I purchased this camera to replace my first digital camera; a Fuji S602Z which broke in my hands. It's lens barrel actually fell off while zooming.
I was dazzled by the 550UZ's new features especially the wide angle (28mm) and the extreme zoom (100:1 with digital). I am still learning about the camera and getting aquainted with all the features.
I have found that the image stabilization works great, the battery life is excellent, the image quality is good, the many scene modes work very well and the menus are easy to navigate.
Problems:
The 100:1 zoom is useless without a tripod. The image stabilzation can keep the picture shake free but I can't hold the frame on my subject.
It takes forever to focus in low light. It's so slow that you often miss the shot. Taking a picture of anything moving in any light is very difficult due to how slow the focus is.
The IESP autofocus also ruined several of my shots because it often picked the wrong subject in the frame to focus on.
I was dazzled by the 550UZ's new features especially the wide angle (28mm) and the extreme zoom (100:1 with digital). I am still learning about the camera and getting aquainted with all the features.
I have found that the image stabilization works great, the battery life is excellent, the image quality is good, the many scene modes work very well and the menus are easy to navigate.
Problems:
The 100:1 zoom is useless without a tripod. The image stabilzation can keep the picture shake free but I can't hold the frame on my subject.
It takes forever to focus in low light. It's so slow that you often miss the shot. Taking a picture of anything moving in any light is very difficult due to how slow the focus is.
The IESP autofocus also ruined several of my shots because it often picked the wrong subject in the frame to focus on.