Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera Review
By Emily Raymond
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
May 28, 2007
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 and convenience, with features like AA battery power.
The 7.1-megapixel digital camera offers decent resolution and 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 limited resolution at 86,000 pixels, which makes images appear grainy, but display screens on models in this price range rarely have good resolution. The $179 Fujifilm A800 has a nicer LCD and is in the same price range, though a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 115,000 pixels still isn't all that smooth.
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 less sturdy than gripping the Canon SD-series cameras, which are mostly built from stainless steel.
The Canon PowerShot A550 has a respectable list of Scene modes, with some located on the enormous mode dial to allow for easy access. The A550 doesn’t have the Panorama Stitch, Color Accent, or Color Swap modes that were available on the A530, instead opting for the basics like Landscape, Portrait, and Night modes. The older A530 retails for $50 less and is still worth a look.
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 frames per second. 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 10th or 100th 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 transfers 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, including the sub-standard LCD resolution and plastic feel, but it still performs better than comparable models.
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