Pros: pocket sized, sturdy aluminum clad body, largest optical zoom in the Canon Elph-based series
Cons: eats alkaline batteries, need to purchase the power pack and extra battery; better outdoors than indoors
Recommended: Yes

This digital camera fits easily into a shirt pocket, so it's as portable as it gets, and your 'best friend' on vacation. An important feature that is too often overlooked is the fact that it is aluminum clad, so dropping it won't easily result in the heartache of a broken camera that costs hundreds to be replaced immediately or a costly repair that will deprive the owner of its use for an extended period.

It's outdoor shots are excellent; its 2.5X OPTICAL zoom is the largest presently available in the Canon Elph-based repertoire of digicams; its 1.3 Megapixel resolution gives 35mm equivalent 4"x6" prints on either H-P or Epson photo printers.

The drawbacks often reported with shots taken using the internal flash are not critical; although the power of the flash is effectively limited to a range of within 10 feet, the A-50 has multiple modes that deal well with red eye reduction, fill flash, or no flash at all, to the extent of being the virtual match for any digicam list priced under "$1,000". Its controls are easy to master; its playback mode extends to a "slide show" in the LCD (which is larger than the average digicam's at 2 full inches diagonal) or on TV. The camera DOES eat batteries, so TWO batteries and the optional power pack (now readily available for under $80 with one battery, second battery about $25) is a MUST. If you upgrade to higher resolution Canon "Elph-based" digicams, you can use this battery and charger. These lithium batteries will last for up to 100 shots using the LCD as a preview and thus are good for a full day of shooting. The second battery permits full operation while the first battery is charging.

The A-50 will handle most sizes (under 200 MB) of Compact Flash Type I, and puts 161 photos on a 48 MB card. That's enough for a week's worth of vacation shots. (...)It is the BEST optical zoom 1.3 Megapixel camera on the market for ease of use, portability and versatility. Another nice feature, not found in all cameras, is a "raw mode" that permits uncompressed photos. Its JPEG compression on "best mode" does little to adversely affect the photographs, and there are a host of other features that will appeal to the more advanced photographers.

All in all, the A-50 was well designed and a good value for the money. Of course, at this time, with the advent of 3.3 Megapixel cameras, and the S-100 Digital Elph at 2.1 Megapixel with a 2X optical zoom, the A-50, at 1.3MP and its serial interface can be considered obsolete, but, at its current price, it's my choice as a gift for my preteen daughter. It's just right without spending more than necessary for someone who can use the zoom lens effectively, adapt the camera to slide shows and does not need to print anything larger than 5" X 7" photos on a color inkjet.......and if she drops this sturdy little aluminum 'tank' of a camera, I won't be out a fortune for replacement or repair!

I have been waiting a long time to buy a really good digitalcamera that I can afford. I got the A50 for $399.00 plus I got a 16meg compactflash card as a bonus in addition to the 8meg card. I was surprised by the excellent pictures I get with the Canon A50. Compares to 35mm SLR cameras. Also it is very easy to setup and use. I was disappointed in the lack of support from Canon. I asked where I can find accessories online, they told me to call an 800 number and order from them. The dk110 power supply kit does not exist and I am beginning to wonder if it ever will. I have looked around for the 2cr5 battery and found a range in price from $6.95 all the way up to $19.95. So shop around. The dumb outfit that wanted $6.95 also wanted $13.95 for shipping. Average price is $9.95. Meanwhile, I won't use the LCD very much. Camera gets 5 Stars for quality, Canon gets 1 star for lack of support. I'd still recommend this camera to all inspite of Canon's poor support.

Danny Fye

I love the camera. It's great for a snapshot camera and has some useful manual functions (flash off, exposure compensation, slow shutter). Another great feature is the Mac software that comes with it-- TimeTunnel. This is awesome. You plug in the camera (or in my case, put the CompactFlash card into a PCMCIA adapter and into the slot in my PowerBook) and upload the photos into this easy-to-use and very well designed program. You can zoom through thumbnails of all of your photos, arranged on a spiral thing which classes them by date. When you click on a thumbnail, you get all the info about it (date, shutter speed, aperture, file size, etc) and when you double click it opens the full size image. You can easily "send" any image to another program, such as the included Adobe PhotoDeluxe, or better yet, Photoshop.

I'm very happy with the camera, and the only reason it doesn't get a 5 star rating from me is that the battery charger and replacement rechargable batteries are on worldwide backorder and have been for months. This is very irresponsible of Canon and is costing me a fortune in batteries.

The camera is excellent. You can read a hundred reviews as I have on the great job that Canon has done on the design and convience of this little guy. But don't buy it unless you can assure that you can get a rechargable battery kit with it. I've been waiting since just before Christmas to find a supplier who has one in stock (at a reasonable price). In the meantime buying batteries is eating me alive in cost! Apparently, Canon produced two-to-one the camera's to the rechargable battery packs... thus all us unsuspecting buyers got a camera and a backorder notice on the rechargables! BEWARE!

I'm in love with this camera after 24 hours, and I'm glad I got the battery+charger power kit (~$80) with it. (more on that below.)

I'm a "serious amateur," experienced photographer. I got this camera to replace a dead 35mm SLR. I like that the Canon lets me over/underexpose by 2 stops, in half-stop increments, control the flash and red-eye separately, and use a slow shutter speed for motion blur.

The photos look great and are about 300K each in "best" mode. I was especially impressed when it worked the first time I took a photo, imported to Photoshop, viewed on TV, etc. It really delivers on the promise of digital photography for the average user.

I was prepared to spend $500 on a new SLR. With the power kit, the A50 is about the same $399+80+shipping).

If you can spend closer to $600, check out the Panasonic, with 3x optical zoom and dual CF card slots. In a slightly lower price range than the Canon, look at the comparable Kodak 215, a little less compact.

The non-rechargable Lithium 2CR5 batteries last less than 72 flash exposures and cost $20 each. The charger charges its included NB-5H battery in 90 minutes or less. I can't find the $40 spare NB-5H batteries anywhere--Canon dealers all have them on backorder.