Canon PowerShot A550 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
by Canon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon PowerShot A550 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
Customer Review: Very satisfied
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the A550 as a light backup for an extensive Olympus DSLR system. There are times when one wants a small camera just for snapshots or backpack, but more importantly for me, I want a 'safety net' that is easy to use, produces good results and uses a common power supply. Hence, after a lot of shopping around I purchased the 550.
First, as a bottom line, the camera produces excellent results, even in its most simple 'point and shoot' mode. Images are sharp, clean and properly exposed (more reliable than my Oly dslr's), even when there is some backlighting present. It has a manual feature which permits exposure compensation, ISO selection and other settings. Its movie capabilities are impressive. It has an optical viewfinder for power saving and those situations where it is too bright to use the lcd for composition. The camera fires up quickly and it has easy to use menus that provide many options.
My Olympus cameras all use a proprietary battery system that requires I haul around a charger and a couple of backup batteries. But they are power hogs. The A550 takes off-the-shelf AA alkaline batteries available anywhere. I use rechargeable Sanyo Eneloops or Rayovac hybrids and, frankly, I have no idea of how many photos I can take because I have never run them down. My guess is a couple of hundred shots using the lcd, maybe three or four hundred without. That's a lot of photography. A heck of a safety net. At a time when TSA is starting to restrict how many lithium camera batteries one can pack I say kudos to Canon for keeping a fine line of cameras running on both AA's and SD cards, rather than the miserable xD's preferred by Olympus and Fuji for their compacts.
There are some other things I like. The camera has an optical zoom feature, which is generally pretty useless on most cameras. The A550s isn't brilliant, but I do find I can extend the telephoto maybe 50-100mm without too much loss of sharpness, cutting my need to manually crop later. I also find that I do not need to use it at its lowest compression to get excellent results up through 8x10" prints. Slap in a 2 meg SD card and you're good for well over a thousand shots.
Quibbles. Of course there are always some. The flash unit takes up to 10 seconds to recycle, and the lcd isn't the sharpest kid on the block. And, I truly wish that Canon would give its compacts a bit more wide angle capability. 35mm is fine for most situations, but 28mm would be great for those of us who do landscapes and cityscapes. The sliding battery/memory card door is a tad on the flimsy side, but overall, the camera is well built.
I understand that Canon has upgraded the 550. The 560 includes face recognition and other new features which I really don't care much about, but doubtless add to the functionality of the camera. At the end of the day I am very satisfied with what I have, and if you can find one at a rock bottom price (somewhere in the vicinity of $115-20) you just cannot go wrong.
Customer Review: Excellent PnS camera with lots of possibilities
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this camera to have a Point and Shoot available when the occasion doesn't call for a full blown 9-10 megapixel DSLR-type like my Fuji S9000. Fujifilm Finepix S9000 9MP Digital Camera with 10.7x Wide Optical Zoom The Canon shoots amazingly fast and produces a large format photo right out of the box. I like the Canon menu tree - it's easy to know where you're going for settings. The LCD is bright and crystal clear. The Canon DIGIC II electronics are worth Googleing and reading about.
The selling point that persuaded me to buy the A550 7.1MP is the TTL Optical (Through The Lense) vuefinder. Most other PnS cameras leave you with only a LCD screen to vue through...I find them awkward and not true when composing a shot.
SD media is the most inexpensive and available on the market. The A550 can use SD, SDHC and MMC. A couple 1Gig pieces should serve you well, the faster writing the better - DON'T SKIMP HERE. A slow writing media card will bother you eventually.
Arm yourself with 3 or 4 changes of rechargeable batteries and go shoot the world, or at least try. Read your Manual - download one from the Canon site to browse while on the computer. You'll find this camera is about as versatile as they come.
Customer Review: This is a great camera!
Summary: 5 Stars
I needed a new camera to replace my very old digital camera, so I ordered this one and could not be happier with it.
It has all kinds of features, including some manual control options like white balance, etc. for those people who like to mess with that stuff (I'm more of an Auto person, myself). I used it on vacation last month and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of pictures, after taking only a few test shots to get familiar with the camera. The camera is very easy to use and gives you a basic user manual to get you started, and also a detailed manual to help you find out how everything works on the camera. The movie mode works good, too. The colors come out bright and vivid. The lag time between pictures is minimal, which is one of the main things I hated about my old 1.3mp Panasonic Palmcam, and the 7.1mp makes for some excellent detail in your pictures. The only bad thing about the camera, in my opinion, is that it doesn't have a movement stabilizer (or whatever it is called), so it can be prone to shaking, especially when you zoom using the digital zoom. I like that the camera is small and lightweight, but it is not one of those super thin ones that you feel like you could break in half.
Overall, I think this is a GREAT camera, and I don't think you can find a better camera for the price.
Customer Review: Excellent Value
Summary: 5 Stars
I must say I am mightily impressed with it. there are extensive reviews on this camera in the net, hence my take on it is more personal.
This camera will :
1. take high quality pictures (2-3 mb each)
2. support a fat 8 GB SD card
3. priced under $150
4. shoot movies in mpg format with very good clarity
5. remain rugged even after dropping.
The pictures are more than a normal family needs to preserve as memories. They are clear and print worthy. The short movies you can make are absolutely great. Since they are recorded directly in mpg format, one does not have to belabor through encoding which is a norm in all non-disk based camcorders. This is a great feature especially when you do not want to roam around with another piece of video equipment hanging in your shoulder especially when you are going to shoot only small movies (say of 5 minutes duration max). You only need a big 8GB SD card.
I bought this camera followed by a Canon PowerShot A560 and Canon PowerShot A590IS. That is three in a row for my family. All are great cameras.
Customer Review: sweet cam
Summary: 5 Stars
this camera is a tank...i bought it before i went to college (not sure why i bought such a nice camera for college) and it works great. the picture quality is great, and it has nice features for what i wanted to use it for -- point and shoot. i especially love the macro mode.
it can handle a good amount of abuse - i spilled an entire cup of beer on it and for awhile the LCD screen was black but i could use the viewfinder and take pictures fine. imagine my excitement when a few weeks later, the LCD started working again! it was almost as good as new. a friend of mine also dropped it into a cup of wine and that kind of did it in...it still works but has a few issues, which can be expected. anyway, after many drops and spills, it is still functioning so it is very durable. i'm assuming that others probably won't put it through the same ringer that i've put it through but it's good to know.
good value for the price...however, you may as well just spend the extra money (if it even costs more) to buy the powershot a560 -- i've heard it's better, and the LCD is bigger too.