Olympus SP-550UZ 7.1MP Digital Camera with Dual Image Stabilized 18x Optical Zoom | 
| Brand: Olympus
List Price: $349.99
Buy New: $275.00
You Save: $74.99 (21%)
New (15) Used (3) Refurbished (5) from $227.00
Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 4115
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 18
Display Size: 2.5
Maximum Focal Length: 84.24
Minimum Focal Length: 4.68
Maximum Resolution: 7.1
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 3.1 x 5 x 3.1
MPN: 225885
Model: 225885
UPC: 050332159853
EAN: 0050332158238
ASIN: B000LXZKQK
Release Date: March 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: for sale a sp-550 this is brand new and come with a 1gb chip and a merkury card reader and a merkury charger with four batterys and a ultra fine micro-fiber cleaning cloth every thing is brand new and has never bend used and a set of four 2700 mah battery brand new
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Product Description
Far and wide, the world's most powerful ultra zoom. Capture the moment, and capture the action, with the world's most powerful ultra zoom - the 7.1 megapixel SP-550 UZ. Its new 18x wide-angle super-telephoto zoom lens gets you closer to your subject than any other compact digital camera on the market. Dual Image Stabilization eliminates blur. And with high-speed sequential shooting and new Pre-Capture technology, you'll capture anything that moves. Even shoot in low light without a flash, thanks to Bright Capture Technology, and it's easy to preview, shoot and share with the large 2.5" high-resolution LCD.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Olympus hits a home run! February 28, 2007
Hiram Grant
130 out of 138 found this review helpful
After leading the way in digital point-and-shoots in the early part of the decade, Olympus had fallen on hard times. Not that their cameras weren't any good, it's just that they weren't anything special. With the SP-550uz (and a few other cameras), Olympus has really stepped it up.
First, this is one heck of a nice looking camera (the photos don't do it justice), and feels equally good in your hands (nice heft with the 4 AA batteries). The dials looks sharp and appears to be solid.
In operation, the camera works very well. The tremendous 18x optical zoom is smooth and not too noisy. The rear and internal LCDs are good, although I prefer the Sony internal LCD. The selector dial is easy to read, and the extremely helpful photo/descriptions that appear when you set the dial make it easy to figure out how to use the camera. Their "guide" mode is a wonderful addition for the beginner.
The "dual" image stabalization is a nice touch (but not a cure-all). The mechanical stabalizer is great for letting you hold the camera steady, but it doesn't really help as much for moving objects. The high ISO mode is more properly called an anti-blur mode, as it simply boost the ISO. This helps stop moving objects, but at a sacrifice in quality. High ISOs simply aren't very good on compact cameras, period.
Anyone who's read my reviews knows that I'm not a big fan of the xD cards. They're OK, but not a easy to find, or priced as competitively, as the SD cards.
Some recommended accessories are rechargable batteries and their lens adapter, if you think you might ever want to pick up filters or add-on lenses. These are tubes are sometimes difficult to find when the cameras are first out, but are really difficult to find once they've been discountinued, so get one early.
Overall, a camera at the top of the heap (along with the newly announced Sony DSC-H9).
not perfect, but still an excellent camera March 9, 2007
R. Stauber (Mt. Holly, NJ USA)
89 out of 90 found this review helpful
I got the camera about a week ago and highly recommend it. If you buy this camera, I recommend getting an H type card which is much faster than the M type for taking pictures. Some movie functions do not work to full capability with the M type but do with the faster H type. I also recommend getting NIMH 2700 mah batteries and charger. Their higher capacity is worth the money and will save over the long run.
As far as the camera goes, I wish the camera was higher than 7.1 mp, but compared to my old 3.3 mp camera, the pictures are so much clearer and finer. The camera has many functions build in, and you will need to read the manual to get full use of the camera. Out of the box AUTO mode works well, but after reading the manual, I think most higher end users will want to set their own modes.
Some nice included functions are the manual ability, the ability to choose among 15 different shooting types (such as through a window), and the ability to store raw images among others. Storing raw images is slow due to the large file size and can take several seconds on an M type card.
Movie mode is able to take 30 fps at 640X480, but 15 fps is still good quality. With the M type card you can only take 15 seconds of movies at full mode, but H type you can fill your memory card. The default setting for movies is without sound so you will need to turn this on. However, with sound turned on, I was not able to zoom, even with the H card.
Image Stablization was nicely setup and can be set with just the push of a button rather than going through the Menu. Also, the eyepiece viewfinder is setup so that if the display on the back is on, the viewfinder is off and vice-versa. In fact when you use the eyepiece viewfinder, the picture that is normally displayed on the back is now in the eyepiece. I suppose this is good for taking pictures when it is too bright to see the back screen.
Finally, I like to take weather shots and this camera includes a time lapse mode, which I can put together with my old software (not Olympus) into a movie.
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 Excellent image quality with superb 18X optical zoom with optical stabilization, but no high speed USB and mediocre software March 13, 2007
Tennyson Lee (Rocklin, CA United States)
71 out of 74 found this review helpful
Images from this camera are very high quality. The 18X optical zoom is very usable with only minimal distortion noticeable at the extremes. The optical image stabilization system (based on stabilizing the CCD image sensor instead of lens elements) is quite good and performed well under several different circumstances (moving car, boat, shaky hands).
My main gripe with this camera is the lack of high speed USB 2.0 support. The fine print says that the USB interface is "full speed" which means a maximum transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s instead of the 480 Mbit/s possible with high speed USB. So, downloading photos from the camera through the USB interface is painfully slow compared to most current generation digital cameras such as a Canon SD900.
The software provided with the camera is somewhat difficult to use and is slow and unresponsive.
It would also be desirable if the camera could accept a lithium ion rechargeable battery in addition or instead of the 4 AA batteries it uses. But, battery life with both alkaline and rechargeable NiMH AA batteries was adequate.
 Nice camera, but the autofocus has a mind of its own. May 7, 2007
J. Bowen (Hampstead London)
60 out of 64 found this review helpful
I bought thus camera on the basis of its really useful zoom. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice camera. Everything feels solid and reliable, but the autofocus has a mind of its own.
Unless the thing you focus on has 100% sharpness, the camera will focus on whatever is in the background (often hundreds of yards away) or at the feet of the object of interest, throwing out any chance of focusing in the object of interest.
I can work round this issue, but is something you shouldn't have to do for the price (and so is something you should consider).
Perfect camera for the nature photographer May 3, 2007
William A. Nolan (Willcox, AZ USA)
53 out of 53 found this review helpful
I have had this camera for a month now, and have shot about 2500 frames. I teach digital photography at the local college, and have several cameras, so I have a good basis for comparison.
I shoot mostly nature subjects, and this camera acts like it was designed just for me. For nature subjects you need telephoto and macro, and this camera shines at both ends. Set to super macro it will focus at 1cm. Thats less than 1/2 inch. It has allowed me to shoot a honeybee that filled the frame.
The 18x telephoto is clear and sharp, and perfect not only for birds at a distance, but lizards 8 feet away. I bought the CLA-10 adapter and 1.7 teleconverter, so I can get 27x telephoto, and it is still clear. The image stabilization is good enough that I can hand hold at 27x if necessary.
The current lack of RAW support in Adobe products is being worked on, and the plug-in is expected shortly.
If you shoot nature you will love this camera. It is also ideal for candid street photography, and is being used by some pretty famous photojournalists.
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