Customer Reviews 
Small and powerful but SLOW
2008-12-03I just got this camera. I bought it because it is small, light weight and has 10MP. All of those qualities are great. However, the delay in taking the picture outweighs the other benefits. I will get it focused and push the button to take a picture and wait and wait before it takes the picture. If you want to capture the perfect expression, this is NOT the camera for you. If you are like me, you pictures of your family will have the puzzled, "you mean you haven't taken the picture yet" type of look. If you just want to capture the larger picture of what is going on and it doesn't really matter when you take the picture, it would be a fine camera.
Great camera!
2008-11-30This camera is amazing! Tons of shooting options and 5X zoom! Pictures have great detail and macro mode is phenomenal! All this fits into your pocket in a stylish point and shoot. Highly recommended!
Alas, a Disappointment
2008-11-26I have been a HUGE fan of Nikon cameras over the years, especially their digital line. I bought their first DLSR and that has served me well.
I bought the S550 for my wife so she'd have something small to put in her purse. She was out of town recently and came back with a ton of pictures, almost all of which were somewhat grainy or blurry. I thought it must be the diminutive camera size and that my wife might've been experiencing a slight bit of camera shake (the S550 is a bit tricky to hold completely steady and compose a picture). But camera shake would explain blur, but not grainy.
Well, I took the camera and took shots of this and that and then compared it to my Canon Powershot A610 (5 Megapixels). I took shots of the same items with both cameras and was...well...shocked! The clarity on the A610 was significantly better.
Wish I had performed this experiment when I first purchased the camera. Would've returned it.
Why did I give it 2 stars instead of 1? Well, it's cute, 5X optical is a great feature, it's got video and it fits in my shirt pocket. But add 'em all up and they pale when picture quality suffers.
Has some drawbacks
2008-11-26I bought this camera because I had a Nikon film camera I paid nothing for in 1990 and it took incredible pictures. I have always admired Nikon lenses.
Has no one else experienced the MIRROR that the LCD screen becomes in bright sunlight? My other digital camera "grays out" in bright sun but this one is a MIRROR....there is no way to even guess at what you are pointing the lens at. A viewfinder would not just be for nostalgia, it would be USEFUL for this camera.
Product Listing has incorrect features!
2008-11-24I bought this camera assuming the detailed description of included features was accurate but it isn't- at least in one regard which was the selling point for me: the 'stop-motion movie' mode which it lists in the final paragraph description.
This was the one I spotted, but there could be others. For this, and all other cameras and electronic equipment listed on Amazon I will be double-checking the manufacturers website in the future.
In this case, here's the link to Nikon's own page on the S550:
http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-Camera/26108/COOLPIX-S550.html
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