"Picky Details" for the Fujifilm FinePix E550 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)

Timing

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required for the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Fujifilm FinePix E550:

Power

The Fujifilm FinePix E550 uses 2 AA batteries for power.

Excellent battery life, but still plan on buying an extra set of batteries. The E550 sips power pretty sparingly from its batteries, with a worst-case run time (capture mode with the LCD turned on) of about 136 minutes on my "standard" 1600 mAh NiMH cells, and almost six hours with the LCD turned off. In playback mode, runtime is a very impressive 4.5 hours. Better yet though, the E550 ships with a charger and pair of very high-capacity NiMH batteries (rated capacity of 2300 mAh, actual capacity of 2200 mAh in my tests), which should push the worst-case run time to more than three hours. This is excellent by any standards, let alone for a relatively compact camera. I do still strongly recommend purchasing a second set of high-capacity NiMH cells, so you can always have a spare set fully charged, but the E550's battery life is quite remarkable for a camera powered by only two AA cells. (See my Battery Shootout page for a listing of actual performance figures for a large number of NiMH AA cells, as an aid to finding high-capacity cells.)

Storage Capacity

The Fujifilm FinePix stores its photos on xD memory cards, and a 16 MB card is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a 128 MB card, preferably a 256 MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included 16 MB card at each size/quality setting.