Miniaturisation of technology really doesn't suit everyone. If you find holding some small cameras akin to grasping a bar of soap, something a little more substantial may be just the ticket.

Pentax's Optio 550 is no slim-hipped lightweight. It is designed as a full-featured compact. It weighs 250g and the aluminium case feels like it will stand up to the odd bump and scrape.

The 550 is a five megapixel camera which can capture images up to a maximum resolution of 2582 x 1944pixels. The 5x optical zoom is good for a compact camera and fits well with the idea of this being a camera for enthusiasts rather than casual snappers.

It has an abundance of shooting modes. In photography mode, there are five resolutions with the lowest being 640 x 480 pixels and there are three quality choices for each. Most people will probably be using the higher settings and results look good. Images are sharp with vibrant colours.

You can set the camera to take pictures in uncompressed TIFF format, as well as JPEG. Taking them in TIFF format will take up a lot more space on your memory card, although the supplied 16Mb SD card won't be the one you use if you want to get more than two or three photos in an outing.

If you want to zoom in on the detail in your images or have them printed out in a large size, uncompressed images get the best results, if you can spare the space.

A fully manual mode is included if you want total control over your images but if not, semi-automatic and fully automatic modes take away some of the hassle. A movie mode is common in lots of cameras but the audio recording feature on the 550 is still pretty novel. You can attach voice labels to all your photos, and images can be viewed on the 1.5in colour screen through a separate playback function.

All told, the Optio 550 is a flexible and feature-packed addition to the Pentax range. Some of the features, such as digital colour filters, are a bit gimmicky but the overall feeling is that this is a high-quality compact.

Contact: Pentax 01753 792762
www.pentax.co.uk