Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera

By jay jay  Oct 1, 2008

By Volkan  Jun 6, 2008

By Roldan P  Apr 29, 2008

By Hustled Cat Buyer  Apr 6, 2008

The perfect choice for the average user.

By Mukhtar  Dec 25, 2007 | 1 out of 1 found this Canon PowerShot A550 review helpful

Pros: superb picture quality

Cons: a little big in size but that actually don't matters greatly

I bought this acmera after quite a research on digital cameras on the internet. According to the reviews it is the best one for that price. Well I can say that although I'm not a pro protographer, this camera is well worth of giving you those great photos you're looking for. you will obviously be satisfied with the camera and blieve me you won't sit back and think about the money spent on it in a negative way. The picture quality is perfect and even shooting at night is not a problem as it is well stuffed with night shooting options that will give good quality photos.

By __A_YAHOO_USER__  Nov 18, 2007

By Eva  Oct 25, 2007

The Best Buy in Digital Photography for 2007

By David  Sep 3, 2007

Pros: Excellent Canon product with the most bang for the buck of any digital camera this year.

Cons: Could have slightly better build quality for battery / memory card door.

There are not enough superlatives for this great little digital camera. It the best buy in digital photography for 2007!!!

Get one, play with it, learn how to use it and you will love it!!!

I keep mine with me at all times and I typically keep it set in manual mode where I can use the white balance and exposure compensation to get the results I want and need each and every time.

If you love great color ~ set it to vivid mode.

The evaluative metering is excellent ~ just set the camera to use it and forget about it.

There is a very short learning curve to make great pictures with this camera and I highly recommend it.

In fact I actually use this camera to teach others about digital photography and blog about the camera and the pictures that I make with it.

David ‘Red’ Cox
www.whendaviddreams.com

Great camera

By Crabapple  Sep 1, 2007 | 1 out of 1 found this Canon PowerShot A550 review helpful

Pros: Small, takes great pics, easy to use, movies too

Cons: none yet

Bought this camera to replace the Olympus I broke. Did extensive researchand picked this one. It did not disappoint me. It is mainly P&S but I spent 35 ormore years with SLR adjusting all the settings. It is nice just to snap a pic quickly.

Wife has one too.

By friend  Aug 14, 2007

By cassandra  Aug 13, 2007

great value

By stan  Aug 5, 2007 | 5 out of 5 found this Canon PowerShot A550 review helpful

Pros: image quality, ease of use, price, size, AA batteries, sd card

Cons: some red-eye, shutter lag

I own a Minolta Z1, but I wanted a smaller camera to carry with me that wouldn't break the bank.

I started reading every review that I could find online. It seems that most review sites had high praise for Canons in general and the A550 along with others.

I was trying to get an ultra-compact, but when I checked them out, they just felt too small. I still came very close to buying a Canon SD600. I liked the style even though I thought it was too small. The store had only one left; a floor model. I agreed to buy it for $179, but when they dis-assemled it from the stand, they broke the bottom door. They then produced a SD630 @ $199, but I declined as I could get the new model (SD1000) for $203 online.

I decided to check the online prices again. By now I was leaning toward the A550 or A560. The A550 price went down to $117, no tax, no shipping.
Decision made!

Also, if you don't already have rechargeable batteries with a charger and a 1 gig Sd card, invest the few $$ for the upgrades. Battery life is not a problem with the rechargeable batteries.

Upon arriving home, the camera was easy to use right out of the box. Every setting on the camera is pretty much self-explanatory. The few questions I did have, I consulted the owners manual and Steve's Digicams website.

I have taken over 350 pics in the 2 weeks I have owned it. The images are fantastic. I have had maybe 3 shots with red-eye. The Canon zoom browser corrected 2 pics, but couldn't correct the 3rd. I used HP image zone and eliminated MOST of the red-eye, but not quite all of it.

I also have had a few blurry shots, but I set the camera wrong for the type of pics I was taking. A quick correction, and the pics were all good. So, out of 350 shots, maybe 5 blurry shots and 3 red-eyes ( in a dark reception hall.) I can live with that.

It seems that I have concentrated on the negative, but really, the negatives are a very small part of the over-all picture. This is really a super camera that takes amazing pictures. Daytime, nightime, cloudy, inside, outside; it doesn't make a difference. When you factor in the price, it is a lot of bang for your buck! You can really leave the camera on automatic for 99% of your shots and they will turn out fine. I like to fiddle with all of the settings to see how the pics will turn out.

One thing to remember, on some pics, turn off the flash! The camera will adjust to a higher ISO and the pic will be sharp and clear. Another usefull setting in the "manual" mode is the white balance. That really helps your inside pics.

From the specs on the camera, I think that the A550 and the SD600-630 share the same guts. It's just packaged in a little bigger camera that is very easy to hold onto. (Likewise, the A560 is the poor cousin of the SD1000.)

I have only taken one movie, but it was fantastic. It was a movie of my sheltie running in the yard. His bib was swaying in the wind, he was running and jumping. It was just a beautiful mini-movie of my li'l buddy.

If you are looking for an inexpensive point and shoot compact digital, look no farther.

By Beelal  Jul 26, 2007

By Marjan  Jul 23, 2007

Great Camera For The Average User

By Ken  Jul 21, 2007 | 14 out of 14 found this Canon PowerShot A550 review helpful

Pros: This camera makes a great first camera

Cons: A little joy pad surrounded by four buttons

This is simply a great camera to get whether you are buying a digital camera for the first time or the fifth time. Why? Because you get all the Canon quality and features for a very good price. At this price you can afford to even gift it to a teenager who wants to learn a little more photography as it offers a little more than just point and shoot.

I've owned about 4 A series cameras in the past, along with S2/S3 series and SD series and I still recommend A series as the best value for money based on its performance. I tried this particular camera when I bought it recently for a gift. Although the size of A series cameras is bigger than SD series making them jacket-pocket cameras, the advantage is in the styling. It gives you a convenient grip on the side which helps hold the camera steady and results in less "blurry" pictures than SD. The mode selector dial on top helps you zip through selections from portrait, landscape to nightshot and special scenes. The convenience of AA batteries which are available in every corner of the world, no missing out on pictures as your battery was discharged, is a great convenience. You can buy 2NiMH batteries with a charger like I did, and never have to buy any more again. The screen is only 2 inch (up from 1.8 earlier) but it makes the camera more durable, as the design makes it more resistant to damage.

And what about the features? :
- It has an intelligent 9 point focusing system with auto red eye correction which means it can choose the focus pretty accurately, although it also gives you the flexibility to choose the focus through 3 modes. (Centered, Evaluative, Spot)
- SD card/MMC card slot - These cards are so cheap now so get the 2GB to store a whole vacation's worth of pictures.
-Pic size- You can choose from 6 sizes for the pics including a widescreen 16:9 format which can be viewed on your HDTV.
-Speed Dial: This dial on top allows fast spinning between shooting modes (night, landscape, indoors, kids, portrait, movie, auto, manual, special) so you never miss a shot. For this feature alone, I'd prefer an A series over SD as I keep missing shots on SD series while trying to change modes through the menu. With this dial even a kid becomes a pro. The SCN(special scenes) mode has Fireworks, Foliage, Beach, Snow, and Night Scene. Now even amateurs can use Canon experience to get the best shot. Fireworks is particularly amazing as it produced some great 4th of July shots. This camera does not have the Photostitch mode found on some other cameras but it does have the macro mode to take close ups.
-Special effects (B/W, Sepia, Vivid, Nuetral etc.) I've used sepia a lot when taking potraits giving them an 'old world' feel. Vivid has been helpful in special situations like a red kite against a blue sky to bring out the colors. You can do this in Photoshop later but how many of us actually get the time to do this, once a pic is taken it's over with for me! This camera does not have the color accent/color swap option which is available on some other Canons.
-You can set white balance manually on this camera or manually adjust shutter or aperture priority. It also has an optical viewfinder which is handy for very dark/very bright situations.
-You can also take videos in 3 different resolutions with this camera and edit them right on the camera.
-The zoom button shows one or many images at a time in the replay mode and you can zoom into each individual image to see parts of it closely.
- While replaying, the images auto-rotate to landscape or portrait mode to align with how you're holding the camera. It's a nice feature as otherwise you can't see the portrait shots properly in the landscape mode.

This camera makes a great first camera, with many features, and the image quality is superb. Especially if you are shooting outdoors the images are unsurpassed by any other brand, in my opinion. So go get it, at this price it

By imran  Jul 19, 2007

This is O.K.

By Nikolay Petrov Petrov  Jul 6, 2007 | 0 out of 10 found this Canon PowerShot A550 review helpful

Pros: 10

Cons: 1

Not stabilized

By dreamonmika  Jul 5, 2007

Dear friend :

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 25, 2007

Pros: Dear friend :

Cons: Dear friend :

Dear friend :
Please allow us to disturb your precious time!
We are the Chinese biggest foreign trade wholesaler.
We have our own warehouse and stores, we have clients all over the world,
and we have been received very high praise from our customers.
If you are interesting in our item ,please contact us.
Our website :www.trust-business888.co
m
MSN:trust-business888@hot
mail.com

By Ajinkya  Jun 19, 2007

Dear friend :

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 18, 2007

Pros: Dear friend :

Cons: Dear friend :

Dear friend :
Please allow us to disturb your precious time!
We are the Chinese biggest foreign trade wholesaler.
We have our own warehouse and stores, we have clients all over the world,
and we have been received very high praise from our customers.
If you are interesting in our item ,please contact us.
Our website :www.trust-business888.co
m
MSN:trust-business888@hot
mail.com

good one

By nilesh  Jun 16, 2007

Pros: good

Cons: good

good

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Mar 8, 2007