Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Price Paid:  $525.00 from Ebay

Summary:
I'd first like to say I upgraded to this model from a sony DSC-F1 which I liked very much tough it was only a 640X 480 camera with no additional memory capability. What cought my eye with the F-55 was the lens which of course is outstanding. Using this camera primarilly for Ebay auctions is generally good though the 1" close focus feature is quite frustrating as it has difficulty capturing the image. I find myself moving away to snap the image then zooming in while preveiwing the image and taking another image of that which reduces your res. to 640x480. The infolithium batteries work well at first but have started to work themselves down to about 30 minutes then go dead. I think it's the contacts as I've purched new ones with the same results. It is very difficult to clean these as there inside the unit and not easy to get at. The flash is very dissapointing in that there's no red eye reduction and images with it are generally washed out in the facial area. This makes every indoor shot and extra step in Photoshop to eliminate. Cycle times between shots are long as with most other Digi-Cams. Picture quality is very good, quite sharp. The mpeg movie mode is nice not not used much. Have not had any luck downloading these with any other software other than the package that came with it, which is So-So.

Strengths:
Small, handy to carry around and not bad for a point and click camera. Memeory sticks have come way down in price. I paid $50.00 for a 128 Meg. Stick

Weaknesses:
Close up a pain, no red eye reduction.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 Month

Summary:
This is my first digicam. After a month of usage, I'm very impressed by its picture qality and features that cames with it. I bought it in Japan for $550 no tax as I bought it as Duty-Free Shop.

Strengths:
Features. Price. Easy to use.

Weaknesses:
Perhaps it should include a larger memory stick, 16MB or 32MB.

Similar Products Used:
Nada

Customer Service:
Haven't used it.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 Year

Summary:
Excellent camera. Easy to use.

Strengths:
Ease of use. Storage capacity.

Weaknesses:
Downloading via cable is slow. Software takes a little getting used to.

Similar Products Used:
None

Customer Service:
N/A

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
6 Months

Summary:
I own two of these. I bought one for my wife, and liked it so much I got another one for myself. I use mine mostly for medical photodocumentation. The highest resolutions are more than adequate for this. I also took it on a trip to Ecuador, along with a Canon Elph. Both cameras fit into a small Tamrac bag, and I was able to bring mpeg "videos" home. I ended up using the Sony more than the Elph. Sony has discontinued this model, unfortunately, and hasn't really replaced it. If you can find one, buy it.

Strengths:
Size, high resolution, battery life, growing poularity of memory stick

Weaknesses:
No viewfinder(only bad in bright sunlight, i5 second limit on mpegs. Easily overexposes with flash

Similar Products Used:
Sony Mavica

Customer Service:
Haven't needed any

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
6 Months

Summary:
I love this camera. I bought mine on eBAY over Xmas last year and I love the thing. I've taken it everywhere with me, even to work. Highly recommended as a "first high quality digicam". This camera has just-enough of everything, without being large and clunky

Strengths:
Very small size, easy to pocket, great Zeiss lens makes super-sharp images.

Weaknesses:
No optical zoom (but no heavy lens either). Wished there was a USB port on the camera the serial interface is kinda slow for downloading pictures to a PC. Very clunky software supplied with the camera.

Similar Products Used:
This was my first digital camera I actually owned, but i've used several Olympus models.