Olympus's super-zooms have come of age, with a stabilised 18x lens that's fast, sharp and stable. Image quality is still a step below a DSLR, but the combinatin of 7MP resolution, compact size and full manual controls makes the SP-550UZ a tempting propostion.
Also consider:

FEATURES
PERFORMANCE
BUILD QUALITY
EASE OF USE
VALUE FOR MONEY
FINAL SCORE

Good Camera

Reviewer: CuCumBeR151, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

I bought this camera a few months ago, but i'm quite satisfied with it. The super long zoom is really useful and the pictures it takes are not bad.
However, the camera isn't really good in low lighting conditions. Noise is very visible from ISO 400 above.

Olympus SP550 Ultra Zoom Compact Camera

Reviewer: Spank_My_Toaster, Wakefield, UK

I have used the SP550UZ for a while now, and find it a very good camera to use.

The zoom on it is fabulous and if you take candids in the street, as I do sometimes, this comes in handy, as it would if you like to photograph wildlife/birds.

The quality at both the 28mm wide angle of the zoom and the 504mm telephoto end are superb, with very small amounts of grain visible.

There are however, some problems with the camera; poor low light functioning, grainy results above ISO 400, slow write times (10secs+)


However, if you are in need of a small, discreet cmaera, with good zoom, PASM and RAW functionality and shoot landscapes or anything where the subject you are shooting does not move.