Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera

Pros: 7 megapixels, 4X optical zoom, and uses available anywhere AA batteries
Cons: Redeye, some corner softness and minor chromatic aberration (purple fringing)

Canon's "A" series digicams are famous for their practicality, flexibility, class leading performance, impressive build-quality, and amazing ease of use – that’s why they’ve been number one in U. S. sales for the past four years. "A" series ...

Pros: Price, resolution, uses 2 AA batteries, size, features, image quality, easy to use
Cons: Slow flash recycle, noise at highest ISO settings

A 7.1-Megapixel Canon camera with 4x optical zoom that uses two AA batteries for less than $180? The Canon PowerShot A550 is exactly that and more: fast in operation (mostly) and is easy to use, it is a successor to the popular A530/A540. What is ...

Pros: Easy to use, portable, inexpensive 4x zoom lens, settings.
Cons: Some red eye

We have not had a lot of luck with Digital cameras in the past, they don’t seem to last and the ones we had were not all that cheap. Still there is no denying the convenience and ease of photo taking that a digital camera can provide, plus it is a ...

Pros: Excellent photos; many features and settings; easy for novice & advanced enough for others.
Cons: Included memory card too small; wrist strap too long.

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 ...

Pros: Price, picture quality, look of cam
Cons: delay in snap

I bought this camera because my friend had it, and I always loved the pictures she took. she bought the camera for about $200 when it came out, but luckily when I bought it, it was on sale, and the case as well as rechargeable batteries came with it as ...

Pros: Much Bang for your Buck!!!
Cons: Battery door build quality, batteries, 16MB memory card.

I love this camera and highly recommend it to everyone all the time!!! You can't afford not to get one for the really nutty low prices these things are selling for. (Just a little over 10 years ago a camera with this much ability couldn't be made ...

Pros: features, ease of use
Cons: eats batteries

This was our third Canon digital camera. The other two were fantastic; one just plain wore out after years of use, and the other is going strong. With our success with Canons, we didn't even shop around, just got this one that was on sale at OfficeMax.

We used fully charged rechargeable AA batteries - we have about 4 sets of them, and use them in the other Canon camera. We put them in the A550, and took a few pictures. Several days later, we picked up the camera and the low battery indicator was on! We put in a different set of batteries - got about 4-6 shots, and then the low battery message came on. Then we tried the brand-new alkaline batteries that had come with it - same problem, about 4-6 pictures, and a low battery message. We went through this a few more times with rechargeables and also brand-new alkaline batteries, then gave up and returned the camera.

We will get another Canon, but not this model!

Pros: Ease of use, high quality photos and an excellent zoom
Cons: 16 meg SD card is too small

I wanted a good quality "point and shoot" camera that was easy to use. This camera was recommended by a representative from Ritz Camera. It is absolutely amazing!
This little camera takes high quality photos that are comparable to an SLR that belongs to my grandson. The optic zoom is must better than I expected and the resolution of the photos, even at full zoom, id very good.
If you a very good, inexpensive came for general use, you can't beat this one.
I did replace the included SD card for one that was much larger.

Pros: Easy to use, reliable, excellent for beginners.
Cons: Chunky, some blurriness in photos.

My family's old camera was failing on us, so I researched a bit and decided to try out the Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera. My overall experience with this camera was very pleasant. This is a basic camera without any frills, and is a good buy for beginning users. In addition, the price was reasonable and the quality of the camera was well worth it.

Now on to the details...

Overall Look: The camera is quite chunky and is not easily able to fit into say, the pocket of your jeans. This is something to consider since it can sometimes be a hassle finding somewhere to place it when out traveling.

Zoom: 4x optical zoom, which is fairly decent. However, as with most other cameras, taking pictures while on zoom can cause blurriness.

Flash: My only complaint is that sometimes when using flash, the camera will "freeze" and I'll have to turn it off and on again to make things back to normal.

LCD Screen: Not bad, but could be a lot better. The pictures don't always show up as sharp and crisp as I would like them to. However, the colors and hues show up very well.

Pros: Deleting is just two steps. So easy! There's no confusion here, nor complexity causing delays.
Cons: Shutter speed delay noticeable & annoying, preventing quick sequential shots. Downloading drains batteries.

I chose this camera because it has 4x optical zoom and a reasonable price, and because it was the most user-friendly of those in store.

The camera feels good to handle and the back is easy to read and manipulate. Both are things you want if you're just trying to quickly take an auto focus shot. The curved body provides a good grip. It's also helpful to have a viewfinder as well as the LCD screen.

This camera (in a camera bag) is still small enough to fit into a medium sized handbag. It's not heavy (though it feels reassuringly solid) and I can carry it around with me.