Customer Reviews
Satisfied in South Carolina 
2008-07-05
My new Coolpix S550 does everything I expect it to do. Foremost, it is very compact and fits into my pants or coat pocket so I can get shots when opportunities come up without the bother of lugging a bigger camera and also people are not put off by my looking like a dogged camera man. It takes great pictures. I still do not really like the new approach to photography using the little screen on the back of the camera instead of a traditional viewer. However, I have two other digital cameras that fulfill the rest of my needs. Nothing beats a nice Nikon or Cannon SLR. But, they do not fit in my pocket and will do me no good if they are at home and I am out somewhere wishing I had my camera for that great unexpected opportunity shot.
Excellent small lightweight camera 2008-07-04
I have been looking for a small, light, GOOD camera to take on an extensive backpacking trip. This camera fits that criteria well. The 5X zoom lets you reach out and get pictures that a 3X zoom just doesn't do well.
The only negative I have found is that it uses a proprietary battery instead of something readily available (like AAs).
great little camera 2008-07-03
I am so glad I got this camera before my vacation to Maine. This camera far exceeds my expectations. I bought a memory card that holds over 500 pictures. Great quality. All the pictures turned out terrific. No red eye, no bad flash, no problems at all!!! My old kodak had worn out and I was amazed at how great these pictures turned out. Great value for the price. I highly recommend.
Great value for price 2008-07-02
Great product. Small size, Easy buttons, quality pictures. Make sure you get a charger that can run on 120-240 V anywhere in the world, since the product only comes with one that runs in the US (120V).
One week in- A cool little camera 
2008-06-30
As a fairly cheap point-and-shoot camera, the Nikon Coolpix S550 is a pretty neat piece of hardware. It's certainly not a high-end DSLR, but it's good at what it does, and it offers some nice pluses over other cameras in its price range.
The good:
-5x optical zoom is very good for a little camera like this, and is tops in this camera's class. I would like to remind readers that "digital zoom" really just crops out part of a picture to make it look bigger in the viewfinder while destroying actual shot quality, so please disregard the "digital zoom" on this or any camera.
-10megapixel resolution is pretty phenominal, especially in this camera's price range, especially coupled with the 5x zoom. Dollar-for-dollar, you're getting a lot.
-Shutter and record speeds seem great. Note that with megapixels this high, you're going to need a high-speed SDHC memory card if you don't want to see too much of the hourglass.
-The high resolution and zoom really combine for wow power when you take movies with the camera. Although the mic is terrible and you'll probably just want to mute it, you can take movies of a pet where you can see every individual hair from a respectable distance if you so choose. On a one-gig card, I can shoot a half-hour of movies at this quality.
-The camera's overall size is very comfortable. Not much taller and wider than a credit card, not much thicker than a thin paperback, and compeletely flat when it's powered down. Yet it's still roomy- I'm a 6'+ guy with stubby fingers, and I've never fumbled a button yet.
-Tons of modes. The camera can take widescreen pictures or regular format, PAL or NTSC, and resolutions from standard tv (640x480) through the roof (over 3,000 vertical pixels). It has smile recognition, stabilization, various compensation filters including red-eye. It has Portrait, Outdoor, Indoor, and even Copy for taking pictures of documents just in case you're a secret agent on a budget. The basic Shoot and Smile modes seem wholly satisfactory, but this camera offers plenty of room to grow. Yesterday I took some very clear photos of moths in flight, with no adjustments other than setting the camera to high ISO.
The not-so-good:
-No optical viewfinder, only the digital screen. It's a very good and very big screen though, so this is mostly just for nostalgia's sake.
-The camera doesn't have a dial for the various settings. Instead of just clicking over to Portrait or Outdoor, you have to hit a menu button and look around. This is a pretty small complaint overall, but I would have still preferred a wheel.
-I've noticed that with a lot of low-end digital cameras like this, you can see that as the camera auto-adjusts it will show a perfectly sharp picture in the viewfinder, but keep adjusting until the picture becomes a bit blurry. Maybe this is just something about the way I take pictures, but I know this camera is capable of clearer shots. This is especially evident in extreme close-ups, such as under a foot away. The camera will adjust right up to a perfectly crisp photo for a moment, then keep going to a blurry mess before it snaps the shot. If I could just cut out the last few moments of zooming, I'd have gotten a perfect photo. I saw this same thing with a number of comparable cameras while doing in-store tests, and I'm puzzled as to what causes it (maybe I need to turn off the assist beam sometimes, I don't know). I'll have to check the camera's official site and such to see if I can find tips.
-5x zoom, while really wonderful for the price range, still seems a bit stifling. Maybe I'm just at the point in my life where I need to own up to the truth and save up for a high-end SLR. 5x optical is certainly much better than the 3x zoom that comes with most comparable cameras.
Overall, I really got this camera because it was time to upgrade from my old Canon A60. The A60 took really great photos in the right conditions, but it couldn't adapt to conditions well, and it had a very big delay between pressing the button and getting a shot. The Coolpix has already paid for itself with smile recognition- I'm a "psychic blinker" who manages to always shut his eyes the moment a photo is taken, and I haven't gotten a single photo of myself with my eyes closed, even doing close-ups with flash.
If you're just starting out in the digital world, this camera has all the best features with a clear interface and instant point-and-shoot modes that require no calibration. If you're like me and you just need to find a smarter digital camera, you could do a lot worse than this one for the same money. If this camera suits your price range, you simply must put it at the top of your list. The only reason I'd suggest passing on this camera is if you've got significantly more money to spend on a higher class of camera.
nicon coolpix 
2008-07-22
I bought this for my husband but he does not like it because of the time it takes for the lens to come out and take a picture.
Small and Easy 2008-07-14
Pros: Besides the color is very beautiful is a camera that meets all the requirements for a good photo.
Cons: Penalty that the loading of the battery is not the USB.
Very Disappointed in Picture Quality 
2008-07-10
I have to agree with other reviewers who said there were too many blurry pictures. I took over 70 pictures on the day I received this camera. Only five or six turned out good. My last digital camera was a Canon PowerShot A510 with 3.2 mp. I have many hundreds (maybe thousands) of excellent pictures from that camera. The Coolpix was very disappointing. What good is 10 mp when the pictures are blurred? Right away I boxed up the Coolpix and returned it to Amazon. I ordered the Canon PowerShot SX100 IS and received it today. Took about 30 pictures and only had a couple of blurry ones. OPTICAL IMAGE STABILIZER IS VERY IMPORTANT! This camera is not small and sleek but the weight and contour make picture taking very much more stable and comfortable. This 8 mp is the camera I'm going to keep and enjoy. And the 10x optical zoom is fantastic.
Excelente pero con un par de detalles. 2008-07-09
La calidad de las fotos es muy pero muy buena. Esperaba que el sistema antivibracion (VR) fuera un poco mas efectivo pero funciona bien, quizás lo único que no me convence es que es un poco lenta para procesar la fotografía tomada y eso que uso una tarjeta SD-HC
Repair within 30 days 
2008-07-07
Great Pictures!. I highly recommend buying from a local dealer. My camera stop working within 30 days and I had to ship it to Nikon for repair. Saved a little money on the purchase but just spent $13.00 packaging and shipping for the repair.
