Excellent, fun, point-n-shoot
Written: Jul 09 '01
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Pros: Fast, competent, fully featured, quality results, excellent value for money, extensible.
Cons: No AC adapter, only left/right cursor, no video out.
The Bottom Line: Seems like it should be more expensive camera. Looks good, feels good, takes good pictures.
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| SadlerJohnson's Full Review: Canon PowerShot A10 Digital Camera |
I have an original ixus (what a cool camera) and a Minolta 7000i (oldie but goodie) and a Sony PC1 so I thought I had the field covered between quality and convenience in my photography. However, recently I'd find myself at events or on holiday and wanting to show pictures immediately or to distant friends. Having a scanner I had the capability but what an expensive pain for snaps. So, I started searching for a digital camera. I was looking for a camera suited for email, web and immediacy rather than professional quality for print purposes - no need!
I had a few stipulations...
640x480 would be fine
Optical zoom 2x minimum
Reasonable LCD (I hate parallax error)
Flash
Removable/upgradeable media
Direct connection to the PC
Value for money
I didn't care about...
megapixels, digital zoom, video or any fancy features.
The A10 is (was at the time) a pretty new camera (I got mine a day after it's release in the UK) so I almost didn't get one. I was was in the process of sourcing a Fuji 1400 for a good price and would have bought one if the Canon hadn't caught my eye.
Feature for feature, the A10 and the 1400 are very similar - price, optical zoom, physical size, resolution. Mmmm, bit of a toss up then. Here's what decided it for me...
8Mb vs 4Mb as standard
speed (A10 is faster for single shot AND has continuous mode)
that's about it really for me, although I've subsequently found out that the A10 has more features. As for other cameras none came close on the feature set, most relying on the pathetic digital zoom as a "feature".
So that's how I chose - I read dcresource.com and steves-digicams.com for good reviews and facts.
Useability? Well, see the above site for their tests. Here's my likes and dislikes...
When you zoom in, it continues until the end of optical, then let go then zoom again and it continues with digital zoom - cool you don't have to use it if you don't want to. It has all the flash modes you'll ever need and they're easy to select. Zoom is positive and quick. You can only access all of the features of the camera in "manual" mode so that's the mode you'd want to take most pictures in. There's no manual focus, speed or aperature settings, as such, so manual is a bit of a misnomer. The LCD is a bit small but still easy to read and the interface is easy to use (apparently the same as the digital Ixus 300). You can only have a beep or silence to let you know when you've taken a picture. It'd be nice if one could have a less intrusive audio indication of a shot although a quiet camera is great for some picture opportunities. Continuous is also cool. Stitch assist for creating panoramas and stuff - only horizontally though. You don't get a case, an A/C adapter or NiMH batteries but it's still good value for money. The case is all plastic (including the tripod mount) but it seems solid enough. You have to hold the on button for a coupla seconds before power-up which is a pain but understandable since my IXUS is forever turning itself on in my pocket (ooh-err misses).
Seeing as it can cost me nearly $20 to process a film I reckon I'll be recouping my costs pretty quickly.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 366
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Epinions.com ID:
SadlerJohnson
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Reviews written: 2
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