Thanks to all who offered replies to my earlier message about the Optio 550. I reread the comprehensive review Mark Roberts recommended; found the camera and made the purchase at the store Jose Rodriguez suggested; and nearly suffered a bad case of buyer's remorse when another PDMLer sent me a beautiful image made by another brand of camera.
I addressed the buyer's remorse by including in my testing an image intended to compete with the one I was sent; I am personally delighted with the result. Anyone interested can get an idea of mine (I couldn't see uploading the whole thing) here: http://members.aol.com/greenfalc1/strwbres.jpg My biggest problem right now with this camera has to do with the very reason I chose it -- the small size makes it hard to avoid shake. I'm working on developing a solid (!) technique for holding it. Overall I'm very pleased. The Optio does many things my Fuji Finepix 6900 doesn't, and I'm not worried about tasks the Fuji does better, since I still have it.
