Canon PowerShot A550 > Reviews > Fun, cheap and good quality

Author's product rating:   

Picture Quality	Good
Range & Quality of Features	Average
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Overall Look & Design	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Small, portable, easy to use, good image quality
Disadvantages:	Lens cover flimsy

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is one of Canon's budget range of digital cameras, one of the better ones, 7.1 mega pixels and 4x optical zoom all for around £150-£200 depending where you go. The photo quality is good for the price, it is a basic outfit, there arent many extra functions and its far from top of the range, but it is a nice family camera and definatley does the job.

It is a really good size, chunky enough that you can always find it and it is easy to hold steady, but small enough that you can fit it in a coat pocket; it wouldn't fit in your jeans. The lcd display on the small side, but I think it does the job, any bigger and they tend to use a lot of battery and it does have the added bonus of a view finder which is always useful in dim light. The only problems I have found with the general 'construction' of the camera are firstly that if you hold the button down to take a photograph in slightly the wrong way it can activate the zoom and secondly, the lens cover is flimsy and a piece actually fell out of mine leaving about a millimetre gap when the cover is closed.

It takes AA batteries and I would recommend buying a couple of sets of rechargable ones. In auto mode the battery life is average, however if you are using macro the battery runs down literally in minutes which could become very expensive in replacements.

The camera is very simple to use, it is excellent for a novice/amateur; the auto mode is excellent if you just want to get some nice shots on a day to day basis, although I found that the flash can sometimes wash out the picture at closer range and occasionally the colour can be quite yellow. For those closer shots the macro function is a really useful feature, but I have noticed that you occasionally get shadows from the lens in the corner. It does also has a manual mode, which gives you complete control over the settings.

The instruction manual is comprehensive although for the most part you can just figure it out as you go. The camera does come with an installation disk and software but I have to say they don't really add anything past the drag and drop you can do without installing them. The software has really basic editing features and you would be much better off with proper photo editing software.

I have to say that if you can get this camera at the cheaper end of the price spectrum then it is good value, it is a solid little thing with nice image quality, definately worth it if you are looking for something basic just to point and shoot with.