Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera Review

Canon PowerShot A550

Digital Camera Review

2 Introduced in January 2007 and released the following month, the Canon PowerShot A550 has design features reminiscent of past models but promises to be even easier to use. It has automatic modes and basic features meant to attract first-timers and shooters moving up from the most primitive of entry-level models. The 7.1-megapixel digital camera has a 2-inch LCD screen and 4x optical zoom lens, and retails for $199.
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Specs Table
Canon PowerShot A550 Specs
Type Point-and-Shoot  
Price 0.00  
Length 1.70  
Width 3.59  
Height 2.52  
Weight 5.64  
Pixels 7.10 Megapixels 
Effective Pixels 0.00  
Sensor Type 1/2.5 inch CCD  
Image Size 3072 x 2304  
IR Cut Low Pass Filter No  
Media SD, SDHC, MultiMedia memory cards  
Image Format JPEG (stills), AVI (video)  
Compression JPEG (stills), AVI (video)  
Lens 4x (7 elements in 5 groups)  
LCD 2.0  
Auto Focus Type Enhanced 9 point AiAF; Single AF point, AF Lock, and AF assit beam  
Detecting Range Wide: 1.5 feet; Wide Macro: 2 inches; Tele Macro: 1.1 feet  
Metering Modes Evaluative, Center-weighted average, Spot  
Shutter Speed 15.00  
Self Timer 2 second, 10 second, Custom Timer  
Modes Auto, Camera M, Portrait, Landscape, Night snapshot, Kids & pets, Indoor, and Movie  
Speed No  
Burst No  
Automatic Modes Night Scene, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks  
Exposure Compensation +/- up to 2 stops, 1/3-stop increments  
Built in Flash Automatic firing, Auto with red-eye reduction; Flash On with red-eye reduction; Flash ON; Flash OFF  
Flash Range Wide: 11 feet; Tele: 7.2 feet  
Settings Super Fine, Fine, Normal  
ISO Sensitivity Auto, High ISO Auto (up to 800); 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 (user-set)  
White Balance Auto, Pre-set White Balance (daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluoresecent H), Custom setting  
Direct Printing Yes  
Video Output No  
Battery Power Source 2 AA Alkaline batteries or 2 AA rechargeable NiMH batteries  
Zoom Wide 0  
Zoom Tele 0  
fstop Max 5.50  
fstop Min 2.60  
Zoom Digi 4.00  
Movie Mode 640 x 480 at 30/15 fps; 320 x 240 at 30/15 fps  
Storage Type SD, SDHC, MultiMedia  
LCD Pixels 86000  
Resolution Maximum 3072 x 2304  
Resolution Minimum 640 x 480  
External Flash 0  
Ratings Raw Weight 
Color 9.58   2.75 
Resolution 5.83   2.5 
Noise Auto ISO 1.40  
Noise Manual ISO 3.81  
Model Design Appearance 6.50   1.25 
Low Light 5.62   2.25 
Size Portability 5.50   1.1 
Handling 7.00   1.5 
Control Button Positioning Size 7.00   0.85 
Front 7.50   0.6 
Back 7.00   0.6 
Left 7.25   0.5 
Right 7.50   0.5 
Top 7.50   0.6 
Menu 7.00   0.95 
Bottom 3.25   0.5 
Auto Mode 7.50   1.5 
Auto Focus 7.50   1.5 
Focus 0.00   1.25 
ISO 7.00   1.25 
White Balance 7.50   1.25 
Exposure 7.00   0.5 
Metering 7.00   1.1 
Shutter Speed 0.00   0.9 
Aperture 0.00   0.9 
Custom Image Presets 7.50   0.75 
Drive Mode 6.00  
Picture Qualit Options 7.50   0.5 
Picture Effects Mode 7.75   0.5 
Playback Mode 6.50   0.9 
Movie Mode 7.00  
Viewfinder 3.50   0.8 
LCD Screen 4.00   1.25 
Flash 6.25   1.25 
Zoom Lens 7.25   1.5 
Memory 3.25   0.5 
Startup 1st Shot 8.20   1.75 
Shot Shot 9.40   1.75 
Shutter Shot 8.20   1.75 
Software 6.50   0.5 
Jacks / Ports / Plugs 6.25   0.4 
Direct Print 7.00   0.65 
Ease of Use 7.00   0.95 
Battery 6.25   0.75 
Other Features 2.00   0.55 
Value 7.00   1.85 
Dynamic Range 5.36   2.5 
Video Performance 3.91   1.75 
Processing Speed 8.40   1.75 
White Balance Performance 8.52   1.8 
Total (weighted)   370.42
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