I gifted this camera to my parents as a Diwali gift this year as I found it to be a value for money in mid price range. I bought this camera for Rs. 5999/= from India plaza with a 2 GB card . Camera has a good picture quality and is easy to use. As per me, however my father and mother found too many features to be very confusing and difficult to handle. Both of them would have preferred a simple camera with auto focus and auto flash.
In my opinion if you are looking for a digital camera for elderly people Cannon A 550 is not the best deal. One shoud look for other models with fewer features and easy to handle. The performance of the camera in the dark is above average however Sony takes the cake for both performance in the dark and picture quality.
Wish you all good luck with your camera shopping.