Model Design / Appearance (7.5)
The body of the Olympus C-5500 is a brushed silver color with polished silver highlights around the lens and the buttons on the top. The right-hand grip is a darker silver tone with a dark gray rubber grip for the fingers. The rubber is a great functional design feature. The C-5500 is an attractive digital camera with a logical and ergonomic design. The lens looks especially sexy with its polished highlights and clean edges.
Size / Portability (6.0)
The C-5500 is not a slim card-sized camera, but it is still compact. It is too bulky for a pocket, but could easily be transported without a camera bag. The C-5500 measures 4.9 x 3.3 x 3.9 inches. The camera weighs 8.6 ounces without the battery and memory card. The lens protrudes from the camera when turned on, adding more bulk. The weight seems evenly distributed though, so it doesn't tip forward or backward much.
Handling Ability (8.0)
The camera is easy to navigate and comfortable to hold and control. The right-hand grip makes handling feel natural; the slope of the grip nicely fit my fingers and didn’t make them feel cramped at all. The rubber on the right-hand grip provides a nice padded feel and good gripping texture for the fingers. The 
buttons on the back of the C-5500 are clearly laid out, enabling quick adjustments to shooting settings without straining the fingers.
Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (7.5)
As with most digital cameras, the Olympus C-5500's control buttons are located on the back of the camera. They are adequate in size and placement on the pleasing and logical layout. All of the buttons are clearly labeled with either words or commonly known icons like the Flash symbol. The Mode Dial is located on a slope between the back and the top of the camera where the thumb rests, so quick mode changes can be made without seriously impairing shooting.
Menu (7.0)
The menus have not changed much from previous Olympus models. When the Menu button is pressed, the matrix-type menu system pops up with four options. The options vary from mode to mode. In the Auto mode, these options are available: Image Size/Quality, Self Timer, Monitor, and Setup. The self-timer and image quality are represented by icons throughout the menus. The other two options are text. In the more manual modes, the setup menu option is replaced by a more general Mode Menu selection.
Navigating through the matrix-style menus is simple with the four-way navigational dial to the right of the LCD screen. Each menu option displays an arrow pointing the direction the users should press to make the selection. Unfortunately, some options are more buried than they should be, which impedes this model’s user-friendliness.
The Setup menu includes the following options: Format, All Reset, Language (person icon with talk bubble coming out of the mouth), LCD Brightness (LCD icon), Clock Set (clock icon), and Video Out. As indicated, some of these options are represented by icons, which can be vague for a first-time user. English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are the only languages available on the Olympus C-5500.
This setup menu is included within the Mode Menu that appears in other modes. When the Mode Menu is selected from the four-option matrix, four filing folder-type menus appear with tabs on the left side. Users must scroll vertically to get to the correct folder, which includes Camera, Picture, Card, and Set (from top to bottom).
The Camera menu houses most of the manual options, including the following: AE/AF, Drive, ISO, Self Timer (icon), Flash Exposure Compensation (icon), Flash Mode, Noise Reduction, Digital Zoom, Full-time AF, Panorama, Function, Info, Histogram (represented by a very vague icon), Microphone (icon), Frame Assist, and Time Lapse. Within the Picture tab, the following options are available: White Balance, White Balance Adjustment (icon), Sharpness, Contrast, and Saturation. The Card menu only offers a Format option. The Set option offers the same setup options as in the auto mode, and adds the following: PW on Setup, PW Off Setup, Recording View, Volume (speaker icon), Beep, Shutter Sound, My Mode Setup, File Name, Pixel Mapping, M/FT, AF Illuminator, and Short Cut. Some of these options are represented by icons; the only one that bothered me was the histogram option. Most of the options are in text and easy. The Short Cut feature does allow users to slightly enhance the user-friendliness. Users can choose from the following to replace one of the four options on the initial menu matrix: AE/AF, Drive, ISO, Self Timer (icon), Flash Exposure Compensation (icon), Flash Mode, Noise Reduction, Digital Zoom, Full-time AF, Panorama, Function, Info, Histogram (vague icon), Microphone (icon), Frame Assist, Time Lapse, White Balance, White Balance Adjustment, Sharpness, Contrast, and Saturation.
The Playback menu has a Slide Show option on the top of the matrix, represented by a burst mode-type icon with a playback symbol. On the right side is the Mode Menu; to the left is the Info option; the strangely depicted Histogram icon is on the bottom. Within the mode menu, there are four playback options that are set up in the same file folder style. Play, Edit, Card, and Set each have limited options. Play offers a microphone and print options, both represented by icons. The Edit menu includes Resize (icon), Crop (icon), and Red-Eye Fix. The Card menu includes All Erase and Format options.
In the scene modes, there is a Scene Selection option at the top of the matrix. Perhaps the coolest function in this entire menu system is the scene selection menu. When users scroll through the different scenes, they can see the text title and a sample photo on the LCD screen.
The Movie mode menu includes the following options in its matrix: Anti-Shake (hand icon at top), Mode Menu at right, Monitor Off on bottom, and Image Size at right. In My Mode, users can custom-design their own modes using the following options: Aperture, Shutter Speed, Exposure Compensation, Monitor on or off, Zoom, Flash Mode, Self Timer, AE/AF, Macro, Drive, ISO, Flash Compensation, Noise Reduction, Digital Zoom, Full-time AF, Panorama, Function, Info, Histogram, Microphone, Frame Assist, Image Size, White Balance, White Balance Adjust, Sharpness, Contrast, and Saturation.
I wish the options were spread more evenly throughout the menus. It seems like 95 percent of the manual options are buried within the Mode Menu, while the other three options on the “matrix” offer only one setting (which isn’t always the most useful either).
Ease of Use (7.0)
The Olympus C-5500 is comfortable to hold and easy to operate. The buttons are logically placed and properly sized for easy access. The casing is ergonomically designed with recessed areas and protruding buttons to enhance comfort while shooting for long periods of time. This camera is still considered a point-and-shoot, but has far more options than most digital cameras in this price range. There are, however, a few drawbacks affecting the C-5500’s ease of use. These include vague icons in a menu that buries its options. Olympus alleviates this problem a little by offering a Short Cut feature that replaces one of the matrix menu options with something more useful to the shooter.
