How do you set high resolution on the camera before taking the photos? I have lost my manual. Can I also down load the overall guide?

The S2980HD won't let you set the resolution that low. You can use any photo editing program on a computer to down-rez your photos.

I'd like to know more about this, too. Mine stays in video mode OK, doesn't actually take any video, just stills.

I suggest altering the settings a little and if that doesn't work try using a different software to enlarge images. Such as windows photo gallery. That's not too good for enlarging just good for keeping the quality up if that isn't good enough try using a free trial of photo shop.
Hope I helped Dr Red

All cameras have multiple settings for picture quality. For example if you email a lot of pictures select a lower resolution. If you have "poster" size prints made select the highest resolution you camera will do.
Go into your cameras set up and select the highest resolution you have. should be about 12MP.
You have a high quality print with that.

There is nothing wrong with your camera. When you set the resolution to Large and compression to Fine, each picture needs about 3M space. So for a 32M SD card, you can take about 9 pictures. To take more pictures, you can set to low resolution and high compression which means that you’ll lost the picture quality; or use bigger size memory card. I would like to suggest you to buy a bigger card to keep the picture quality.
A chat on page 219 of user manual shows the estimated capacities of memory cards.

you need to rest image resolution of your camera fone to it's hightest or maximum resolution..first, press MENU,>MEDIA>CAMERA> then press select,.Next is you press the optioon button, down your cursor till you hit the SETTINGS, click the SETTINGS, IMAGE SIZE and make the resolutions 640x480,and make your IMAGE QUALITY HIGH.that's all!

One user manual covers the DCR-DVD905 and the DCR-DVD505.

Go to

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCustomerCare?storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1

click on 'Manuals/Specs & Warranty' in the Technical Support section, thn on the subsequent page, in option 2, enter DCR-DVD505 as the model number. This will take you to a page where you can download the operating guide.

Good Luck.

Try to push the shutter button half way down first so the camera will auto focus first. You should hear the lens move to focus, then press it the rest of the way down to take the picture. Your pictures should be much better quality if you do it this way.

You are shooting with the exposure bias set too far on the plus side, not familiar with the 550, do You have the user manual? If You look at exif data of posted photos, You will see that many are taken at settings below the midpoint. If You don't have a manual, go to the Olympus website, many manuals are available for download. You may also find the function in the menu based on sunny, cloudy, etc, this is important to set right