Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PowerShot A550 Digital Camera - Silver (7.0MP, 4x Optical Zoom) 2.0" LCD

I have had this camera for just over 18 months and was really pleased with it until it suddenly stopped working (just before Christmas) and gave me an on-screen stating that there was a 'lens error, restart camera'. Not possible to restart and so this was an expensive mistake as I will now need to buy another camera. I do not expect to spend money on extra warranty as I believe items costing well over £100 should last more than 18 months,

Ive never actually owned a digital camera before i bought this one. Within 30 minutes of owning it i was taking photos. Ive had this camera for well over a year now (maybe about 20 months). Its still doing what i bought it for. Ive took some nice pics with this and experimented with its macro, black and white pictures etc. Ive took it on holiday captured sunsets, sunrises it goes everywhere with me. It goes to the shop at times even. Ive took it to gigs and took some good pictures. Ive used this almost everyday. I love this camera its served me well and although im thinking of upgrading im still going to keep this gem. The battery life is excellent also. Its well worth the money.

I have recently bought this camera for use in my Class of Receptions to record evidence that they are achieving. It's used by four of us and all staff have reported that it's easy to use and understand. It's light and compact to store in the cupboard. The quality of the pictures are great- just what we need.

I've had this camera for well over 6 months now and it hasn't let me down. It is not as slim and sexy as other modern compacts (in fact it's bigger than my faithful 2 1/2 year old Nikon Coolpix 3200 that I bought it to replace), mainly because of the AA battery compartment. However I think the advantage of AA batteries outweighs the "sexiness factor" and its curves do make it comfortable to hold.

It is fast from power-up to first shot, photographs are very crisp and sharp and it takes movies well. I can't say I find the menu particularly intuitive but I'm getting there! Most "happy snappers" like me will keep it on auto and be more than pleased with the outcome. I had trouble connecting it to my old PC (via the USB cable) running Win2k but now I just stick the memory card in the slot of my new comp running Vista (Home Premium) with no problems.

4/5 - it's not perfect but it is well built, it performs well and for less then a ton, you'd struggle to do better :o)

Note - I've uploaded some pictures but they lose a lot of quality in the process. They are much better when viewed first hand on my 22" monitor

Update - it's 15 months old now and has taken thousands of photos and movies indoors and outdoors and the camera looks and works as good as new. I am still very impressed with it. (FYI, I use a 2.0Gb SanDisk SD RAM card and Duracell 1500 NiMH rechargeable batteries - both work great in this camera)

If like me you are looking for a camera that you can adjust every setting similar to an expensive SLR to achieve the perfect shot but your partner does not share the same camera savvy and only wants to point and fire then go no further as this camera has everything you could want and more that you might try for the first time at an unbeatable price.

Thanks Cannon.