Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera

I had the Canon PowerShot A75 digital camera and decided to upgrade to the Canon PowerShot A550. This is one of Canon's newest entries in the PowerShot series. As of this writing it is difficult to find since it has not shipped yet to most vendors. I was able to find one at Profeel.com who told me that they get advanced shipping on items from Canon. I paid $199. with free shipping and it arrived in 2 days. It came with U.S. warranty and was new in box.

After using it for about 2 weeks, I can say that it is an excellent camera for both the novice user and the more advanced photographer. For the newbie to digital photography, all that is needed is to install the software, adjust some camera settings (most are already set on default, which work well) and position the shooting mode dial to automatic and you are ready to take superb photos. The camera has 7.1 megapixels which is unusually large for a camera of this size and class. It is also small & light enough to be carried comfortably on trips and yet large enough to feel right in your hand. The extended grip on the right makes it easy & secure to hold steady when framing subjects.

For the more advanced user this camera has a plethora of features and settings that are usually found on much more expensive cameras. Besides the rather large megapixel size, it has a 2" LCD screen, 4X optical zoom, ISO 800, movie mode, 35-140mm lens with F2.6-5.5 and operates on 2 AA batteries. The batteries seem to last an acceptable amount of time for average use. It is recommended to use re-chargeable NiMH batteries, but any good alkaline batteries will work just fine.

Some of the advanced features include 9 shooting modes: Auto; Portrait; Landscape; Night Snapshot; Kids & Pets; Indoor; Movie; Manual & Special Scene which has sub-settings of Night Scene, Foliage, Snow, Beach & Fireworks.
I have used several of these settings and they all seem to work well. The menus are easy to navigate and use and most are self explanatory. The camera comes with a viewfinder window besides the LCD display. A lot of newer cameras are eliminating the viewfinders but fortunately this camera comes with one. There is a self-timer setting that can also be adjusted for delay time, a built-in flash that is more than adequate for most indoor shots, a red-eye reduction function. a macro setting with a minimum focusing distance of 2", and a low battery indicator.

The camera offers a wide selection of settings in each shooting mode, including recording pixels including widescreen, postcard, small. medium 3, medium 2, medium 1 and large. Compression settings are normal, fine and super fine. Flash settings include off, on and auto. There is the availabilty to use date stamp, auto rotate & digital zoom up to 16X.

Unfortunately Canon only supplies a measly 16MB SD card with this camera, so you would have to buy a larger card in order to take a sufficient number of photos. With the 16MB card supplied, you would only be able to take 7 shots at the large pixel setting and fine compression. I am surprised that Canon does not provide larger cards with their cameras, since these cards are so inexpensive today. I purchased a 256MB Kingston Elite Pro 45X SD card for less than $15. A card of this size enables me to take 128 shots at the above settings. Another small complaint that I have is that the wrist strap provided is much too long and kind of dangles out of any small case that you use. You can buy a replacement wrist strap aftermarket if this bothers you. The standard PowerShot camera case can also be purchased aftermarket at many sites or camera stores. This case holds the camera just right and is not overly large or cumbersome. It has a velcro flap and a sewn belt loop.

The PowerShot A550 comes with wrist strap, 2 AA alkaline batteries, interface cable, 16MB memory card and software CD. The software loaded flawlessly and transfer of images is very easy. There is a software user's guide and a basic and advanced user guide which are all very informative and easy to follow.

The camera takes excellent photos which are sharp and detailed with very good color reproduction. Prints come out looking natural and true in colors when printed on a Canon printer. Controls and menus are comfortable and easy to use. Zoom controls work well, but as with any digital camera, you get a fair amount of graininess when using zoom, especially at max. There is a tripod socket on bottom, if needed.

So far, this seems to be a great little camera and certainly surpasses earlier PowerShot cameras such as the A75 and is loaded with features and settings that are commonly found on much more expensive cameras. I have always owned Canon cameras and have never had any problems with them. U.S. warranty is one year from Canon.