Olympus SP-550UZ 7.1MP Digital Camera with Dual Image Stabilized 18x Optical Zoom | List Price: $349.99 Discount Price: $274.97

| Brand: Olympus Binding: Electronics Release Date: 2007-03-01
This price is NOT a bargain. [Posted on 2008-07-20] I purchased this exact same Olympus camera one month ago for $100.00 cheaper at Sam's club here in Colorado.I paid $270.00. I will say that they sold very fast and they are out of stock here in Colorado.
Battery life [Posted on 2008-08-21] I purchased the Olympus SP 570UZ last month. This past weekend I took it out for the really the first time.
I do like the camera, however I was extremely disappointed with the life of the battery. I actually had to buy 4 sets of additional AA batteries to get through the weekend.
And therefore I was unable to take as many picture as I would have liked to. I saw that somebody wrote that he took 600 picture with a set of batteries. Well, I never got past 250.
Battery Hog [Posted on 2008-08-24] This model is my third Olympus. My old ones have superior battery life but not this one. It's batteries need a recharge after 35 images, max, although I don't use the large viewer and turn off the anti-shake. Then I have to charge them 2 or 3 times to get them to work. I was using Sony and Energizer 2500Mah with poor results, so The company accepted it back as flawed. The replacement is the same. I then ordered the Olympus charger and batteries recommended for this camera, and they are no better. What's funny is, my daughters Canon Supershot (same Mpix, anti-shake, large videos) worked fine on my "spent" batteries.
A lot of "noise" is evident in images taken in low light. The high ISO which is supposed to help in low light, actually makes it worse.
All my Olympus cameras are well made and easy to use, though the internal battery died in one after 3 years, so I have to redo my settings every time I change the battery. There are better cameras out there. I wish I'd gotten something else.
You control how you shoot. [Posted on 2008-08-24] If you are looking for a point and shoot camera keep looking. If you want more control with how you shoot. This camera will do everything you need and more. My first suggestion, take enough time before going on vacation to learn all the options that are on the camera. I got this one because I do a lot of bird and nature shooting, 'Very good optical zoom'. Turning off the sound is nice when I need quite. Cropping photos in the view finder. Being able to adjust my depth of field. Or the shutter speed I want. Focus on what I want. Every option worked right out of the box. You've notice that I tell the camera what I want to do. So if I have a bad shot I know who to blame. Mine was refurbished. Only down side was the manual looked like a copy of a copy, pictures and symbols where very hard to understand(One star off for that.) Equipment wise, five stars. I feel you get a good bang for the bucks. No regrets, I'll buy another if I wear this one out.
Great camera [Posted on 2008-09-30] I have really enjoyed this camera. It seems to offer a few things that I can't seem to understand how to access. It's relatively easy to use in the automatic mode. It takes good pictures, even from far away. It offers several different picture modes. I used the glass mode and took pictures of an aquarium. The pics were so clear it looked like I was in the water with the fish!
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