Summary: I wanted to get into photography, so I bought this in December 2004.
I bought this believing all the hype about digital, but I did not take me long before I realized. Its ok for unimportant pictures when all that is needed is quantity, like holiday snaps, but no where near as good as my film compact, It makes good 7x5" prints in good light in situations that need little dynamic range, but even then the difference shows compared to an image from a (decent) film compact if you were to put them next to each other, increase the speed and the difference become obvious, unlike DSL’s the faster you go the more advantage film has over these cameras. Also portraits aren’t that good as you can't knock the background out of focus and B&W you can forget about. So even if you aren’t an enthusiast I would still recommend keeping that film camera for important occasions especially things like weddings, where even some pros will still turn to 35mm film.
if you take photography seriously and are looking to get a digital camera, get a DSLR unless you have poor eyesight.
Strengths: Takes lots of pictures with out needing to buy film and you can see the image on the LCD screen.
Weaknesses: Small sensor
Noisy
too much DOF
Lacks dynamic range.
Summary: They all say thanks,The rest of the reviews says it all in all details they are all correct;I DO agree with them 100%; Well this is the best PS digital camera i have used proffesionally so far; its much much better than any PS product from canon and nikon.Both G and C series.
The pic you make from this litlle silver potter is definetely on par with canon L lens quality and my editor at my newspaper is crying of joy.
Fuji E550 is a stunning camera,and i do recommand it anytime to anyone both amateurs and proffesionals; in fact a newly educated Photo Journalist asked me what camera to buy,as he problem was that she only had 1.900 Usd on her budget for a new employment and therefore had a low budget (employedfor a very small newspaper.-no money almost) ; i advised her this camera with the Fuji 0,76 conversion lens and a new Olympus E500 w the 14-45 and 40-150 mm lens kit.These two systems was only 1799 usd so she had some money leftover!
Although this DSLR pearl from Olympus makes stunning results too,The pics from this Fuji E550 was the most prefered of them all! ...BUT only when it was daylight...in dark areas and with flash the Olympus DSLR is absolutely the winner,okay lets be fair; a DSLR demands more experience and education BUT ithe Olympus is easier to go too than other brands..maybe in a couple of months its the other way around; but right now this Fuji E550 takes newspaper prints as easy as eating a FudgeChoco cake...wauw !! i Do Not understand why Fuji has stopped production of this stunning pearl? maybe its too expensive to make ?OR?? what??
If you can find one go and BUY it now......I bought one more as a spare..
Strengths: So many so i cant tell them all; IT ALSO USE Normal (normal) AA batteries!! wauw
and its t faster than my Old Canon d30!! wauw man.
Weaknesses: NOPE ..the Only little detail is ;;
fash...or lack of it..
Summary: This was a very nice camera that I won in a contest by Fujifilm. It performed very well and had a nice 4x zoom and good movie mode. Also, I liked the menu systems and the general build quality, but the materials were plastic-ey. It accepts lens adapters which is nice for people who want even more control in framing their images. In the end I sold it on ebay and decided to keep the Canon A95 I had bought the week before.
Strengths: 6.3 megapixels
640x480 unlimited length movie mode
4x zoom
Speedy Performance
Nice grip
2 inch lcd
Weaknesses: Weak Flash that can take awhile to recover between shots (and in telephoto mode the subject always comes out underexposed when the flash is used)
Generally Unappealing appearance
LCD can be hard to see in dim situations because it does not gain-up in brightness
Lacks the multitude of Scene modes the Canon has
Uses xD media (which is about 3-4x the price of SD and CompactFlash if you can find other media for the right price)
At the wideangle the view from the optical viewfinder is partially blocked by the large lens
Similar Products Used: Canon A95
Canon S200
Pentax Optio S
Olympus C-3000
Customer Service: When I won this camera the company was very easy to deal with and had very good communication.
Summary: This Fuji E550 has the best value to my point of view. It has all the features I need for a PS digital camera. It has a big image sensor and therefore it can deliver excellent images.
Speaking of its image quality, I would say it is among the best in its class thanks to its bigger image sensor. It was designed to compete with Canon's A series PS. But its quality actually reval Canon's G series. I always use its 12M + Fine setting. Fuji did not compress the images with this setting. I then use Photoshop to convert the images back to 3-6MP. The results can reval my Canon 20D with L lenses! So, this E550 has potential to deliver outstanding pictures! Just take a look at sample images in Steve-digital-camera site, you see clearly (for portrait shots) that its images would be more like prosumer digital cameras like Nikon 8800 or Canon Pro1 than canon's A95 or so.
It has features more than Canon's digital Rebel! More manual controls on exposure areas or focus areas! But of course, it does not have wide range of f stops or aperture choices. You can hardly get a nice portrait with nice blurred background like a digital SLR can do. But this camera cost less than a comsumer SLR zoom lens! It has two menu button. The "F" one only controls the "Film type" settings like ISO and b&W and so on. "F" for film and "Fuji", I figured.
Its start-up speed and focus lags beat Canon's A series and even G series. However, when the subject moves, the focus time would be in-line with other PS cameras. Overall, it is a reasonably fast camera in the PS camera crowd. It is miles faster than the Minolta F100 I used a year ago. For that reason, I just sold me F100.
Its zoom range 32-130mm is very useful, compare to 35-?? range on most others! It is better than all Canon's A series but inferior to Canon's S60/S70. It is always right to buy S60/s70. But for the money you pay for E550, it has better value. I used S50 before and feel that this E550 acts faster. I have not used s70, but the test data suggested that E550 is faster. Image-wise, Canon's S70 is also on the top of PS cameras. But technically, E550 delivers more resolution with its 12m setting. (Although it is not a true 12m image. It is still comparable to 8mp images! See tests in dpreview.com)
So, if you want a very capable PS camera with images reval 8mp prosumer cameras, this is your top choice.
Strengths: Good Image quality (Specially at 12M setting); Numerous (useful) manual controls; fast start-up and operation time; Focus is fast for still images. Very useful Zoom range. Large LCD screen.
Weaknesses: Body design not as elegant as Canon's. Focus for moving subjects (especially at long end) is slow sometimes. Plastic cover for inputs can easily get lost (but Fuji provides you with a spare one!). Uses Xd card that costs more now.
Summary: This is my first digital P&S but I have been scanning film with dedicated film scanners for the last 5 years. This is an execellent camera by any standard. It features all combinations of exposure options, 4X optical zoom, 6 MP, VGA video at 30 fps, and a large LCD screen. Color accuracy is good and macro is handy.
I expect all these in a camera. What I like is RAW output. AFAIK, this is the only inexpensive P&S that comes with this feature. If you are like me, you definitely want to use RAW for critical images. While the 12MP Fine does give you a lot of information, RAW gives you real information - information that may be missing in JPEG due to compression.
Cannot be recommended more highly. At least for now until something better comes along.
Strengths: RAW output - a must have feature if you are crazy about quality.
Extremely high image quality
Low, low noise
Very fast start and absence of shutter lag
4X optical zoom
2 AA batteries
Very easy to suppress flash
Weaknesses: Weak flash
Almost useless optical viewfinder
Limited shutter speed range
Construction could be better.
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