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O555 happy and unhappy owner comments please

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I own a 555 and a *istD and I often compare pics from the two. Of course I usually shoot at low ISO with the 555 but I never cease to be impressed with the exposure, colour rendition and sharpness. Its lacks some of the finest detail I can get with the *istD, but it still makes great 8X10 prints.
Its also pretty feature packed and easy to use...
  • EV comp is especially handy and you can customise the controller to save using the menus.
  • Full battery charge lasts for ever.
  • The passive AF in low light works well (although slowly) to give good focus and the LCD adjusts brightness so you can see what youre shooting.
  • Panorama mode is great fun.
  • It even has flash compensation and a magnifier for manual focus.
Not much missing.

The only slight bugbear is the lens' tendency to show pincushion distortion at longer focal lengths, but at least barrel distortion is moderate at wider angles, there is very little blooming and its sharp edge to edge.

Given the 5X zoom and all the features, its practically an F717 in miniature and I prefer the pics it produces to my previous Dimage 7i.

At this price, and for its size, its a very well featured camera that performs as well as any 5MP cam out there. I can't seriously fault it. Apart from the lens distortion, the only thing I dislike is the looks - its not pretty. I much preferred the chrome bezel on the 550.
Steve
Knopfli said:
--Would appreciate some pro and con info regarding this camera.
Intend to get one in a day or two.
Knopfli
Click to expand...
 
Knopfli said:
--Would appreciate some pro and con info regarding this camera.
Intend to get one in a day or two.
Knopfli
Click to expand...
i think you'll be pleased with the 555. I've had about eight months experience with it and it has been adequate in most ways. Battery life is excellent, photo quality is very good, and prints are very good. There are many combinations of features and modes. I haven't tried them all but of the ones I've tried, I especially like the sunset mode. Macros are fun with the camera.

On the con side, it is a little slow to focus so this makes it difficult to always get good action shots but it's fun trying anyway. It takes about three hours to charge the battery but it does last!

Best wished with your decision,
Carl
 
Knopfli said:
--Would appreciate some pro and con info regarding this camera.
Intend to get one in a day or two.
Knopfli
Click to expand...
--I have had my 555 for about 9 months. Have taken some really nice pictures with it. Had a Nikon SLR 35 mm but it was too big. Got a great Yashica compact with a Zeiss lens that took wonderful pictures. Was a little hesitant at first with digital. But this camera easily matches the quality of both those cameras. I have blown up pics and still good. Love the zoom, the size and battery life. The only problem I have had is action shots in low light, like at a gym. A little prefocusing helps but that is a weakness with cameras such as these. I don;t think the 555 is any worse than any of them.

Jeaco
 
I've had one since December, and have taken 5,000 pictures. It's my first digital camera, and I am very pleased with it. Many points in its favour have already been mentioned. The following observations are in no particular order.

The LCD is rather small, so I sometimes find it hard to focus manually, especially in bright light. I almost never use the tiny viewfinder (that's literally all I use it for: finding the view; then I use the LCD for detailed composition).

I have encountered chromatic aberration in a few pictures, but I think I would have encountered more CA with other makes of 5 MP digicams.

The lens aperture range is good (minimum is 2.8 to 4.6 over the zoom range), as is the range of available shutter speeds.

The camera is not fast, but not terribly slow for a camera in this class, either.

Noise is average, I suppose. I use Neat Image, which works well to remove noise. But post-processing to remove noise would only really be necessary for large prints, particularly at ISO 200 or 400.

It doesn't have a hot shoe, nor does it accept add-on converters nor filters.

The JPEG compression (at the maximum quality setting) leaves negligible artifacts, yet I routinely get more than 100 pictures on a 256 MB card. According to reports, if you want lower resolution than 5 megapixels, for best results take the picture at 5 mp, then reduce resolution later, in-camera or out; the results are poorer if you set the camera's resolution lower for the original capture.

The SD memory format is in its favour, in my books, compared to xD or Memory Stick.

My camera has stood up well, so far. I don't use the camera's USB connector, which has a flimsy door. The camera has locked up (stopped responding to buttons, even the power switch) a very few times (there are a few minor firmware bugs), but then it just turns itself off after several seconds, and works fine after that.

The range of features is very large, and ergonomically organised. Fully manual to fully automatic makes it usable by almost anyone. Live histogram in shooting mode. The odd feature is absent.

The 5x optical zoom is way more useful than I expected. A 3x zoom would have been quite limiting. On the other hand, the wide end is not very wide (37.5 mm equivalent). Macro capability is excellent.

The form factor is really an engineering marvel. Since the camera fits in a pocket, you can easily have it with you much more often than larger cameras. I carry mine in a LowePro D-RES 8S, the smallest case, in which I also have a spare battery, a second memory card in a protective case, and the Pentax remote control.

The bottom line is that this camera easily takes very good pictures, even of distant subjects: correctly exposed, natural in colour, sharp, and with acceptable noise and distortion.

But if you're new to digital photography, and care to do more than point and click, be prepared for quite a bit of learning.
 
Hello!
I'm also thinking of getting the 555.

I'm a complete newbie. Does the camera also takes good pics in auto mode where I will useit most or can I better buy myself a cheaper model (like the nikon coolpix 3700) which is completely auto.

I seem to think from the pis are saw that indoor pictures of the 555 are better (even in auto mode) . Is that true?
Thanks for any help/ advise.
Ed
MaKeR said:
I've had one since December, and have taken 5,000 pictures. It's
my first digital camera, and I am very pleased with it. Many
points in its favour have already been mentioned. The following
observations are in no particular order.

The LCD is rather small, so I sometimes find it hard to focus
manually, especially in bright light. I almost never use the tiny
viewfinder (that's literally all I use it for: finding the view;
then I use the LCD for detailed composition).

I have encountered chromatic aberration in a few pictures, but I
think I would have encountered more CA with other makes of 5 MP
digicams.

The lens aperture range is good (minimum is 2.8 to 4.6 over the
zoom range), as is the range of available shutter speeds.

The camera is not fast, but not terribly slow for a camera in this
class, either.

Noise is average, I suppose. I use Neat Image, which works well to
remove noise. But post-processing to remove noise would only
really be necessary for large prints, particularly at ISO 200 or
400.

It doesn't have a hot shoe, nor does it accept add-on converters
nor filters.

The JPEG compression (at the maximum quality setting) leaves
negligible artifacts, yet I routinely get more than 100 pictures on
a 256 MB card. According to reports, if you want lower resolution
than 5 megapixels, for best results take the picture at 5 mp, then
reduce resolution later, in-camera or out; the results are poorer
if you set the camera's resolution lower for the original capture.

The SD memory format is in its favour, in my books, compared to xD
or Memory Stick.

My camera has stood up well, so far. I don't use the camera's USB
connector, which has a flimsy door. The camera has locked up
(stopped responding to buttons, even the power switch) a very few
times (there are a few minor firmware bugs), but then it just turns
itself off after several seconds, and works fine after that.

The range of features is very large, and ergonomically organised.
Fully manual to fully automatic makes it usable by almost anyone.
Live histogram in shooting mode. The odd feature is absent.

The 5x optical zoom is way more useful than I expected. A 3x zoom
would have been quite limiting. On the other hand, the wide end is
not very wide (37.5 mm equivalent). Macro capability is excellent.

The form factor is really an engineering marvel. Since the camera
fits in a pocket, you can easily have it with you much more often
than larger cameras. I carry mine in a LowePro D-RES 8S, the
smallest case, in which I also have a spare battery, a second
memory card in a protective case, and the Pentax remote control.

The bottom line is that this camera easily takes very good
pictures, even of distant subjects: correctly exposed, natural in
colour, sharp, and with acceptable noise and distortion.

But if you're new to digital photography, and care to do more than
point and click, be prepared for quite a bit of learning.
Click to expand...
 
It works great in full auto mode, but with plenty of room to learn new stuff as you get more confident.
Steve
ed33 said:
MaKeR said:
I've had one since December, and have taken 5,000 pictures. It's
my first digital camera, and I am very pleased with it. Many
points in its favour have already been mentioned. The following
observations are in no particular order.

The LCD is rather small, so I sometimes find it hard to focus
manually, especially in bright light. I almost never use the tiny
viewfinder (that's literally all I use it for: finding the view;
then I use the LCD for detailed composition).

I have encountered chromatic aberration in a few pictures, but I
think I would have encountered more CA with other makes of 5 MP
digicams.

The lens aperture range is good (minimum is 2.8 to 4.6 over the
zoom range), as is the range of available shutter speeds.

The camera is not fast, but not terribly slow for a camera in this
class, either.

Noise is average, I suppose. I use Neat Image, which works well to
remove noise. But post-processing to remove noise would only
really be necessary for large prints, particularly at ISO 200 or
400.

It doesn't have a hot shoe, nor does it accept add-on converters
nor filters.

The JPEG compression (at the maximum quality setting) leaves
negligible artifacts, yet I routinely get more than 100 pictures on
a 256 MB card. According to reports, if you want lower resolution
than 5 megapixels, for best results take the picture at 5 mp, then
reduce resolution later, in-camera or out; the results are poorer
if you set the camera's resolution lower for the original capture.

The SD memory format is in its favour, in my books, compared to xD
or Memory Stick.

My camera has stood up well, so far. I don't use the camera's USB
connector, which has a flimsy door. The camera has locked up
(stopped responding to buttons, even the power switch) a very few
times (there are a few minor firmware bugs), but then it just turns
itself off after several seconds, and works fine after that.

The range of features is very large, and ergonomically organised.
Fully manual to fully automatic makes it usable by almost anyone.
Live histogram in shooting mode. The odd feature is absent.

The 5x optical zoom is way more useful than I expected. A 3x zoom
would have been quite limiting. On the other hand, the wide end is
not very wide (37.5 mm equivalent). Macro capability is excellent.

The form factor is really an engineering marvel. Since the camera
fits in a pocket, you can easily have it with you much more often
than larger cameras. I carry mine in a LowePro D-RES 8S, the
smallest case, in which I also have a spare battery, a second
memory card in a protective case, and the Pentax remote control.

The bottom line is that this camera easily takes very good
pictures, even of distant subjects: correctly exposed, natural in
colour, sharp, and with acceptable noise and distortion.

But if you're new to digital photography, and care to do more than
point and click, be prepared for quite a bit of learning.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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