msmorvay's Full Review: Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera
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 joy to be able to take short movies, especially when you have children or cute pets.
We wanted another digital camera but there was no way we were going to put out a lot of money for one, our last digital camera cost us about $500 and the motor died out on it before its first anniversary. So when I saw the Cannon PowerShot A550 was only $120.00 and was simple to use, and had Clear, high-resolution 2.0-inch LCD for easy on-camera viewing, and takes movies in 3 different movie modes, it was a no brainer, we purchased it. Soon after my husband found another digital camera that was even smaller so he bought it, so he gave the Canon PowerShot A550 to my daughter. My daughter has been bringing it practically everywhere we go this summer and we have been taking turns taking pictures with it, and movies of course.
Canon PowerShot A550
The Canon PowerShot A550 is a digital camera that pretty much anyone could use. The camera Is a good sized and fits perfectly in to my little feminine hands, and my daughters too. In fact if I make a an oval with my thumbs and pointer fingers the camera fits perfectly in there. It is about 4 inches in length, and about 2 inches thick. The camera fits easily in to my purse, and it is not that heavy nor does it take up that much space. It may be a little bulky in a pocket however.
The camera is very simple to use. Simply push the on/off button at the top, then the lens will open up and the camera is on and ready to go. To take photos you simply move the little circular dial (control disk) at the top to where the picture of the camera lines up with the little black dot next to it, then you simply push the shutter button. To take a video do the same thing except use the movie camera picture to line up with the little dot. Push the button once to start the movie, and push it again when finished.
If you leave the camera on and forget about it the camera will power itself down after just a couple of minutes so it helps keep you from wasting your batteries.
The camera has 4 x zoom (which I explain more about below) If you want to zoom in and out there is movable tab on the button (which is technically called a rocker switch) that you push to take pictures. You simply move that back and forth to zoom in and out. The zoom lens comes out automatically when the camera when the camera turns on and goes back in when you turn it off. The flash still works well even if you are zooming at maximum.
The camera also different settings for different lightning there are the following settings: Night Scene, indoor, kids and pets, night snap shot, landscape, portrait, and auto. You can easily change to any of these specific shot settings by turning the little disk at the top and lining which ever you choose up with the little black dot.
The camera takes 2 AA batteries. So you don’t have to worry about charging it, or running out of a charge while you are out on an outing. Just tuck a couple of extra batteries in your camera bag or purse and you will be good to go should your battery die.
The camera comes with a 16 MB SD starter card in the box. This is enough for the average person. But you can buy larger cards if you wish. It saves images to SD, SDHC, & MMC memory media. You can connect it by using a USB 2.0 High Speed, A/V out, and DC in (with optional AC Adaptor). We can load the images on to our computer with the USB cable in just a couple of minutes.
How many pictures or how much movie time you get depends on how you are taking the pictures. If you are just taking straight normal shots you could expect to get between 130 and 140 pictures. If you are doing other things you will get less.
Aside from aforementioned video card, the camera comes with 2 AA batteries, USB & A/V cables, software CD's, a wrist trap, and software manual.
Now For the Technical Stuff
Keep in mind I am just a normal everyday person who is using this camera, I am not a photographer or a big technology fan or anything like that, so this information has come directly from the manual.
Resolution: 7 Megapixels (3072x2304)
Viewfinders: 2.0” LCD screen and Real Image zooming optical viewfinder
Zoom: f2.6-f5.5/5.8mm-23.2mm (35mm-140mm - 35mm equivalent) all glass 4X optical zoom
Auto Focus: 9 AF point AiAF
Manual Focus: no
Flash: Built-in Multi-mode
Exposure: Auto, Program AE, Scene modes, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, Manual mode, and Movie mode
Metering: Evaluative, Center-weighted, & Spot
Exposure compensation: Yes /- 2 EV in 1/3 EV increments
White balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H
Sensitivity: Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, & 800 ISO (35mm equivalent)
Image Storage Media: SD/SDHC/MMC
My Thoughts
This camera is just perfect for someone like me who is just a casual picture taker. It is simple to use. It takes batteries and does not need to be charged. It takes nice pictures and there is not a problem with focusing. Anyone could look straight at the screen aim and take the shot. Even the zoom is simple to use, and is located in the perfect place to make it easy to use. The zoom is not as close as I have seen some cameras get, but those cameras were much more expensive and for the average picture at a distance it is certainly not bad. Don’t expect it to zoom in like binoculars, but you can take a far away shot and make it look closer, although you are not going to get details, like you might with a more expensive camera. But for the average picture it works just fine.
We took a lot of lovey pictures with the camera on our recent vacation. We took a lot of pictures from a high point looking down at the view below and the pictures came out beautifully and covered a lot of space. We were even able to take some nice close up pictures of plaques and you can actually read the writing on the plaques. We have not really taken a bad picture with this camera, I mean there were a few bad ones, but that was because the person taking the picture jerked while taking it, but any picture that was taken without human error has turned out nicely.
All of the movies we have taken have come out really well too, the sound quality is actually quite good as well.
Probably the only complaint I have is that sometimes those with blue eyes, and animals sometimes get red eye, but honestly no worse than an any other camera I have ever used except for my $500 digital camera. There is a setting for that as I mentioed above, for use with children and animals, but to be honest when you are trying to catch a child or animal doing something cute, you just want to be able to point and shoot, you don't have time nor do you think about changing the setting on the camera. Preferably red eye would be dealth with automatically. I would rather get the occasional redeye then pay that much again.
If you are like me an average person, who is not that technical, and just wants a simple camera to take simple pictures and movies with then the Cannon PowerShot A550 is for you. The camera is nice and portable, takes nice normal people pictures, and is not heavy on the wallet either.
We have been really pleased with our Canon PowerShot A550.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 120 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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