Canon PowerShot A550 Easy Digital Camera Review

With a retail price of $199, the Canon PowerShot A550 falls into the budget point-and-shoot market. The digital camera promises improved ease-of-use over its predecessors and convenience with features like AA battery power.

 

The 7.1-megapixel digital camera offers decent resolution along with more zoom than comparable cameras. The PowerShot A530 has a 4x optical zoom lens, along with the standard Canon optical viewfinder. The 2-inch LCD screen has a pretty low resolution (86,000 pixels), which makes images appear grainy, but display screens on models in this price range rarely have good resolution.

 

These components are wrapped in a chunky 3.59 x 2.52 x 1.7-inch package that isn’t necessarily attractive, but isn’t ugly either. The A550’s hand grip is constructed  from a light plastic material. This feels much cheaper than gripping the Canon SD-series cameras that are mostly built from stainless steel.

 

The Canon PowerShot A550 has a respectable list of scene modes and some of them are on the enormous mode dial, allowing for easy access. The A550 doesn’t have the panorama stitch, color accent, or color swap modes that were available on the A530 and instead opts for the basics like landscape, portrait, and night modes.

 

 

Users who shoot a lot of portraits should be aware that  the flash doesn’t reach very far. They should shoot within a few arm-lengths of subjects to keep faces properly exposed. The A550 has a maximum ISO of 800 for shooting without the flash.  

 

Videos can be recorded at 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 pixel resolutions at 30 or 15 fps. The white balance and other features can be controlled while shooting movies too. There is one caveat: the optical zoom isn’t functional while recording video. Still, the good resolution and control puts the Canon A550’s movie mode far above other budget camera offerings.

 

The A550 digital camera’s playback mode is built for sorting through lots of pictures and video. It has a button that can jump to every 10^th or 100^th image, to a certain shot date, or to movies and folders. From the playback menu, you can create print orders. A push of the print/share button will transfer the order to your computer.  

 

The A550 accepts SD and SDHC memory cards and is powered by AA batteries. It can take about 140 shots from an alkaline set of batteries from the convenience store, but lasts much longer with rechargeable NiMH AA batteries. Canon sells a set of four batteries with a charger for about$50, although the camera requires only two batteries at a time. It might be worth the extra cash, though, as the camera can take 500 pictures on a single charge.

 

Overall, the Canon PowerShot A550 has a few drawbacks like the sub-standard LCD resolution and cheap plastic feel, but it still performs better than comparable models.

 

 

Canon PowerShot A550 - THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating: 370.42

Likes

- Good handling - 4x optical zoom lens - $199 price tag - Easy to use - 1.7 fps burst mode - Good flash coverage

Dislikes

- Poor resolution on small LCD - Boring design - Can’t delete batches of photos - No optical zoom in movies - Noisy zoom lens - Barrel distortion

Canon PowerShot A530 Rating: N/A	Fujifilm FinePix A800 Rating: N/A	Nikon Coolpix L5 Rating: N/A	Pentax Optio E30 Rating: N/A	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55 Rating: N/A
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
- Rounded edges on body - Panorama stitch mode - Color accent and swap picture effects - Fifty dollars cheaper	- $179 retail price - 8.3 megapixels - 2.5-inch LCD screen with 115,000 pixels - Accepts both SD and xD-Picture memory cards	- Longer 5x optical zoom lens with vibration reduction - 2.5 inch LCD with 115k - 4 scene modes with framing assists - In-camera red-eye fix, D-lighting compensation, and face priority auto focus - More powerful flash reaches 18 ft	- Cheaper $149 retail price - Flatter surfaces make it more portable - Larger 2.4-inch LCD screen with 110k pixels - 15 scene modes - ImageLink and PictBridge direct print compatible - Green mode automates everything easily - A few more in-camera editing features	- Trendy looking body measures less than an inch thick - Comes in 4 colors - 2.5-inch LCD with 115k - ISO up to 1000 - Auto focus controls - Rechargeable battery gets 380 shots per charge - 56MB internal memory
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
- Similar bodies - 4x optical zoom lens - Similar list of scene modes - Digic II image processors - Few manual controls - Optical viewfinder - Compatible with SD cards - Runs on AA batteries	- Similar mode dial - Similar menu interface with mix of icons and text - Runs on AA batteries	- 7.2 megapixels - Similar chunky shape - 640 x 480, 30 fps movies - Runs on AA batteries	- 7.1 megapixels - Similarly plain appearance - Runs on AA batteries - SD card compatibility - 640 x 480 videos	- $199 price - 7.2 megapixels - Optical viewfinder - 640 x 480, 30 fps movies
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
- Smaller 1.8-inch LCD screen with 77k pixels - 5 megapixels - 640 x 480 movies record a choppy 10 fps	- Ugly - 3x optical zoom lens - 320 x 240 movies - No optical viewfinder	- Not as many manual options in the movie mode - Slower 0.7 fps burst mode - Higher $249 retail price	- Shorter 3x optical zoom lens - No mode dial - No optical viewfinder - Movies shoot at slightly slower 28 fps	- Shorter 3x optical zoom lens - Only 7 scene modes - Must have Pro Duo card to record 30 fps movies