Canon PowerShot A550

Manufacturer: Canon USA Part number: 1775B001

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$241.30 - $290.98 at 2 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
3.5 stars Very good
Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 20 reviews

More product information:: Editors' review; Product brief; User reviews; Specifications; Accessories; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: This camera's low price tag and solid performance can help you forget that it doesn't have many bells or whistles.

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CNET editors' review

Canon PowerShot A550

price range: $241.30 - $290.98

This camera's low price tag and solid performance can help you forget that it doesn't have many bells or whistles.

The good: Responsive performance; slightly above-average lens.

The bad: Images plagued with artifacts and fringing; small LCD.

The bottom line: This camera's low price tag and solid performance can help you forget that it doesn't have many bells or whistles.

Read full review

Canon's PowerShot A550 is a simple, inexpensive 7-megapixel camera, and that's all it wants to be. While it has some nice features, it doesn't offer any outstanding, unique aspects that put it above any other camera in the field, and that's just fine. Good performance and solid images are all a camera needs to succeed, and the A550 delivers just that.

Though not quite small enough to slip into your jeans, the A550 is still comfortably compact. At 7.4 ounces and 1.7 inches thick, the camera can fit easily into most jacket pockets and bags. The camera's body has an L-shaped design found on most of Canon's PowerShot A series, giving it a generous grip. The buttons are large and comfortable, and they're laid out logically along the back and the top of the camera.

The A550 is a fairly nondescript camera, with few outstanding or unusual features. Its most notable attribute is its 35mm-to-140mm-equivalent 4X zoom lens, which gives it just a bit more range than the 3X lenses typical of most budget cameras. It has a smaller-than-usual 2-inch LCD screen that is augmented by an optical viewfinder for shooting in dim light. Besides those features, the A550 has the standard handful of scene presets and image adjustment settings, including a 30fps VGA (640x480) movie mode and a pleasantly unexpected 60fps QVGA (320x240) high-speed movie mode. Finally, like most Canon PowerShot A-series cameras, the A550 conveniently takes AA batteries.

The A550 performed well in almost all of our Labs' tests. After its brisk start-up time of 1.5 seconds, we could snap a shot once every 1.7 seconds, a great improvement over previous PowerShot A5x0 cameras. Unfortunately, with the onboard flash enabled, that time more than tripled to 4.9 seconds per shot. The camera's shutter was responsive, lagging less than 0.5 seconds with our high-contrast target and a modest 1.2 seconds with our low-contrast target. Burst mode was also pleasantly fast, managing 51 full-resolution shots in 31.4 seconds for a rate of 1.6 frames per second.

Photos looked pretty good, though they're marred by overprocessing and fringing in spots. Colors reproduce well, though indoor photos shot with automatic white balance come out very yellow, a common problem for most snapshot cameras. Noise is low up to ISO 400 sensitivity, where a fine grain starts to appear. Images are predictably noisy at ISO 800 sensitivity, with speckling damaging fine details and softening colors. ISO 800 is usually reserved for low-light and high-speed shooting, and everyday snapshots shouldn't have many problems.

With quick performance and decent photos, the Canon PowerShot A550 is a solid budget camera. It doesn't have many special features and it's not particularly small or light, but it's a strong choice if you don't want to spend a lot for your snapshots.

Shooting speed in seconds
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Olympus FE-190

1.9

2.0

0.7

Canon PowerShot A540

2.0

1.9

0.7

Canon PowerShot A550

1.7

1.5

0.5

Sony Cyber Shot DSC-W35

1.4

0.4

Kodak EasyShare C875

1.4

2.0

0.2

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Product brief

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 20 reviews

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 20

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8 stars

HUGE amount of bang for your buck.

by starkruzr on February 10, 2007

Pros: 4x optical zoom, manual features galore, tiny

Cons: Flash could be stronger

Summary: I don't think Will Greenwald paid much attention when he was reviewing this camera. It is CHOCK FULL of manual features including manual focus, manual shutter speed and aperture, ...

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Summary: I don't think Will Greenwald paid much attention when he was reviewing this camera. It is CHOCK FULL of manual features including manual focus, manual shutter speed and aperture, and white balance setting. This is a GREAT small camera that functions great either as a small point-and-shoot or a manual shooter which lets you explore different composition options. The body is solid and feels well put-together. I can't recommend this camera enough.

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8 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

An excellent upgrade from older PowerShot Cameras

by Suescheff on February 21, 2007

Pros: Easy to use, Lots of settings

Cons: Print Quality, Small LCD

Summary: I previously used a Canon PowerShot A520, 5 MP. I was happy with it until it decided to take a leap from the table and break. I love the PowerShot'...

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Summary: I previously used a Canon PowerShot A520, 5 MP. I was happy with it until it decided to take a leap from the table and break. I love the PowerShot's feel and look, so I was lucky to find a newer upgrade to the line.

Everything about the camera is pretty much the same as the A520, but the resolution on printed pictures is better and I find the shutter time to be better. These cameras have a solid result every time. Great zoom. The extra 2 MP gives you a little push into great. I would recommend the Canon line, especially this A550 over any other brand in this price range. What a deal!

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5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
4 stars

Less Creative Controls

by Alphavision on April 14, 2007

Pros: higher pixel rate, SD card, less power requirements

Cons: very little manual control, poor performance in low light

Summary: I got this camera as a replacement (with some extra cost, obviously!) to my old PowerShot A70 which had a CCD problem. I compare the performance to A70 with A550 ...

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Summary: I got this camera as a replacement (with some extra cost, obviously!) to my old PowerShot A70 which had a CCD problem. I compare the performance to A70 with A550 and see that A70 was far better in many ways (only exception is the 7.1 pixel rate compare to 3.2 of A70). This camera is OK for day light outdoor shots. Performance in low light / night is poor compared to some of the other models in the same range. Though there is a manual mode, the camera allows you to control very little manually. I do not see any advantage in this camera other than the higher pixel rate and pixel rate along cannot do any magic.

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4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

Easy to Use, Great Pictures

by keltnera on March 7, 2007

Pros: Price, Picture Quality, Great Video, Lots of Features

Cons: Some strange lines from indoor lighting, none other than that

Summary: My Sony DSC-P92 finally gave out after 6 years of punishment. While the Sony was built well, many drops and much picture taking by my 4 and 6-year-old, I was ...

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Summary: My Sony DSC-P92 finally gave out after 6 years of punishment. While the Sony was built well, many drops and much picture taking by my 4 and 6-year-old, I was never quite satisfied with the picture quality so I decided to try another brand. While I photograph constantly, I'm very much a novice. I just want to be able to point and click and not mess with any manual controls. However, the A550 has many more features than my old P92. So far, the Canon A550 has not disappointed. Right out of the box and taking a few snaps without reading any directions, the picture quality is much, much better than my old Sony P92. The build feels to be of similar quality, heavy and solid feeling. It fits in the hand well. While the LCD is a little smaller than other models at 2.0", it is very clear. I almost didn't buy it because I wanted a bigger LCD screen. The video is outstanding with no effort on my part and battery life is great (2 AA batteries). I am very happy with my purchase.

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3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Price vs. Performance Leader

by P_Iturralde on May 5, 2007

Pros: Sharp 7.1 MP 4x Optics, Manual Options, Size & 9pt Focusing

Cons: No image stablizer, but for the price, that's OK.

Summary: I agree w/starkruzr review, to access the Manual Mode, just rotate the Top Dial counter-clockwise from AUTO to "M". You can change: 1) Exposure +/- 2 (F-Stops); 2) White ...

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Summary: I agree w/starkruzr review, to access the Manual Mode, just rotate the Top Dial counter-clockwise from AUTO to "M". You can change: 1) Exposure +/- 2 (F-Stops); 2) White Balance (Auto, Day light, Cloudy, Tungston, etc.); 3) Colors (Off, Vivid, Neutral ... Custom); and Focusing Mode (Evaluative (9pt), Center weighted, Spot). With these options, you have more options then just the factory AUTO mode. Another improvement is the Digital Zoom circuitry, where for example, taking pictures above the 4x Optical Zoom is still clear and not pixelated even up to the 16x Zoom Max. option. FYI: My old & larger Olympus C-4000 3x Digital Zoom was mostly fuzzy & pixelated rendering it completely useless. So, Canon has done a great job combining both Optics & Digital Zoom features together to give the consumer real usable relatively clear picture Zoom options. Of course 16x Optical is the better route, but for the price, Canon's relatively clear up to 16x Digital Zoom allows you to get up-close & personal to your object or distant subject, should you choose to do so. All photo's can be previewed on the bright 2" LCD screen, just zoom-in to check the sharpness of your shots. For those that need more Flash support, you can use the Canon High-Power Flash HF-DC1 - PowerShot Flash Accessory (Maximum distance 23 ft./7m at ISO 100, f/2.8).

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2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 stars

great value for money

by lskong on March 20, 2007

Pros: lot of controls

Cons: no underwater casing? c'mon!

Summary: should be a good piece of equipment for those wanting to start learning more about photography. it offers many controls that point & shoot digicams at this price don't ...

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Summary: should be a good piece of equipment for those wanting to start learning more about photography. it offers many controls that point & shoot digicams at this price don't usually allow.
would have made an ideal underwater camera for amateur divers but canon doesn't sell an underwater casing for it! i don't understanding marketing....

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2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 stars

Good Pix, but you can't tell from the blurry LCD

by straussaz on June 14, 2007

Pros: Good features, Optical viewfinder, Good battery life

Cons: Very long shutter lag, poor LCD resolution

Summary: I purchased the A550 primarily for its compact size and optical viewfinder. I do lots of hiking and backpacking and any LCD washes out in the outdoors. The camera takes ...

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Summary: I purchased the A550 primarily for its compact size and optical viewfinder. I do lots of hiking and backpacking and any LCD washes out in the outdoors. The camera takes very good pictures of stationary scenes, but any movement in moderate light tends to blur. Shutter lag is extremely slow. Frame a slow-walking horse's head, press the shutter and you get a picture of the horse's tail.

The A550 was to replace a Nikon Coolpix3200 which has a smaller, but higher-resolution, LCD. The bigger A550 LCD has such poor resolution I can't tell if I should keep the picture or take another. I'm sticking with the Coolpix and have taken the A550 back to the dealer.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
7 stars

Easy to learn to use

by topsss on April 28, 2007

Pros: Good clear pictures, fast cycling, easy to hold

Cons: Might as well not have a LCD outside, doesn't work

Summary: I would have thought Canon would put a much better LCD on this camera. All of their test should have showed them the LCD on this camera didn't work ...

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Summary: I would have thought Canon would put a much better LCD on this camera. All of their test should have showed them the LCD on this camera didn't work in daylight. The camera is priced right and does a lot of things.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
4 stars

Terrible with flash and motion

by PsyKat on August 11, 2008

Pros: Fine LCD display, somewhat compact, does video, easy pull-trigger zooming

Cons: Incapable of taking shots of anything even slightly moving, occasional slow loading times when using flash, harsh flash lighting- makes it too obvious it was being used

Summary: Given the amount of money it costs, I would suggest looking for something a bit better than this. You can set the ISO speed and hold the camera as still ...

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Summary: Given the amount of money it costs, I would suggest looking for something a bit better than this. You can set the ISO speed and hold the camera as still as you want, but taking pictures of moving things simply will not turn out. The flash is also ridiculously obtrusive. You're much better off even shining a flashlight at your subject than using this.

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5 stars

Not a bad camera for the price

by Dark Wanderer on March 14, 2008

Pros: Small, simple to use, optical view finder

Cons: LCD resolution, flash recycling lag, no image stabilization, fit and finish

Summary: I bought this camera for my parents to replace their aging film camera. I figured the A550 would be a nice step up for them rather then just buying them ...

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Summary: I bought this camera for my parents to replace their aging film camera. I figured the A550 would be a nice step up for them rather then just buying them an A520 like I have. The A550 has a 2 inch LCD screen which is lager then the 1.8 inch screen that the A520 has, this makes it pretty good for reviewing pictures. It also has 7.1 mega pixels compared to the 4 mega pixels that my A520 has. For the most part the cameras share the same body style and look. This also means that they do share some of the same short comings.

The flash takes a good amount of time to recharge after using. There is no image stabilization, and you really need one on a camera of this size. This does not mean that all things that they have in common are bad. With and optical view finder (which is ideal for people who have never use a digital camera before) and compact in size, these are all pluses that both cameras share.

However, there are some problems with the A550 which I think hurt its over all appeal a great deal. For me the big one is the poor LCD screen resolution. The screen might be 2 inch big but, the resolution was cut down to 86,000 pixels. At first I thought the poorer screen resolution was do to the slightly larger size compared to the A520. After the fact I went back and took a look and found that the A520 has a screen resolution of 115,000 pixels. Even later when I picked up my S3 IS which has the same size LCD screen as the A550 but, the identical screen resolution to the A520 the screen doe not look grainy and blurry at all. The A550?s screen is ok to review pictures on but, if you are using it as a view finder it is pretty poor. The image look grainy, the colors are muted, and there is a blurring effect when panning or using the video capture mode.

Another factor is the fit and finish of the body. It for the most part is same as the A520 just with a few functions missing on the dial and the placement of some buttons on the back. The big down fall of it for me was the body itself. It felt very cheap, almost like a toy. The zoom lever also has a cheap feel to it. The placement of the speaker on the back just seems out of place. When taking a picture your thumb covers it up. This means that the focus chirp and click sound when taking a picture muffled and hard to hear.

Now I am not saying this is a bad camera. It does what it is supposed to if you can over look some of the down falls that it has. It is a good point and shoot camera that will give you great 4x8 pictures. For someone that is new to digital cameras the short coming that the A550 has might not bother them or they will not even notice.

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Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 20

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Canon USA
Part number: 1775B001

General
Product Type Digital camera - Compact
Weight 5.6 oz
Width 3.6 in
Depth 1.7 in
Height 2.5 in
Main Features
Resolution 7.1 megapixels
Sensor resolution 7.1 megapixels
Optical Sensor Type CCD
Effective Sensor Resolution 7,100,000 pixels
Total Pixels 7,400,000 pixels
Optical Sensor Size 1/2.5 in
Light Sensitivity ISO 200, ISO 800, ISO auto, ISO 400, ISO 80, ISO 100
Digital Zoom 4 x
Shooting Modes Frame movie mode
Shooting Programs Beach, Portrait mode, Macro, Foliage, Kids & pets, Snow, Fireworks, Indoor
Special effects Vivid, Black & White, Sepia, Custom Effect, Neutral
Max Shutter Speed 1/2000 sec
Min Shutter Speed 15 sec
X-sync Speed 1/500 sec
Exposure Metering Center-weighted, Evaluative, Spot
Exposure Modes Automatic, Program, Manual
Exposure Compensation ?2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
White Balance Custom, Automatic, Presets
White Balance Presets Tungsten light, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Fluorescent light (daylight), Daylight
Digital video format AVI
Still Image Format JPEG
Continuous Shooting Speed 1.7 frames per second
Color support Color
TV Tuner None
Video Capture AVI - 320 x 240 - 22 sec - With 16MB card, AVI - 160 x 120 - 107 sec - With 16MB card, AVI - 320 x 240 - 43 sec - With 16MB card, AVI - 640 x 480 - 7 sec - With 16MB card, AVI - 640 x 480 - 11 sec - With 16MB card
Memory / Storage
Flash Memory 16 MB Flash
Floppy Drive None
Image Storage Super-fine JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 4 - With 16MB card, Fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 10 - With 16MB card, Normal JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 16 - With 16MB card, Fine JPEG 3072 x 1728 : 10 - With 16MB card, Fine JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 7 - With 16MB card, Super-fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 5 - With 16MB card, Super-fine JPEG 3072 x 1728 : 6 - With 16MB card, Super-fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 56 - With 16MB card, Fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 26 - With 16MB card, Normal JPEG 640 x 480 : 138 - With 16MB card, Fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 88 - With 16MB card, Normal JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 50 - With 16MB card, Super-fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 9 - With 16MB card, Super-fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 14 - With 16MB card, Normal JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 33 - With 16MB card, Normal JPEG 3072 x 1728 : 21 - With 16MB card, Normal JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 21 - With 16MB card, Fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 16 - With 16MB card
Flash memory 16 MB
Supported Flash Memory MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card
Lens System
Type Zoom lens - 5.8 mm - 23.2 mm - F/2.6-5.5
Focal Length 5.8 mm - 23.2 mm
Lens Construction 5 group(s) / 7 element(s)
Additional Features
Self Timer Yes
Self Timer Delay 10 sec, 2 sec
Additional Features DPOF support, Audio recording, Safety zoom, PictBridge support, AE lock, 16:9 widescreen mode, Digital tele-converter, RGB primary color filter, AF lock, Direct print, Digital image rotation, Camera orientation detection, Auto power save, Histogram display
Camera Flash
Effective Flash Range 1 ft - 11.5 ft
Type Built-in flash
Flash Modes Flash OFF mode, Fill-in mode, Slow synchro, Auto mode, Red-eye reduction
Red Eye Reduction Yes
Effective flash range 1 ft - 11.5 ft
Features AF illuminator
Viewfinder
Viewfinder Type Optical - Real-image zoom
Display
Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 2 in - Color
Mounting Built-in
Resolution 86,000 pixels
Digital Player (Recorder)
Type None

Microphone
Type Microphone - Built-in
Connections
Connector Type 1 x Composite video/audio output, 1 x USB
Expansion Slot(s) 1 x SD Memory Card
Lens Systems
Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
Type Zoom lens
Focal length 5.8 mm - 23.2 mm
Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 35 - 140 mm

Canon PowerShot A550

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CNET editors' review

Product brief

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Specifications

General

Main Features

Memory / Storage

Lens System

Additional Features

Camera Flash

Viewfinder

Display

Digital Player (Recorder)

Microphone

Connections

Lens Systems