Nikon Coolpix S550

Review Date
November 16, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.17 of 5, 12 votes

Reviewed by
denny purtee , Expert

Price Paid
$179.00 at Meijer inc

Photography Experience
21+ years , People

Summary
I needed a small camera to travel with and be able to take photos of people, places, and objects. Some times there is a story on the way to a story.
So I can use my mane camera for the mane story and my small pocket camera for other events.

Strengths
It's a good quiet camera that fits in a shirt pocket. the photos are sharp.
I use mine when I don't want to carry my DSLR with me . I also carry it with my DSLR as a backup. lots of modes and adjustments.

Weaknesses
wish it would use standard batteries. I use just a few of the different modes.
had to carry the manual with me the first few times.

Similar Products Used
I used film cameras about the same size. I like the digital ones better.

Customer Service
have never had to use

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Review Date
April 14, 2008

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.95 of 5, 44 votes

Reviewed by
icespur , Intermediate

Price Paid
$200.00 at ABE's online

Photography Experience
21+ years , People

Summary
Nikon missed the boat on this one. I use a Canon Digital Rebel and I bought this camera to replace my wife's Canon A540 with a broken LCD screen. The first thing she noticed was the pictures were not sharp. If you don't set the ISO to high when taking pictures of people indoors the background will be substantially underexposed. I tried to set the camera up so all she has to do is press the shutter, and she was able to get decent exposures, however the pictures just don't come close to pictures taken with a Canon. Her old PowerShot S330 with 2 Mega Pixels actually takes better pictures.

She uses the pictures mainly for making photo books of the grand kids, so I have to run the pictures through Focus Magic to clean them up. With the PS A540 Focus Magic does not indicate any adjust is necessary. With the Nikon it indicates an out of focus of 2 pixels. Looks like I will soon be buying a replacement for this one.

Strengths
Small Size. If you like the soft focus effect no need to use PhotoShop with this camera

Weaknesses
Pictures are not sharp and the color saturation is not is not up to the standards of most digital s on the market. I have never used face recognition technology before, therefore I cannot compare this feature to other cameras. Basically it picks out the brightest point in the picture and uses that for the metering & focus point. One strange thing about the camera is the offering of a party mode which blurs and streaks the pictures. I have to wonder if Nikon is outsourcing the design and manufacture of their consumer cameras; definitely not up to Nikon standards..

Similar Products Used
Canon EOS Digital Rebel, PowerShot S330 and PowerShot A540

Customer Service
Unknown

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