmware update. What do you think?

Saludos
Ernesto

I have received the exact same mail..
-- snippet --
The release of the Optio 555 is not meant to correct problems with the old
model. New products will often incorporate the latest in technology, which
will often enhance camera features and quality across the board.
-- end snippet ---

Yes, but even so the problems... Err the features and qualities improved are supposedly the exact same areas where the 550 slacked behind competitors..

Even if Pentax considers the 550 to be operatiing at its intended quality. There is nothing in the mail that explicitly tell that they have upgraded any hardware in the camera at all!! I would love to see a 550 and a 555 ripped apart and placed side by side to compare the chipset etc....

sigh Well Its not over for me until I am convinced that the 555 infact is a "new" product in term of a new chipset or other electronics...

Henrik

Interesting. Could they have gotten so many inquiries that they simply made a form-letter reply? That could be a good thing, since it forces them to see how many customers are dissatisfied with their "perfect" 550.

I for one am still going to wait and see on the 555, since I'm in no hurry to buy a camera. I just want to get something for my needs that will last me a long time. But if I do decide to purchase the 555, I guess I can expect it to be obsolete in 6 months and be abandoned by Pentax as a customer.

Neil

Henrik Holm said:

I have received the exact same mail..
-- snippet --
The release of the Optio 555 is not meant to correct problems with
the old
model. New products will often incorporate the latest in
technology, which
will often enhance camera features and quality across the board.
-- end snippet ---

Yes, but even so the problems... Err the features and qualities
improved are supposedly the exact same areas where the 550 slacked
behind competitors..
Even if Pentax considers the 550 to be operatiing at its intended
quality. There is nothing in the mail that explicitly tell that
they have upgraded any hardware in the camera at all!! I would love
to see a 550 and a 555 ripped apart and placed side by side to
compare the chipset etc....

sigh Well Its not over for me until I am convinced that the 555
infact is a "new" product in term of a new chipset or other
electronics...

Henrik

Click to expand...

I got quite a bit of personal mail regarding this response from Pentax USA. However, let's not despair, people, as Pentax USA said that the O450 was an old outdated design not worthy of support and, look at that, Pentax gave us the firmware fix to fix that Dark Frame Subtraction/Time Exposure problem.

Perhaps it is unreasonable for us to expect Pentax to upgrade our Optio 550's to all the features that the Optio 555 has, as we did buy it knowing that it had a maximum time exposure of 4 seconds, and most of the other new features don't matter that much, other than speed. And even that isn't so bad that I am not prepared to live with it. However, the noise at high ISO's is almost double that of the competition's noise, and it only seems reasonable that we could expect better than that of Pentax, to whom many of us have been faithful for years.

But we don't yet know that Pentax has solved this problem in the Optio 555, and if they have not, then they aren't going to admit that there is a problem, are they?

I am going to wax a little technical on you after I comment to Henriks post below, to try to explain why I think Pentax could do better with the same electronics that are in the Optio 550:

Henrik Holm said:

Even if Pentax considers the 550 to be operatiing at its intended
quality. There is nothing in the mail that explicitly tell that
they have upgraded any hardware in the camera at all!! I would love
to see a 550 and a 555 ripped apart and placed side by side to
compare the chipset etc....

sigh Well Its not over for me until I am convinced that the 555
infact is a "new" product in term of a new chipset or other
electronics...

Click to expand...

I hardly see how Pentax could have developed a whole new set of electronics in six months, especially as I don't believe the problem was in the electronics in the first place. Developing miniature electronics of this sort of quality isn't something one undertakes lightly or needlessly, and it think it likely that one will find at least the same data acquisition modules in the Optio 550/555 as are in the 1stD for this reason: it is Pentax's first foray into 12 bit. Perhaps the Digital Signal Processor is different for the 1stD, and it certainly has a better buffer implementation (speed), but that is no reason to have a different Analog to Digital Converor (ADC) - develop it right and use it many times, as Canon does with their DIGIC chipset.

An example of a company that put off developing new electronics for two years, even though it had quite high electronics noise (2X the competition), is Minolta with pretty well all of their cameras up to the recently announced ones, especially the Dimage series. We know that because when we look at the graphs of noise vs. ISO sensitivity, we see all cameras, including Pentax ones, hyperbolically approach a floor value for low ISO's, which is the limit set by the electronics, although this may still be artificially high if it is over-sharpened without a proper noise threshold. Minolta had a high noise floor at ISO 100 without any signs of over-sharpening. Finally, with Phil's pictures from the A1, I see that their new 14 bit ADC we have a very low standard deviation of noise at any level at ISO 100. It took two years before they fixed one of their biggest problems in the electronics!!!

Message is too long, so the technical bits are in the next continued post...

GordonBGood

My analysis of the noise in the Optio 550 is based on the following known facts:

1) That when we reduce the sharpening from Normal to Soft, the noise measured at about 128/255 by Phil (and confirmed by me) drops from a standard deviation of 11.2 to about 6.5 bits. This is not the maximum nor the most objectionable noise, which occurs at a output level of about 64/255, and which drops from about 14 to about 8 bits with this same change in sharpening. From this we can conclude that the noise is being amplified by being sharpened due to not correctly applying an appropriate noise rejection threshold value proportional to the ISO sensitivity.

2) From analysis of the sharpening of abrupt edges (such as in resolution charts), I find that the Normal Sharpening is roughly doubling the noise, and the Soft Sharpening is still increasing it by about 50%. Therefore, if we could remove this effect (or turn sharpening off), we would expect to see a worst case noise at 128/255 or about 4.5 bits standard deviation and about 5.5 bits at the worst case shadow detail area of 64/255.

3) In developing a profile for my camera, I realized that the noise amplification is proportional to the slope of the gamma tone curve. Examining this, I found that this is mathematically correct, so that one can determine the base Analog to Digital Convertor (ADC) and sensor noise from this. It is made easier by the fact that Pentax, like most camera manufacturers, use a linear section of tone curve much like the sRGB curve, which has a slope of 12.92. Although it is difficult to measure exactly at these levels due to glare and flare, I have measured the slope of the Optio 550's tone curve to be between 10 and 13 (still refining my technique). This means that at a light level about 9 f-stops below maximum exposure, the camera outputs a level of about 6/255. For 400 ISO sensitivity, I measure the standard deviation of noise to be about 5.4 bits at this light level for Soft Sharpening. Since I believe this to still be amplified by sharpening by 50%, this would be at a level of about 3.5 to 4 bits if not amplified. This equates to about a standard deviation of 6 bits on a linear 12 ADC for a slope of 10, and about 4 bits for a slope of 13. And that explains why we see little noise at ISO 64 (one sixth of this) and not too much at ISO 100 (one quarter of this), as the noise approaches the limit of about 1 bit necessary to be amplified by the poor sharpening algorithm. This verifies the observations made in points 1) and 2).

4) Further, because Pentax increases contrast to give the images out of the camera more snap, especially for prints, the gamma tone curve slope at output levels between about 50/255 and 80/255 has been increased by about 50% above those at the near dark levels. This means that if the gamma tone curve were closer to the standard sRGB curve, the worst case standard deviation noise would be under 4 for ISO 400, and about 2.5 for ISO 200, levels with which we would be very happy.

I don't know if Pentax have implemented any part of this in the Optio 555. But the quickest way to check is to take a picture of an 18% grey card in flat lighting using spot metering for correct exposure, then measure the standard deviation of a patch of that card on the image using PhotoShop. This should be done for the different levels of sharpening.

I'm sorry if this gets too technical for some of you, but I hope it helps you understand the issue.

Regards, GordonBGood

I ditched Canon (S40) to Pentax. Pictures taken with ISo above 64 is not cceptable and horrible. Obviously Pentax wont' listen to customers. Canon constantly provides free firmware upgrade to their cameras. My O550 is going to be the last (and the first) Pentax digital camera I'm going to buy.

If you really have the opportunity to test it in Barcelona (about noise that would mean you are given the oportunity there to load its pictures on a computer) that would be great.

Ernesto Cardenas said:

So.... you get the difference???

Click to expand...

Well the difference I get is REFLECTA S.A. is saying 555 will fix the 550 problem, while PENTAX says there are no problems LOL!

I hope REFLECTA is right.

I had previously looked at the sample pictures for the Optio 555 available from Pentax Japan at http://www.digital.pentax.co.jp/ja/compact/optio555/ex.html but couldn't tell if the noise problem had been fixed because these were taken at ISO 64. However, I revisited these, and things look promising in that Pentax have clearly improved the default sharpening, which is somewhat softer than the over sharpening of the Optio 550. I suppose this is similar to what they have done with the 1stD.

I suppose that if softening the sharpening is all they have done, it would be adequate, as at least one won't have the noise amplified by the sharpening in camera and can do the sharpening later in post processing. However, I am hoping that they have improved the sharpening algorithm to still give adequate sharpening straight out of the camera without sharpening the noise, and I can't tell that from these samples. There aren't enough non-detailed areas in the range 64/255 to get a reliable reading.

Regards, GordonBGood

Thanks for the insightful input.
We may hope it will be improved significantly.

What surprises me is no camera is available for review by the press less than 1 month before it is sold.

GordonBGood said:

I had previously looked at the sample pictures for the Optio 555
available from Pentax Japan at
http://www.digital.pentax.co.jp/ja/compact/optio555/ex.html but
couldn't tell if the noise problem had been fixed because these
were taken at ISO 64. However, I revisited these, and things look
promising in that Pentax have clearly improved the default
sharpening, which is somewhat softer than the over sharpening of
the Optio 550. I suppose this is similar to what they have done
with the 1stD.

I suppose that if softening the sharpening is all they have done,
it would be adequate, as at least one won't have the noise
amplified by the sharpening in camera and can do the sharpening
later in post processing. However, I am hoping that they have
improved the sharpening algorithm to still give adequate sharpening
straight out of the camera without sharpening the noise, and I
can't tell that from these samples. There aren't enough
non-detailed areas in the range 64/255 to get a reliable reading.

Regards, GordonBGood

Click to expand...

i don't think saying that this is your last pentax means very much, considering that it's your first. if you have stuck through pentax for a long time, then maybe it might mean something.

but i think everything said here should be taken with a grain of salt. obviously, the reason we went with pentax (i bought a optio 550 also) was cause they had features that nobody else had. and they still do. the biggest selling point for me was their 5x optical zoom. nobody else came close. nobody else even comes close now.

pentax has made a decision (or do we even know that?) of not giving a firmware upgrade to the optio 550, and instead is making the optio 555. i am disappointed as much as all of you guys. i was even considering selling my optio 550 and waiting for the 555. but then, what's the point? the camera works perfectly right now. sure, it adds some more features, but as we've said, the hardware is basically the same. and it's basically the same camera. it works well for me. it's small, i can carry it around, and it has an incredible amount of zoom in a small package. you have to live with deficiencies in all things in this world. even the digital slr's have their shortcomings (most notably their size--can't put them in your pocket). and if you buy technology, there is always going to be newer stuff coming out. it's a fact of life.

just because pentax is a jerk doesn't mean they don't make good products. the noise for me isn't much of an issue. i take the shots at 5 mp res and the largest i'll ever print is 8X10. i don't see the noise. and on my computer the res is only 1024 X 768. i would be hardpressed to see the noise unless i crop it or zoom in either.

there's been a lot said about the quality of pentax as a company if they don't support their products. support in which way? upgrade? as in microsoft sp1, sp2, sp3? then microsoft must be a great company.

sorry for the sarcastic comment, but i think that just because you don't like the way a business is run doesn't mean they don't make good products. check out their products. if it's good, get it. if you don't like it, don't. i mean, what do you mean by support in terms of this optio 550 instance? is it like support for digital slr's? that's a different topic, involving lenses and stuff like that. there aren't really any additional components for the optios. it's just the camera. take it or leave it

Taky said:

I ditched Canon (S40) to Pentax. Pictures taken with ISo above 64
is not cceptable and horrible. Obviously Pentax wont' listen to
customers. Canon constantly provides free firmware upgrade to their
cameras. My O550 is going to be the last (and the first) Pentax
digital camera I'm going to buy.

Click to expand...

Comments added along the way..

Sean Sha said:

i don't think saying that this is your last pentax means very much,
considering that it's your first. if you have stuck through pentax
for a long time, then maybe it might mean something.

Click to expand...

Why? Its my first pentax aswell and Ill will tell everyone I know about how pentax handle this situation.. shrug every company should take customers seriusly or perish grin ..

Sean Sha said:

but i think everything said here should be taken with a grain of
salt. obviously, the reason we went with pentax (i bought a optio
550 also) was cause they had features that nobody else had. and
they still do. the biggest selling point for me was their 5x
optical zoom. nobody else came close. nobody else even comes
close now.

Click to expand...

Dont think anyone disagree with you that the feature set of the O550 is pretty neat..

Sean Sha said:

pentax has made a decision (or do we even know that?) of not giving
a firmware upgrade to the optio 550, and instead is making the
optio 555.

Click to expand...

If you read the mail I and others received it clearly stated that they did not plan any firmware release for the O550..

Sean Sha said:

i am disappointed as much as all of you guys. i was
even considering selling my optio 550 and waiting for the 555. but
then, what's the point? the camera works perfectly right now.
sure, it adds some more features, but as we've said, the hardware
is basically the same. and it's basically the same camera.

Click to expand...

Thats the whole point... If the hardware is the same, then I think it is a pretty lousy customer service to release a slightly modified version which removes the issues customers complained about without trying to help those customers who bought the first version!

Sean Sha said:

it
works well for me. it's small, i can carry it around, and it has
an incredible amount of zoom in a small package. you have to live
with deficiencies in all things in this world. even the digital
slr's have their shortcomings (most notably their size--can't put
them in your pocket). and if you buy technology, there is always
going to be newer stuff coming out. it's a fact of life.

just because pentax is a jerk doesn't mean they don't make good
products. the noise for me isn't much of an issue. i take the
shots at 5 mp res and the largest i'll ever print is 8X10. i don't
see the noise. and on my computer the res is only 1024 X 768. i
would be hardpressed to see the noise unless i crop it or zoom in
either.

Click to expand...

I notice the noise clearly on my monitor when taking low light shots at higher ISOs!

Sean Sha said:

there's been a lot said about the quality of pentax as a company if
they don't support their products. support in which way? upgrade?
as in microsoft sp1, sp2, sp3? then microsoft must be a great
company.

Click to expand...

IMO Microsoft actually displays the same arrogant behavior as Pentax.. They release fixes for some flaws in some products, but in the past many serius errors and security flaws have been ignored or attempted hidden until CUSTOMER DEMANDS forced them to create fixes for it..

It happens more than you apparently are awaye of that things are fixed because customers demands it!
---
If no one complains, why spend time on it?
---

Regards
Henrik

Henrik Holm said:

Thats the whole point... If the hardware is the same, then I think
it is a pretty lousy customer service to release a slightly
modified version which removes the issues customers complained
about without trying to help those customers who bought the first
version!

Click to expand...

Where does this information that the hardware is the same come from, I would like to see the details, but cannot find it anywhere.

I suspect that if they intend to lower the noise with the same size sensor, then there may be quite a bit of hardware change, as the 550 was propbably the state of the art at the time of design for this size sensor and the 5 mp. Infact, the only thing they may ghave done is to replace the CCD with a more recently produced improved model.

Needless to say, I am very keen to see some real tests on noise levels as the rest of the performance seems pretty good.

Brian

Sean Sha - good post - the 550 is an excellent camera an I too purchased it for its's 5x zoom. It may not take a perfect picture every shot, but it gets it right most times.

Maybe it's easy to blame the camera for a bit of noise, but there's an old saying in the UK, 'a good workman never blames his tools' which can easily be converted to 'a good photographer should never blame his equipment'

Phil, talking nonesense in Nottingham.

I totally support your point of view and answer.

Those who bought the 550 being aware of this noise issue made a choice considering qualities and defaults of this camera. They can't blame Pentax for this choice. We know in this area new stuff is comming out every month, so we must accept the idea our "yesterday-best-choice" may not last long. So far so good.

But this is how Pentax is trying to tell the story: "we, at pentax, are so smart we are able to launch the next generation camera within few months. We are very sorry for our customers who feel "outdated" so quickly with the last generation, but can we stop progress?".

But that's not the truth. This is about to fix a flaw. If it wasn't fixed, again, former users couldn't complain. But if it is fixed within a firmware (and again it's not about improvement but fixing a flaw), one would expect to get the firmware fix for former camera. Thinking more bucks can come with many 550 owners buying 555 just to fix this flaw is nonsense. The major consequence would be a distrust in the company and losing future customers.

The comparison with Microsoft isn't valid. First, Microsoft provides free updates for their bugs, Pentax doesn't so far for the 550. Okay! Microsoft's bugs are just unacceptable when it's about securirty issues, but at least they monopolize the market giving them a position where they can play this game with users.

Pentax can't. They are far from being a top leader about numeric cameras. And would enough users spread around their complaint (being a long time customer, a one time or just a first potential customer that shifted to competitors at the last minute), I am not sure Pentax's business wouldn't suffer quickly from such strategy.

How about this....It's going to be my last Pentax product and I have been a fan of Pentax for over 40 years. (I know what you're thinking, at my age, how many more products can he buy)!

Well, I bought my first SLR, a Pentax H-2 in 1962. Right now I own Pentax binoculars and a 5x zoom Pentax 35mm point and shoot. I bought the Optio 550 partly because of my good experiences with Pentax products in the past. I'm sure this will not be my last digital camera.

A firmware update to correct the noise at high ISO's in the 550 is not too much to ask for a $600 product that is rapidly becoming obsolete.

I would sell my 550 but I expect it's not worth too much since the 555 is already announced....and the 550 is a great outdoor camera, it just could be so much better.

I am angry and dissapointed in Pentax. I hope that they come to their senses and fix the obvious noise problem on the 550, especially since Gordon has so throughly analysed and suggested a proper course of action for a fix...I still have hope that they will. I have sent several e-mails to Pentax and gotten some wishy-washy replies that the e-mails will be forwarded, etc.

I repeat, this will be my last Pentax product if they don't issue a firmware fix for my 550.

In my opinion, Pentax will not act if they don't understand from enought consumers how angry they have made us on this one issue. I really did not expect this lack of response from Pentax.

Regards,
Don

Sean Sha said:

i don't think saying that this is your last pentax means very much,
considering that it's your first. if you have stuck through pentax
for a long time, then maybe it might mean something.

Click to expand...

Sean. You've made a very good point about the noise issue. I also believe that most people still complaining about noise, never make prints larger than 8"x10", where image noise is usually never visable anyway. They only see it on their computer monitors at 100% or higher. But anyone making prints up to that size should not be bothered by any noise that appears on their monitor.

As Gordon has explained so clearly (although I confess I had to re-read some of it several times before I was able to translate it down to my level of understanding), it is clearly important to re-set the default Sharpening to LOW. Unfortunately, unlike the D7xx series Minolta cameras, the 550 only has 3 options for sharpening - LOW, NORMAL and HIGH, whereas the Minoltas have several more degrees of settings to choose from. D7xx owners learned long ago that the least noise appears when the in-camera setting is set to SOFT (the lowest degree of sharpening available). It would have been best to have an OFF option as well, but on those cameras one can always shoot in RAW mode which is (theoretically at least) free of any Sharpening, Contrast or Colour adjustments.

It is always best to Sharpen while editing later anyway, and that's what 550 owners should do to reduce noise levels.

Gordon's thoughtful, in-depth conclusions are absolutely correct, and we should all re-read it carefully. We see that we should not expect that Pentax will release a firmware upgrade for the 550, so the only solution for us is to use other methods to reduce the problem.

The combination of LOW sharpening, LOW contrast and LOW ISO are the only way to overcome much of the image noise. It is already a given fact that anything over ISO 64 will produce increasingly more noise, and especially at ISO 400, where there will be no option but to use a NeatImage solution, which may or may not be satisfactory, - or simply never shoot photos at higher than the lowest ISO 64, a solution that I use.
Barry

Sean Sha said:

but i think everything said here should be taken with a grain of
salt. obviously, the reason we went with pentax (i bought a optio
550 also) was cause they had features that nobody else had. and
they still do. the biggest selling point for me was their 5x
optical zoom. nobody else came close. nobody else even comes
close now.

pentax has made a decision (or do we even know that?) of not giving
a firmware upgrade to the optio 550, and instead is making the
optio 555. i am disappointed as much as all of you guys. i was
even considering selling my optio 550 and waiting for the 555. but
then, what's the point? the camera works perfectly right now.
sure, it adds some more features, but as we've said, the hardware
is basically the same. and it's basically the same camera. it
works well for me. it's small, i can carry it around, and it has
an incredible amount of zoom in a small package. you have to live
with deficiencies in all things in this world. even the digital
slr's have their shortcomings (most notably their size--can't put
them in your pocket). and if you buy technology, there is always
going to be newer stuff coming out. it's a fact of life.

just because pentax is a jerk doesn't mean they don't make good
products. the noise for me isn't much of an issue. i take the
shots at 5 mp res and the largest i'll ever print is 8X10. i don't
see the noise. and on my computer the res is only 1024 X 768. i
would be hardpressed to see the noise unless i crop it or zoom in
either.

there's been a lot said about the quality of pentax as a company if
they don't support their products. support in which way? upgrade?
as in microsoft sp1, sp2, sp3? then microsoft must be a great
company.

sorry for the sarcastic comment, but i think that just because you
don't like the way a business is run doesn't mean they don't make
good products. check out their products. if it's good, get it.
if you don't like it, don't. i mean, what do you mean by support
in terms of this optio 550 instance? is it like support for
digital slr's? that's a different topic, involving lenses and
stuff like that. there aren't really any additional components for
the optios. it's just the camera. take it or leave it

Taky said:

I ditched Canon (S40) to Pentax. Pictures taken with ISo above 64
is not cceptable and horrible. Obviously Pentax wont' listen to
customers. Canon constantly provides free firmware upgrade to their
cameras. My O550 is going to be the last (and the first) Pentax
digital camera I'm going to buy.

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