The E550 employs a Fujinon 4x optical zoom lens, it's equivalent to 32.5-130mm on a 35mm camera. The maximum aperture is F2.8 (W) - F5.6 (T). When the camera is powered down the lens retracts inside the camera and is covered by an automatic lens protector.

The focusing range in Normal: 2.0 ft. to infinity, Macro: 3 in. - 2.6 ft.

The chrome dress ring can be removed to attach the optional AR-FXE01 lens adapter ring (accepts 43mm filters) for the optional Fujifilm Wide-angle lens adapter WL-FXE01 and Telephoto lens adapter TL-FXE01.

The eye level optical real-image zoom viewfinder has a field of view of approx. 77% of the captured image but lacks any type of dioptric adjustment.

The manual popup flash has an effective range in wide angle of 2.0 ft - 14.8 ft (W)/ 2.0 ft - 7.2 ft (T). Flash modes available are: Auto, Red-eye reduction, Forced flash, Suppressed flash, Slow Syncro and Red-eye reduction + Slow Synchro.

On the back is a 2.0-inch color LCD monitor for framing, review and accessing the menus. In the upper right is the W-T zoom lens control. In Play mode the zoom control is used to activate the zoomed-in (magnified) replay mode. To the left is the Popup flash button. Below is the Record/Play mode slide switch. The blue "F" (Photo Mode) button lets you change the image size, ISO sensitivity and color mode.

The 4-way selector in Record mode toggles Macro focus on/off when pushed "Left" and the Flash modes are selected with the "Right" button. In Play it's used to navigate through the stored images. The center Menu/OK button calls up the menu and accepts selections. The BACK button stops a procedure, when not in menu mode the Back button is the DISPlay button - in Record it selects LCD on/off or the onscreen framing grid lines. In Playback the DISPlay button toggles overlay (text) information on/off and Index display of 9 thumbnail images per page. To the left of the LCD is the "+/-" exposure compensation button, it's also used to toggle between aperture and shutter speed selections in Manual mode.

On top of the grip is the shutter release, power button and the Mode Dial with positions for: Auto (point-n-shoot), Program AE, Shutter-speed priority, Aperture priority, Manual, Movie, Night Scene, Sports, Landscape or Portrait.

On the left side is the 3v DC INput jack for an optional AC power adapter. In the middle is the USB or docking cradle connector. A PictBridge compatible printer can also be connected to the USB port for direct-printing. The AV Out port allows connection to a TV for playback, the video signal is selectable for NTSC or PAL standard.

The IO ports are duplicated on the optional docking cradle, the USB port on the left, power input in the center, and AV Out on the right.

The E550 is equipped with a xD-Picture Card slot and is supplied with a 16MB xD card. It's compatible with any xD card from 16MB to 512MB. The batteries are also located in this compartment.

Approximate Image Storage

Power is supplied by a pair of standard AA type batteries, alkaline, NiMH rechargeable or photo lithium. A pair of 2300MaH NiMH AA batteries and a charger are included in the box.

When the camera is placed in the optional Picture Cradle the NH-10 battery pack (supplied with the cradle) is rapid charged and the camera is powered by the AC adapter/charger. Fuji claims that standard NiMH batteries can not be charged using a combination of the camera and the cradle.