A Compact Digital Camera with Power
Written: Jan 24 '05
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Pros: Compact Size, Lightweight, Built-in Lens Cap, Zoom, Macro, Panoramic Mode, includes 16mb SD card
Cons: 2.2x Optical Zoom (wish it were more powerful), buttons might be small for some hands
The Bottom Line: A camera for the beginning or intermediate digital photographer. This camera takes great photographs.
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| dlstewart's Full Review: Canon PowerShot A400 Digital Camera |
My Secret Santa worked overtime on this gift. Imagine my delight when I received the Canon PowerShot A400 Digital Camera. I had been thinking of buying a new digital camera for the past year but always hesitated over the expense. The Epson PhotoPC 750Z digital camera that I have used for the past four years is a dinosaur compared to today’s cameras. Shutter lag with the Epson became more and more of a problem with slower and slower response time. Besides, the Epson camera only has 1.25 megapixels, and I very much wanted a camera with 3 or more megapixels. The Canon PowerShot A400 has 3.2 megapixels. (The more megapixels, the better photo printing resolution.)
Camera Description
I immediately fell in love with the compact size of the Canon PowerShot A400. This camera is actually small enough to fit in a pocket. It measures 4.2" wide x 2.1" high x 1.4" deep. It weighs 5.8 ounces. My camera is an elegant all-over silver color. If you prefer other colors, Canon offers this camera in Sky Blue, Lime Green and Sunset Gold (the colors appear on the front of the camera, and the rest of the camera is silver).
The Front
There is a 1 1/8" diameter lens with a built-in lens cover that automatically opens and closes when the on/off button is pressed. Above the lens is the viewfinder window, flash and tiny (almost unnoticeable) microphone. There is also a small circle that has three functions: the autofocus assist beam, red-eye reduction lamp, self-timer lamp. A wrist strap comes with the camera and attaches through a slot on the front of the camera near the side.
The Back
At the left, the camera back features a 1 1/4" wide x 1" high color LCD display for viewing images. (Note the specifications state the LCD screen is 1 1/2" but that measurement includes the silver “frame” around the actual viewing area.). Above the LCD screen is the viewfinder window and indicator lights to show when the camera is ready to shoot a photograph. To the right, there are many buttons that control the functions of the camera. Starting at the top, is the Mode Button (which controls: replay, still photo shoot, special scene settings, movie clip). Next to this is the zoom toggle. Beneath these are Menu, Display and Function buttons. To the right of those buttons is a round Set button surrounded by a toggle ring that can control light metering, flash, continuous shooting, self-timer, macro or infinity settings. There is also a print/share button. A plastic bar at the bottom back of the camera swivels open to reveal a Digital terminal, DC In terminal and an A/V Out terminal.
The Top
A small on/off button is near the button that controls the camera shutter. Twelve tiny round pin-dot openings serve as the speaker.
The Bottom
A tripod socket hole is located in the center bottom of the camera.
The Side
Only one side of the camera has a compartment that opens. It opens and closes with a slide switch. Inside the compartment is where the two AA batteries and the SD card reside.
What Comes in the Box?
* One Camera
* One Wrist Strap that needs to be attached to the camera
* One 16mb SD card in a plastic case
* Two AA alkaline batteries
* One AV cable to connect the camera to the television
* One USB cable to connect the camera to the computer
Two CDs that contain the following software programs:
CD # 1 – Digital Camera Solution Disk
For Windows includes Canon Utilities: ZoomBrowser EX 4.6, PhotoRecord 2.1, PhotoStitch 3.1, Camera TWAIN Driver 6.4, Camera WIA Driver 6.2
For Macintosh includes Canon Utilities: ImageBrowser 3.6 and PhotoStitch 3.1
CD # 2 – Camera Suite
For Windows includes: ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5 and ArcSoft VideoImpression 2
For Macintosh includes: ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5 and ArcSoft VideoImpression 1.6
Supported platforms include:
Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
Macintosh 9/X
Documentation and User Guides include the following:
* Camera User Guide (1 book in English and 1 book in Spanish)
* Software Starter Guide (1 book in English and 1 book in Spanish)
* Quick Start Guide (1 large foldout sheet in English and 1 in Spanish)
* System Diagram
* Downloading Images to Computer using Windows XP or Mac OS X (sheet is in English, Spanish, French and two languages I can’t identify)
* Registration and Customer Support Information in languages listed above and also Italian and Dutch.
Getting Started
It didn’t take me long to open the cardboard box containing the Canon PowerShot A400 camera. The box has two compartments; one that held the camera and another that housed the SD card, batteries, cables and camera strap. All the documentation and the CDs were packed atop the equipment.
Being eager to play with my new “toy”, I ignored the literature (not even glancing at the Quick Start Guide) and ripped into the batteries to install them in the camera. The hardest part was opening the battery compartment. It’s a tricky combination of pushing the switch to release the lock and pulling the compartment forward and then upward. I still find it awkward to open the compartment even after a month of using the camera. When the batteries are out of the camera, there is a small black diagram inside the battery area that shows how the batteries should be installed in the camera. It is easy to insert the batteries. However, within the first two days of use, the two AA alkaline batteries died. I quickly visited my local electronics store and purchased the Canon Accessory Kit, which included rechargeable batteries and a charger. The rechargeable batteries work great ... I highly recommend them.
The SD card also fits in this compartment. A 16mb SD card comes in a protective plastic case. The card resembles a wafer-thin rectangular chip and slides into a slot near the batteries. My first time using the camera, I was able to fit 14 high quality photos and a 26 second movie clip on the 16mb SD card. The second time, only 13 photos fit on the card.
Not once did I use the viewfinder window, which surprised me since I often used the viewfinder on my old camera. It is natural to look at the LCD screen to frame the shots. The color screen is easy to view, and icons showing the different features such as photo quality, red-eye reduction, flash, etc, unobtrusively display at the edge of the screen. I like the fact that I know how many photos are left on the SD card since the remaining number displays at the bottom right of the screen.
I was able to take photos and even a movie without reading the instructions. However, it quickly became apparent that to use the different scene settings and to change the camera’s settings that I would have to read the instructions. The different buttons on the back of the camera and all their associated icons confused me. After reading some instructions, I easily set the date, time and photo quality.
The buttons on the back of the camera are small, too. Forget trying to take photos in cold weather (3 below zero yesterday) while wearing gloves. My gloved fingers hit every wrong button possible. The only buttons that were easy to push with gloved hands were the on/off and shutter button. Without gloves, the buttons are simple to operate.
Special Features
Auto
Point and shoot using this mode. The camera automatically selects the best settings. I most often use this mode.
Manual
Adjust the exposure, white balance, etc. yourself.
Stitch Assistant = Panoramic Views
Use this setting to take panorama shots. Take a series of shots, moving the camera sideways and slightly overlapping the images as they are photographed. Shoot pictures from left to right or from right to left. The StitchAssistant software combines the multiple images into one photo. This is a neat feature! I took a panoramic shot of our house and the two houses on either side of it. The software combined all 15 photos I took into one gorgeous panoramic photo – and the software was simple to use.
Special Scenes
This camera has 8 different scene modes suited to specific situations: portrait, beach, night scene, fireworks, foliage, underwater, snow, indoor. I have used the portrait, fireworks, snow and indoor settings. These settings took great photos. It was interesting to compare a photo taken using the auto setting vs. the indoor scene option. The indoor scene photo showed much more detail and better lighting. Note that to use the underwater setting, you need to purchase the All Weather Case, which is sold separately.
Movie Clips
This is a feature I really wanted in a digital camera. The first day I received the camera, I took a 26 second movie clip of my mother saying hello to her sister. It took me three takes to get the movie clip right, but it was easy to do. I felt like a movie director and had my mother laughing so hard at one point that I thought we’d never get this movie in the can. It is also possible to edit the beginning or end of the a movie clip with the camera. Depending upon the resolution chosen, a movie can be as short as 10 seconds or as long as 3 minutes. Movie length also depends upon the size of the SD card. The microphone records monaural sound. A nice feature is that the shutter sound is not recorded. Quick Time 3.0 is required to play the movie files, which are recorded in AVI/Motion JPEG.
Sound Bites
Another great feature is that you can record up to 60 seconds over any image that is photographed. The sound is saved in WAVE format.
Quick Shots
Take continuous photos with less shutter lag time. I was not impressed with this feature. I tried to take continuous photos to capture football game action, but there was only about a two second difference between the continuous photo shutter speed and the normal shutter speed. You also have to press the shutter button for every photo. The camera does not automatically keep shooting photos.
Red-eye Reduction and Flash
The automatic red-eye reduction feature is great. The special “lamp” fires each time the main flash is engaged. You can choose to have the flash automatically fire when needed, or leave it on all the time, or turn the flash off.
Macro and Infinity Modes
My old Epson camera only did so-so macro shots, so I’m really pleased with this Canon feature. I quilted some fun chicken pincushions as gifts and wanted close-up photos. The macro feature is designed to take photos between 2" and 18" away from the subject. The photos I’ve taken using the macro feature come out crisp and beautiful. The infinity mode is useful for landscape photographs with both near and far subjects. I shot some gorgeous photos of snow encased tree branches with the house as a backdrop.
Postcard Print Mode
Use this setting when taking a photograph you want to convert into a postcard size picture. This feature allows you to check the image size as it will appear on a postcard. I haven’t had much success using this feature. What is supposed to happen, is that the area that will not appear on the postcard (when printed) is supposed to appear grayed out on the LCD screen. The grayed-out image never appears.
Self-timer
This is a feature I should use more often. When viewing photo albums, I am notoriously missing in the pictures since I am the photographer. The timer will countdown from 2 or 10 seconds while you scramble to include yourself in the shot. The hardest part for me is setting the camera on a surface and aligning it so that heads aren’t cut off in the photograph.
Playback
View photos on the SD card using the LCD screen. Up to 9 images can be viewed at once. Images can also be magnified up to 10 times during playback. Note that movies cannot be magnified.
Optical and Digital Zoom
One of my dreams is to own a digital camera with a truly terrific optical zoom. While the Canon PowerShot A400 is a great little camera, it comes up short on the zoom feature. This camera offers a 2.2x optical zoom and a 3.2x digital zoom. The manufacturer states that the combined optical and digital offers a 7x zoom.
“Wow!” you may say. “This is a 7x zoom, and it’s optical.” Well, not really. Not even close.
An optical zoom magnifies an image using the lens so that all the pixels in a photo are used, which creates a quality photograph. A digital zoom does not use all the pixels to take a photograph, and while an image taken with a digital zoom might look good, the image is not truly a “zoom” photo. Using computer software to enlarge a photograph creates the same result as taking a photo using a digital zoom.
I use only the optical zoom, and this camera makes it easy to do it. When I use the zoom toggle, the camera lens changes, and so does the display on my LCD screen. As soon as I reach the 2.2x optical zoom measurement, the camera displays ׀.2x” in white letters on the left side of the screen. When I stray into the digital zoom, a box outline appears in the center of the LCD display and the zoom measurement is highlighted in blue (3.5x, 4.4x, 5.4x or 7.0x). If you prefer not to have the digital zoom option available, it is simple to turn off the digital zoom feature.
Resolution
This camera takes excellent photographs. The detail is fabulous. For example, it is very difficult to snap a good photograph of my cat. Not only does she hate to pose for pictures, but the coloration of her tortoise coat is hard to capture well on a camera. I have taken a lot of photos of her with this camera, and just about all of them are terrific. (I’m discounting the shots of her tail as she suddenly decides to walk away.) I can even see the distinct colorations in her fur. Even her eyes photographed beautifully.
I always take photos using the largest resolution. I don’t care how much space on the SD card these photos use. It’s important to me to have a high quality photo that I can later manipulate on the computer and print out so that it looks great.
Here are the resolution specifications:
Large – 2048 x 1536 pixels (print up to 8.3" x 11.7" or 8.5" x 11" prints)
Medium 1 – 1600 x 1200 pixels (print postcard size 6" x 4" or 4.7" x 3.5" prints)
Medium 2 – 1024 x 768 pixels (print 3.4" x 2.1" prints)
Small – 640 x 480 pixels (best for sending photos as e-mail attachments)
There are also compression factors to choose. I always use “Superfine”, which produces a higher quality image. Selecting “Fine” produces normal quality images, and “Normal” compresses the images further to allow more photos to fit on an SD card.
Menu Options
You control three setting areas when the Menu button is pushed.
Record Menu
Quick Shot on/off, Red-eye on/off, Self-timer feature, Autofocus Assist Beam on/off, Digital Zoom on/off, Picture Review time off/3-10 seconds.
Set Up
Mute on/off, Volume, LCD screen brightness, Power Saving mode, Date/Time, Format, File Number Reset on/off, Auto Rotate on/off, Language selection, Video System (NTSC or PAL).
My Camera
Theme, Start-up Image, Start-up Sound, Operation Sound, Self-timer Sound, Shutter Sound.
Downloading Images from the Camera
I use my Dazzle Multimedia 6-in-1 Card Reader to transfer the images from the SD card onto my computer hard drive. I simply remove the SD card from the computer and insert it into the card reader. The card reader acts as a separate drive where I can view the images and copy, paste, move them from the card reader onto the computer hard drive.
The camera comes with drivers and software that can be installed to download images. Once the drivers and software are installed, plug the USB cable into the computer and the other end of the cable into the digital terminal on the back of the camera. A series of menu screens prompts you during the download process.
Viewing Camera Images on a Television
Connect the AV cable to the back of the camera. The other end of the cable has two connectors: one yellow and one black. The yellow connector plugs into the television video jack, and the black connector plugs into the television audio jack. Images do not appear on the LCD screen when the camera is plugged into a television. The television displays the images in the camera, or you can use it like a giant LCD screen and snap photos while the camera is plugged into the television.
Printing Images with Direct Print
This Canon camera is designed to directly print to compatible printers. Printers that use this feature include: CP Direct Compatible CP Printers and Direct Print Compatible Bubble Jet Printers. This camera is also PictBridge compliant. The documentation that came with the camera includes a booklet that specifically details how to print using this feature. I have not tried this feature since I do not own one of these printers.
Purchasing
This camera was a generous gift, which is greatly appreciated! I have seen this camera offered online and at many of my local stores for between $149.99 and $169.99.
When I realized how quickly the camera ate AA batteries, I visited Circuit City and purchased the Canon Accessory Kit for $44.99. The kit included 4 AA rechargeable Canon batteries, the recharger and a soft-sided camera case. Since the camera did not come with any type of case or protective cover, this soft-sided case was a nice bonus. This case is a silver-green color and is lined with a black soft-plush material. The camera neatly fits into the case. There is a mesh pocket on the front of the case, and the case closes with a Velcro seal. This case is not meant as waterproof protection since the top opening is not completely sealed closed. There is a loop on the back that can be threaded through a belt.
I also purchased a SanDisk 512mb SD card that can hold up to 300 high quality photos. The card normally sells at Office Depot for $59.97, but with rebates only cost me $39.97.
Summary
I am very happy with this camera. What a terrific gift! My only big wish is that the Canon PowerShot A400 Digital Camera offered a more powerful optical zoom. However, for anyone who is a beginner or intermediate digital photographer, this is a wonderful camera. Right out of the box, it is easy to point and shoot photos. I love the built-in lens cover, too. No more accidentally forgetting to remove the cover. (I won’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled that embarrassing trick!). If instructions are vital to your camera happiness, this Canon camera comes with an abundance of literature complete with plenty of illustrations to demonstrate the settings. This camera takes excellent photos and has a fun movie feature with sound. I’m in camera heaven.
I hope you have found this review useful.
Enjoy your day,
Dawn
http://dlstewart.com
Additional Information
Canon U.S.A. Inc.
Toll-free Phone: 800-828-4040
Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern Time
Canon Canada, Inc.
Toll-free Phone: 800-652-2666
24 hours a day / 7 days a week
www.powershot.com
View the specification sheet at Canon’s website:
http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/psa400/spec-e.html
Please read my other reviews.
Concord Eye-Q Digital Camera
Sandisk ImageMate CompactFlash Card Reader
Belkin UPS Emergency Battery Backup
HP LaserJet 2200dse Printer
Hewlett Packard LaserJet 1000 Printer
Gateway 500X Computer
Logitech Mouseman Dual Optical Mouse
Fellowes Gel Mousepad with Wristrest
Ott 13-Watt True Color Bedside / Desk Lamp
Ott 18-Watt True Color Flex-Arm Plus Lamp
Ott 18-Watt True Color Floor Lamp
Copyright 2005 Dawn L. Stewart
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): gift
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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