Canon PowerShot A550 Point & Shoot Camera

The Canon PowerShot A550 is a 7MP point-and-shoot camera built around a 1/2.5-inch sensor and powered by Canon's DIGIC II image processor. Designed for casual everyday shooting, it keeps things straightforward with a compact plastic body measuring 91 x 64 x 43 mm and weighing just 160g — light enough to slip into a pocket without much thought. The camera offers an ISO range of 80 to 800, giving shooters some flexibility in mixed lighting conditions, and captures stills at a maximum resolution of 3072x2304 pixels.

A 9-point contrast-detection autofocus system handles focusing duties, while a built-in flash with Auto, Red-eye reduction, and Slow sync modes covers basic low-light situations. The 2.0-inch TFT LCD display at 86,000 dots serves as the primary framing tool, supplemented by an optical viewfinder. For those who prefer to shoot without relying on batteries from a proprietary pack, the A550 runs on two standard AA batteries — alkaline, NiMH, or lithium — with NiMH delivering approximately 500 shots per charge.

Video recording tops out at 480p at up to 30fps. Storage is handled via SD and SDHC cards, and the camera connects to a computer via USB.