Pentax Optio 555

Opinion: I've had this camera for a year & 2 months. I've taken thousands of photos with it. This is one of 2 digital compact cameras I own. I've been gushing to write a review for some months now. I love this camera for the following reasons:
(a) Solid build - all metal body except for plastic compartment doors, which in my opinion are not flimsy
(b) Small & handy to carry around & go about anywhere, but with a big 5MP resolution & 5x optical zoom capability
(c) Controls are very logically placed, very logical to operate & very easy to operate - perfect user interface
(d) Excellent & beautiful photos - sharp, well-exposed & well-balanced images, with extremely accurate colour
(e) Very powerful flash for something so small
(f) Excellent battery life, far better than most digicams on the market
(g) It does not boast of an anti-shake capability, but it is able to take hand-held shake-free images (except caused by movement of subject) down to very slow shutter speeds (about 1/3 sec), much better than my other camera which touts itself as having an anti-shake mechanism!
(h) It allows one to make as many adjustments as one likes to obtain an image which best suits one's taste & liking (even though there are only 3 steps for adjusting sharpness, contrast & saturation - but I don't need these parameters over-exaggerated)
(i) The ultimate enthusiast's pocket rocket camera - this is a special camera & not your usual run-of-the-mill me-also stuff

Opinion: I purchased this camera in December 03. As a professional nature photographer I bought it as a back up to my SLR's and for doing preview shots prior to taking the proper pictures. It is solidly built, has an excellent array of features, great battery life, easy to use and possesses a nice optical zoom. Landscape and portrait pictures are good as are standard macros.

Opinion: I have owned this camera for one year and run through a full year of pictures, attempting to take anything and everything I could and have to say that this camera is outstanding.

Construction and styling is very good
Features are plentiful and easy to use
Battery life is tremendous
Zoom is excellent
Size is small enough to fit in a pocket, and smaller than other similar cameras.

Most importantly, the pictures come out very good to excellent most of the time.

I have had some bad shots, or difficulties taking some macros, but I am a novice photographer and therefore cannot necessarily attribute it to the camera.

Several of the pictures I have taken have been attributed to professional photographers or mistaken as postcards.

Overall, if I had to do it again, I would buy this camera in a heartbeat. Just make sure you have enough SD cards to last you a long trip as the file size is big.

Opinion: This is a great little camera, provided you don't have quality control problems. It has virtually every feature you could want in a digital camera except IR assist light and a flash hot shoe. Takes excellent photos, although probably a tiny bit grainier than I've seen from a Canon G3. I bought mine new/used from a large frame art-photo buff who wanted to see what the digital craze is all about and after taking 100 or so photos, decided he didn't like the quality of pictures this Pentax takes. However, I think he was getting grainy photos because when I recevied it, he had turned up the internal sharpness control - the graininess disappeared and it started taking excellent photos when I reset the sharpness it to neutral.

I've found that it's not too hard to oversaturate the colors, with, for instance, macros of flowers. If you go into the clear and easy-to-access menu system, you can lower the saturation level and that helps a lot.

This little camera even comes with a histogram function, which I friend of mine tried to teach me to use (his $1000 Olympus 8080 has one too) and it seems like it will be very useful once I get the hang of it.

Maybe a competitor for the Optio 555 has come out in the past half year, but when I bought mine in March 2004, it was truly the battery king of digital cameras. It had/has the longest-lasting battery of any digital camera on the market. I've taken it on week-long vacations, shot 250 photos all with LCD display on, 20% with flash, and the battery level dipped down to halfway drained on its battery life meter. I thought I would miss the NiMH AA batteries from my old Canon A20, but the lithium battery on this Pentax is incredible and if anyone whines about it being a proprietary battery, you should ignore them because they don't know what they're talking about. If you bought an extra battery and didn't use the flash or the LCD display all of the time, I bet you could squeeze close to 1,000 photos out of the two batteries.

For those who are complaining about this camera's looks, you might as well call Halle Berry repulsive or Michael Jordan mediocre. I truly have absolutely no idea how anyone could find this less than an attractive camera, especially with its solid aluminum body. If you want an ugly camera, the new Casio 6mp - now that is one butt-ugly picture taker.

There really isn't any other camera on the market that has the features this one does (except maybe one of the newer Pentax models). It's got way more features and picture quality than any of the compact ones and is about half the size of any prosumer camera with its featureset, except perhaps the Sony DSCV1. It's a third of the size of any camera with more than a 4x optical zoom.

Opinion: Despite what other seem to be saying, I don't think the camera is terribly
ugly--at least I have definitely seen uglier. Anway, I bought this camera about
a month ago and I am very happy with it. Although I wish it were a little
smaller, perhaps closer in size to the canon s500 or sony p100, the 5X zoom
definitely makes up for it. The pictures I have taken in Macro are unbeatable
compared with my friends cameras in the same class. The potential for
creative photography and manual control is also wonderful. My only
complaint is that the colors are not as vibrant as some other cameras in the
same class. However, with manual adjustment etc. this can be fixed. I
recommend this camera to anyone who wants a smallish camera that has more
zoom power and creative potential.

Opinion: When my old camera broke down i spent almost 5 months searching for the next one. I really wanted that "Super camera". After alot of searching I picked the Optio 555. Almost one year later I know that there is no such thing as a super camera but The 555 comes pretty close. I''m VERY satisfied with it though there're some details I dislike.

Good stuff:

* All manual features you can find in digital system cameras except for the extreme ranges in aperture and shutter speed. I can really do almost anything with it!

* The combination of 5MP and 5X zoom together with 2 cm macro is a winning concept.

* Easy to use, every setting is really just one button away. The Menu/Fn button is great, keeps the back of the camera more clean from annoying extra buttons.

* 3D mode and Panorama are awesome when used right. I'm in a panorama-period right now and I think the bundled stitching programme in Acdsee works really great.

* Battery life is very good.

Opinion: It doesn’t look nice but image quality is PERFECT.

Opinion: This is my third Digital Camera (RDC, Minolta F-100). The fact that the zoom
range is 5x is amazing. Picture noise is more noticable than the F100 at
400ISO setting but the 5megapixel CCD makes up for it. Battery life is
amazing. I considered a few cameras in the 4.0+ Megapixel range with
cosideration for the following needs: compactness, manual settings, image
quality, optical zoom range & price (under $700.00 Canadian). After
comparing shots taken from a few cameras, I chose the Optio. It's a versatile
and easy camera to operate with very good picture quality.

Opinion: Brought Pentax Optio 555 from Beach Camera (online). I compared with Canon S60, S500, Casio Exilim and Nikon Coolpix 5200, and spent almost 3 months searching for the right camera. I have a Canon elan IIe (film) camera for 5 years and am happy with it, but decided to go digital to cut cost (print only the pictures that comes out nice). Pentax was finalised due to the $50 rebate and the amazing specifications of the camera. The camera was as stated in the specification and met my expectations. Beach Camera sent it out the same day as I ordered and I received it on time.
However, the camera stopped focussing after two days. Checked with the Pentax authorised camera repair shop to make sure it is not a problem with the settings. They told me that the problem is not in the firmware or settings but the focussing mechanism is broken. In this forum several members have expressed concerns that the camera didnot behave properly after they made a trip (could it be that the xrays causing the camera to behave erratically ?!). I emailed Pentax customer service to see if they have anymore problems like this. They assured me they never had such problems. Returned it to Beach camera and they promptly refunded the money (minus shipping). I will buy again from Beach Camera, but I will not buy another Pentax.