Perfect little package!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent set of features! Battery life. Small size. Flexibility.

Cons: None, except, maybe, price.

The Bottom Line: 
Go for it if you want 5 mega pixels and a 5X optical zoom. This is a safe investment with a company that has been in the photo business forever.

Author's Review
I bought this camera to replace a Canon S300. I needed more mega pixels and the possibility to override set parameters. This camera does it -- while being as small and even lighter than the compact Canon.

My plan was to use the Pentax mainly as a point-and-shoot camera, leaving detailed shots for a film 35mm Fujica. Well, having used the Pentax for a week, it is now clear that the 35mm will be used only for the necessary slides that I need to make of works of art (job related).

There are professional reviewers that write 10 or 20 page reviews on cameras, and this one has been reviewed. My review is based on what I need in a point-and-shoot. This is not an exhaustive list of features.

Please consider, with a realistic approach, what features you really need. There are thousands of digicams out there. This one happens to fit my needs.

Main Features in order of importance (to me):

- 5 Mega pixels: 2600 x 1950 through 640 x 480 image size in JPEG format. Available in TIFF (without compression) at the highest setting. File size is then 3.2 Meg at max resolution to about 150 K at 640 x 480. Keep that in mind when you shop. That's only 75 photos on a 256 Meg SD memory card. I find that I use the 2.1 Mega pixels setting (1600 x 1200) most of the time. It produces 1 Meg files. I can very rapidly switch to a higher resolution using the very simple menu structure.The TIFF file size is 15 Meg.

- 5 x optical zoom. The zoom does show some vignetting and barrel distortion when used on a testing target. This is why I will still use the 35 mm film camera for Art reproductions. But in real life, the distortions are not noticeable, unless all you do is take pictures of architectural features (or symmetrical works of art!)

- User control of all parameters. My previous camera did not let me play with focus, light measurement or other parameters. I had to use tricks and Photoshop to produce the results I wanted. With the Pentax, you can adjust every feature involved in picture taking. So if you have an extra 30 seconds to take the exact shot that you have in mind, you will find that the 550 is very flexible.

- very small: 100 x 59 x 40 mm (3.9 x 2.3 x 1.6 in) at 250 grams (8.7 oz). The only time I take pictures is when I carry a camera. This one fits in my pocket. Always.

- SD memory cards. SD cards are small (I carry 2 spares in an empty Listerine breath freshener plastic containers) and inexpensive. They are also compatible with my Palm. I can view photos on the bigger screen of the Palm, and even send them through my portable phone. The Pentax uses a VFAT structure for the card, meaning that you can use it in any device that uses VFAT, including a typical card reader attached to your PC. I find it faster to take the card out of the camera and place it in my (fast) reader than plug the camera into the USB port.

- Li-ion battery (1800 mh/hour). I bought an (expensive) spare battery with my Canon. The Pentax will take 350 to 400 photos per charge. This is more than I need for a day out. The battery is also Li-ion, meaning that it will not be affected if you don’t wait for total discharge between recharges.

- Possibility to record a sound comment for every shot. Out goes the little notebook with the description of what a particular shot refers to. You can attach a 30 second comment to each photo. This might seem trivial, but if you ever were on a trip of the type “this is Tuesday so this must be Venice” you know what I mean.

- EXIF 2.2 compliance. Each shot’s parameters is stored in the JPEG file. This goes hand in hand with the previous feature. Sorting through a thousand photos is now easier than ever.

General comments:

The light metering is nearly always perfect (and always overridable) in AUTO mode. The camera does a good job of comparing lit areas at the focus point to give accurate readings for the main subject. Some reviewers complain about slow startup, but in real life, a couple of seconds make NO difference. Also, because of the extraordinary battery life (350 photos in my case) I mostly leave the camera ON when in a "shooting" situation. The lag time between each picture is very short. That's a major advantage. If you want to take fancier pictures, you can change pretty much every parameter, but the AUTO mode is right on and quick for day to day snaps. This is an excellent consumer product, always around in a pocket because of its small size.