Pentax Optio 555 Digital Camera

Pros: Size, zoom, image quality, battery life
Cons: 16MB card included; small for big hands

(Screen shots and sample photos: http://bitrazor.com/content/mi sc/optio_555_review.php) Out Of The Box Basics Overall, this is an excellent camera for the money. Its combination of very compact size, good 5x zoom, great resolution and image ...

Pros: Size, lens quality and zoom, great battery life.
Cons: In my opinion, very poor auto exposure and overly high contrast in images.

Not a bad camera but very tricky to use. Not a camera for a novice photographer. Even with a good bit of photographic experience it can still be difficult to take good photos. Pros: Excellent overall lens quality, very sharp and capable of good color ...

Pros: Everything is excellent with this camera.
Cons: Only the excessively wimpy 16 meg SD card that comes with the camera.

This is a great camera. I decided to venture into the world of digital photography in December 2003. I was looking for a camera with excellent features, good resolution, powerful zoom, and ease of use. I am extremely satisfied with camera, and it's ...

Pros: Great optics, lots of experienced user features. Diopter correction on view finder.
Cons: Batt/memory hatch easily broken. LCD too small to read text. Bottom, tripod mount not metal.

I bought the 555 based on my previous good experiences with Pentax cameras and their SMC series SLR lenses, the camera's specs, manual functions, stated metal body, and, especially, the 5x optical zoom and 5 MP CCD. I like to take nature, close-up, ...

Pros: optical zoom size, battery life
Cons: blurry pictures, heavy, small preview screen

We've had our camera for a few years now. My parents bought one and I was impressed with the features so when it went on sale I purchased one myself. One of the pros are that it has 5x optical zoom. This is hard to find in most bargain priced cameras. ...

Pros: Small, 5x zoom, 5 mega-pixels, easy to use, outstanding battery life
Cons: Some red-eye problems. Flimsy download port door and lens cover. Lag is longer than ideal.

I have been looking for a digital camera for a while. I wanted a zoom greater than 3x, didn't want a large camera, and didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for it. This camera is the first one I found to that fit the bill. The image quality is fantastic. ...

Pros: 5.0MP / 5X opt zoom WEIGHT SIZE PIC quallity
Cons: Pentax doest have CUSTOMER SERVICE Lens dont open problem

Optio 555 BRAND NEW DOES NOT OPEN THE LENSES AFTER 3 h /battery charge and 10 SHOOTS WAS MADE. I spent 3 days to find proper camera for me after my old Sony dsc50 2.1mp/3opt x4dig. was stolen . I have had 3 cameras to choose from Olympus c 750uz, Olympus ...

Pros: Made of metal, 5.25 megapixels, 5X optical zoom, automatic lens cover, compact camera, many features
Cons: Price may be a bit high since it is surprisingly an older model, small LCD

This camera is made of some type of metal(it is not just cheap lightweight plastic.) Has 5.25 megapixels and 5X optical zoom it produces great images. I recently had a print blown up to 20X24 and the quality is amazing. It is a camera that has many features that can be adjusted manually or you can have the camera do the thinking for you. The only downside is the small LCD screen. Also, the screen doesn't have a cover and mine is slightly damaged but is still useable. I have owned this camera for about 1.5 years and the other companies are just catching up with their optical zoom and megapixels. It looks great and is just the right size.

Pros: Great photos, LONG BATTERY LIFE, Buy good amount of memory to start with 256k?
Cons: I wish the shutter were quicker and it zoomed more times.

This was a great choice for a camera. Easy to pick up and learn to shoot. I'm still learning the finer details but have already shot thousands of great shots. Downloading to the computer is simple. The pictures are beautiful - NO COMPLAINTS. I'll use these in my graphics business as well as personally.

Pros: Takes great pictures when its working.
Cons: Major problems with lens extension.

I bought this camera for my wife at Christmas. It worked fine for about three months and then began to have problems fully retracting or extending the lens. We sent it back for repair and pentax kept it for about a month. After getting it back and using it for two weeks it started having the exact same problems. This camera has let us down when we really needed it on several important occasions. Customer service's only remedy is to return the camera again at our expense. I would not recommend Pentax products to anyone at any price.

Pros: Controls: ISO, Aperture, Speed, Focus. Very light compact. Great zoom, macro battery life. Great image.
Cons: Some noise (might be easily fixed with the correct settings)on low light indoor photos.

This camera was bought it order to have a really compact camera with manual settings (ISO, Aperture and Speed). It was everything as expected plus the great 5 times zoom and the 2cm macro.
You may take photos from almost everything everywhere.
Image is very good. There is a low light noise problem. It might be easily fixed by setting the correct parameters: low ISO (64 or 100),low sharpness and mind the focus. And if still needed (i think we don't) using a noise correction program like Neatimage. The photos will be perfect.
I'm very pleased with it. It will be good if you have some photo knowledge.
The battery life is really outstanding. For 300 photos.
But keep in your mind that this is not a big SLR camera with large lenses. Shouldn't be compared with it.


Highly recommended.

Pros: Compact yet powerful, Fast, Lots of options if you want them but easy to use
Cons: No action mode like on the Optio S , but it is a solid camera.

This piece of equipment is a great camera. It is compact, and sleek with a great design. Pentax did a great job. It is the first camera of its type. It is small, yet powerful. It has a fabulous 5x zoom, and provides sharp 5 megapixel photos. It has all different modes so that you get the best picture for what you are trying to shoot. It also has a video mode which shoots about 12 minutes of video with a 256 mb card. It takes secure digital or multimedia cards. It has a macro and super macro mode which is able to shoot pictures a a distance of 2 cm. It has a portrait mode, a fireworks mode, a flower mode, a night mode, and a fall leaves mode. It also has a sunset and sunrise mode which is perfect for taking great pictures of the sunset. The other great thing about this camera is that it has a ton of manual features in manual mode.

Pros: Five X zoom, versatility, exceptional battery life, solid feel, photo quality, size, FUN.
Cons: No specific sports mode, though with practice does well.

I have taken about 3000 photos with the 555. Many were experimenting with some of the many and various modes and settings available. Yet it still has a fully automatic "point and shoot" mode easy for beginners to start using immediately. It's a great way to learn about digital photography. The photo quality is excellent in most situations and adequate in some challenging situations such as low light. It focuses well in low light but may take some time. It is an excellent all around camera. The macro and super macro modes are excellent. The camera has been great fun for me and I have experienced no problems with the camera.

Pros: Lightweight, compact, great photos, fun & easy to use
Cons: NONE

This camera is terrific! My old digital camera took great pictures but most of them were of the back of my 2-year-old. That isn't the case anymore. Now I click and get the photo I'm looking for, even with a shutter lag. There are so many modes that it is hard to take a bad picture. I've had it for a month now and still haven't tried out all the different possibilities. It is small and light enough to carry in my bag so I always have a camera available. I use it almost everyday and haven't said to myself, "Oh, I wish I had a camera." It is worth every penny I spent on it!

Pros: I love everything except the lens cover
Cons: Auto lens cover frequently jams in sand or dust conditions.

Have had 5 digital cams. in 6 years. This is the best. Great pix indoors and outdoors, except when the lens cover jams open or closed. Pentax tells me this is only when there is dust or sand (is that like 90% of the time?). They say send it back for repair, leaving me with no camera. I hope future models of this fabulous camera remedy the lens cover design!