Canon PowerShot A550

The great thing about Canon’s new 7.1-megapixel PowerShot A550 is that you know exactly where you stand with it. It isn’t trying to be flashy and it isn’t designed to wow us in the looks department, yet it performs well, and its price tag is very competitive too. Canon’s range of PowerShot cameras are described by the company as “easy to use and incredibly versatile… catering for all levels of photographic ability and experience.” The A550 certainly ticks the ‘easy to use’ box and is pitched perfectly at the novice user who is looking for a simple point-and-shoot that offers a reliable, good-quality performance.

The device is by no means styled to be pleasing on the eye. Its dimensions make it fairly compact, but it isn’t slim enough to slip into your pocket or a small handbag. It fits comfortably in the hand, though, and doesn’t feel overly cumbersome. It’s rather weighty too, coming in at 160g without batteries. The silver finish is rather sleek but is let down by the flimsy plastic hatch which covers the memory card and connections panel. This chunky design does mean that it feels solid enough to take a few knocks.

This is a basic model, so there aren’t too many menu functions for you to explore. However the menu screens that are included are logically laid out and finding the main functions, such as the flash modes and picture size settings, is a simple task. The selection buttons are equally well laid out, with the zoom, power and capture buttons sitting on the top of the device, while the rest – including the d-pad – sit neatly to the right-hand side of the LCD screen. As power is supplied via AA batteries (which could either be alkaline or Ni-MH rechargeable) there’s no way of charging the A550 via a mains plug, so you’ll have to fork out extra for at least one set of rechargeable cells and a charger, which is far from ideal. That said, it need only set you back £15, so all is not lost. The LCD measures in at a smaller-than-average two inches, yet this is complemented by the inclusion of an optical viewfinder for low-light shooting. While many models have sacrificed the viewfinder on the altar of ever smaller camera sizes, we know from your letters that this is still a valuable feature, so Canon has done good to keep it in place.

What really puts the A550 head and shoulders above other cameras in the packed budget compact market, however, is its 4x optical zoom lens, as most of its competitors only come with a 3x zoom. This combines with digital zoom for an impressive 16x magnification. The zoom performed well during our test shoot, providing better-than-average shots with a high degree of sharpness and clarity, even at full capacity. What’s more, the A550 has a Movie function so you can shoot VGA-quality movie clips with audio.

We were highly impressed by the A550’s startup times. When you first switch it on, it’s ready for shooting after just 1.5 seconds and provides fast successive shot capabilities of around 1.7 seconds between shots, without the flash. Turn the flash on, though, and this climbs to a rather disappointing 4.5 seconds between shots. On the shooting front, the A550 performed satisfactorily. Capturing good quality shots was simple thanks to its generous 13 shooting modes and special scene modes for shooting in tricky light conditions, as well as its logically positioned buttons and menu functions. We did encounter some overprocessing and fringing in places and found that shots captured indoors with automatic white balance suffered from a slight yellowing. However, outdoor shots were consistently sharp, detailed and well exposed, with ISO 400 providing the best results. At full capacity (ISO 800) – which might be used for low-light shots or to capture fast-moving subjects – the shots were inevitably more disappointing as there was graininess impeding the quality. For those looking for a device for everyday shooting, this won’t be too much of a problem, but if you want to take a lot of indoor or night-time shots you might find the A550 rather limited.

The PowerShot A550 isn’t exactly the kind of camera that will turn heads when produced from a bag or pocket, and it doesn’t offer too much in the way of flashy features, but if you’re looking for a simple and inexpensive point and shoot model that does exactly what it says on the tin then you certainly won’t be disappointed. This is an ideal compact for first-time buyers or for those looking to take simple shots with the minimum of fuss.