Customer Reviews
Don't underestimate your need for high megapixel count
The best small digital camera you can buy!! I spent hours researching and testing. Won't repeat all the postitives already stated by others.
What I want to do is inform you about a misconception regarding megapixels (high vs low).
You may decide to buy a less expensive camera when a salespeople at camera/electronic stores says,"Do you plan on mostly printing 4x6's, or will you do alot of enlargments"? You respond, "mostly 4x6 prints". The sales person then tells you that you won't need to get a 7 megapixel camera and can get along with a much less expensive 3 or 4 megapixel camera.
Not true!! If you plan on cropping your pictures, it is the equivilent of enlarging them and then printing only a portion of the image on a 4x6 print. Too severe of a crop with a lower megapixel camera and you get a fuzzy image. So, it's not just 8x10's and larger that need the high MP count. It's all photo's.
I crop almost every picture I take. It allows me to get a much larger share of "good" photo's. For example, I shoot many shots very wide on purpose. Because the SD550 has 7.1 MP, I can "frame" it up later without losing quality. So, I have not printed anything bigger than a 4x6 but I have not lost quality. The couple of extra hundred dollars you spend on this camera goes a long way.
When the salesman says "2 or 3 MP fine for 4x6"..that's true only if you don't crop pictures. With the Canon, I've made perfect close up portaits (face only) from wide shots which included other people in the original shot.
Remember, it's more expensive to buy 2 camera's (the first one, and then the one you really should have gotten) vs. just doing it right the first time.
Also, check my other reviews if you want to find the best and most inexpensive way to print your photo's. It's not on a typical injet printer. Most consumers think "inkjet" is the only
choice they have.
First Digital Camera and Extremely Pleased
My wife and I had planned a vaction to India and wanted to purchase a digital camera before we went. Neither of us had ever used a digital camera before and we wanted something that was compact, easy to use, and would take really good pictures. We got the camera about 4 weeks before our vacation and it was so easy to use that we felt confident bringing it as our only camera for our trip. The results were spectacular, we took lots of pictures (over 1000) and the colors, the exposure, and the focus were teriffic on nearly all of our pictures. There were literally only an handful that were not "keepers." Although we had read up a bit and tried some of the camera's special features, we pretty much left it on automatic and let it decide what to do with our pictures. Our traveling friends had two older lower MP cameras and on many scenes where we both took photos the Canon provided results with much better exposure and color. Those who have seen our photos all are very impressed with the results.
I would recommend this very highly to anyone wanting a simple to use, high quality, compact digital camera.
Very Pleased with Purchase
I was very satified with the timely delivery and features of the product.
