The Canon Powershot A550 is very similar to previous Canon A-series except for its lack of manual controls. Otherwise, it retains all the aspects that made other A-series cameras so popular: good image quality, ergonomics and speed of operation. When considering its low price and economical use of AA batteries and SD memory, the A550 has very good value. Speaking of batteries, the A550 has one of the longest battery-life of any non-SLR digital camera (550 shots-per-charge).

 

For those who require full-manual controls, one of the A550's more costly siblings is recommended. For example, the Canon Powershot A630 or the older A540. There is also the excellent Canon Powershot A710 IS which provides a longer 6X optical zoom with image stabilization as well as full-manual controls. For superior image quality, the 9 megapixels Fuji Finepix E900 is an excellent compact digital camera.