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!

Danny Fye

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.