Pros: Great pictures, high battery life, swivel screen, great movies, high resolution. GREAT PRICE.
Cons: (These are negligible:) Large file sizes, you’ll need more flash cards. None serious.
The Bottom Line: If you're looking to do more than snapshots but less than professional photographs, it's the A95 without a doubt; most of us fit in this category.
yodosays's Full Review: Canon PowerShot A95 Digital Camera
First, this review won't be going into all the technical comparisons to other cameras - there are other reviews that do that better than I could, so I'll be sticking to why I've found this to be the best camera for me (and hopefully others) after using it for about a month and taking nearly 1000 pictures, and try to keep it simple.
Overview
On a recent trip to Cleveland I broke my Canon A40. It was an aging camera - at the time, about 2 years old. It was a 2megapixel, and a good camera when I bought it. It was still a workable camera when I broke it, but it was time for an upgrade soon. I dealt without a decent camera for the next 3 months - using an old and antiquated (no newer than 2001, at least) Canon Powershot S10 when I had to. Finally, the day before I left for my cruise in December, I decided I needed to buy a new camera. After only about 45 minutes of research, I was sold on Canon's Powershot A95.
First, I believe Canons are the best cameras for most consumers. Notable exceptions would be beginners with little computer experience - who tend to prefer Kodaks and their 'Easy Share' - and experts and professionals, which flock towards Nikon's $1000-plus line. Canons, meanwhile, remain around $300-500, and I accept them to produce the best pictures at this range. So, this already narrowed my search for a new camera down to Canon's line - either the 'S' or 'A' line.
After some more internet research, and after finding the A95 on bestbuy.com for $300 with in-store pickup, I went ahead and bought it. Now I'll focus on what I like and dislike about the A95 after using it for about a month, based on my usage of the camera on: 1) a weeklong cruise to the Caribbean, (where I was able to test beach and landscape modes extensively), 2) a couple monster snowfalls back home, where I was able to test the white balancing, 3) a family trip, which gave me great opportunities to test on close-up subjects, (babies) and candid indoor shots with flash.
Basic Picture Quality
I've found that the Canon A95 is everything I hoped for and more. The A95 performed excellently on my cruise. First, it takes excellent landscape shots. The landscape mode is accessed with a simple turn of the mode-selection dial -instead of pushing a couple buttons to cycle through it. Also, the portrait (close-up) and other modes are all available through the dial. This way, the scene hasn't disappeared before you can select the mode. Most of the pictures I took turned out great; I am one of those people who shoots everything, shooting the same scene 20 times if I need because I know I can count on only a few of the pictures turning out. With the A95, I was surprised to find that nearly every picture turned out, and I had a difficult time picking out the picture I wanted to share. In short, the A95 does an excellent job of light metering and focusing, and is sufficiently adjustable and customizable for most novice-expert photographers if they want to change one of the settings. This was a major fault with my A40 – many of the faster-action shots were blurred and simply unfocused with soft colors. Also, when focusing the camera (when you push the shutter button halfway down, and it goes through its whole light metering and focusing process,) it then tells you what shutter speed and aperture (f-stop) it has chosen, which is extremely helpful. For example, if you’re indoors and are unsure about whether you need to use a flash, then you focus the camera and it tells you it’s going to use a shutter speed of 1/8th second, you know you’ll need the flash. If it suspects the shutter speed is far too slow, it will show as red text. Also, when a slower shutter speed is selected, it will display a small icon if the camera is shaking too much to capture a good picture. It’s fairly accurate and helpful.
Battery life
The battery life is amazing - one set of rechargeable 2100mAh AA batteries lasted me four days of heavy shooting (about 300 shots, few of them with flash,) upon which I recharged them and they lasted the remainder of the trip. These are the same batteries I used in my A40, and they probably gave me 1/4th the life. Again, AA batteries are very common, as opposed to those used in Canon’s ‘S’ series, which use a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. It provides a shorter life, is far more expensive, needs a unique charger, and isn’t something you can grab at most stores if your traveling. The batteries cost $30-40 and the charger is an additional $50. The camera comes with one of each, however. The reason for the difference is that Canon’s ‘S’ line features smaller cameras than the ‘A’ series; they’re slightly more high-end and expensive, but if you need a camera you can stick in your pocket and are willing to pay the extra price, you could look into them. However, I can fit my A95 in my pockets fine, and you can always buy a case with a belt loophole for about $20; I use the same one I had for my A40.
LCD Screen
My favorite feature of the A95 is the swivel screen; you can fold it out to take pictures, and then fold it back in to avoid being scratched in storage. The best way to see this is with a http://consumer.usa.canon.com/app/images/d_camera/A95_LCD4.jpg. You can also flip it out to take self-portraits, or point it down and raise the camera above your head to catch a crowd. The screen is very sharp, and doesn't loose much quality in the sun. I almost feel like I’m looking at a 1.8” computer monitor; it’s noticeably better than that on my Powershot A40 (July 㤊), slightly better than that on my S50 (Nov. 㤋), and of course light years beyond my aging S10. This change was apparently brought on by consumer’s complaints with the quality of the screen on the A95’s predecessor, the A80, and Canon has definitely solved the problem.
Special Scene Modes
The special scene modes, which include beach, snow, fireworks, and indoor modes among others, seem to be effective. They can be accessed by turning the dial to ‘SCN’ and cycling through the scenes. I haven’t used them much, except for the snow mode (which does a good job of white balancing). They're not overexposed, and when compared to pictures I took in landscape mode turned out noticeably better.
Lenses and zoom
With a $20 lens adapter, you can fit a variety of lenses and filters, (telephoto, wide-angle, close-up) to the camera - something most cameras in the 'S' line (Canon's line of smaller, high-end cameras) cannot do. The A95 is not significantly larger than the comparable 'S' model, and so to me doesn't justify the increased cost, loss of lenses, or the need for a special rechargeable battery that the 'S' line cameras require. The A95 already includes a 3x optical zoom, which is standard. Because you can buy telephoto lenses, I would not recommend purchasing another camera over the A95 simply because it has a higher zoom; in actuality you may find that you need to zoom out (use a wide-angle lens) more often than in. Besides, the only Canons that offer a higher zoom are the G6 (4x, $799), the Pro 1, (7x, $1,099), and the S1 IS, (10x, $599.) Regarding optical and digital zoom; optical zoom is actually zooming in on the object. Digital zoom essentially crops the image as you would on your computer; therefore, the combined zoom numbers you see often advertised, (㥻x combined zoom!”) mean nothing – the digital zoom on all my Canons have been turned off. The A95 can be fitted with a variety of telephoto lenses if you would like to increase your zoom; you can reach an optical zoom anywhere from 6x to 24x with some of these lenses.
Shooting modes
I found the camera more than sufficient for the family pictures that everyone takes, (although to be honest, if this is all you think you’ll use this camera for, you can go cheaper.) The shutter lag - the time from when you push the 'shoot' button until the time when the picture is actually taken - is fairly low, which is a good thing. The problem with expressing a number for this time is that it hinges on a lot of variables - for example, if you have already focused the camera (pushed the shutter button down halfway) the picture is taken almost immediately. Also, the camera has 2 'strobe' modes, regular and high, although I have only found a use for the High mode, which shoots 2 frames a second. Again, this depends on whether the LCD is on, the flash is used, and other variables - in practice, I've found that with the screen and flash off, it turns out about 2.5-3 frames a second. Contrary to my A40, however, these pictures turn out just as great as normal pictures.
Also, the portrait mode, advertised for use when you want the foreground (people) in sharp focus and the background (scenery) slightly blurred, performs as advertised, and again is accessed with the simple turn of a dial.
The landscape mode, (infinite focus, used for shooting…landscapes,) is also good. This isn’t all that remarkable, as its standard on all cameras. The only thing worth mentioning is that, again, it’s accessed on the mode selection dial. The A95 also includes a manual focus mode for the more expert photographers. It’s good at what it does, but it’s no substitute for a professional camera, obviously.
Movies
The movie modes are FANTASTIC. The Canon A95 shoots a 640x480 pixel video at maximum resolution with 10 frames a second and maximum clip length of 30 seconds. The 10fps in certain fast-action scenes is noticeable, but for when you're pointing the camera straight at a person it isn't that apparent, let alone a significant problem. In addition, the video can fill the screen of a monitor with 1024x768 resolution without looking distorted (any some of you only have 800x600 monitors,) and the audio quality is great. Unless you want to make an actual Hollywood production, this camera's movie mode is sufficient for recording events like blowing out candles or other short family events. Compare it to a cell phone that can take 2megapixel pictures and includes 128Mb of removable memory; you probably wouldn’t buy a digital camera just to take snapshots of your friends. There are also two lower resolution settings; 320x240pixels and 160x120, which shoot at 15fps and record for 3minutes. I don’t think these should be used unless you’re short on space, (whether in your CompactFlash card or your computer’s hard drive,) or if you’re only shooting something for the audio, as the 640x480 videos are rather large. A full 30-second clip will be around 18Mb. My 7 videos from my family trip take up 108MB, while my 89 pictures take up 180MB, so as you can see it adds up. (For those of you not as familiar with computers, there are 1000MB in 1GB; most hard drives have about 60-100GB of space.)
It’s important to note that the A95 includes the ability to cut videos with the camera. You can view the video in review mode and cut from the beginning and/or the end of the file, then overwrite the old video or save as a new file. This is useful because it allows you to let the camera record for the maximum length if you’re unsure that you’ll capture more action without fear that you’ll fill up space with nothing. For example, I record my cat jumping around for 6 seconds, and then he sits still. I let the camera record for the next 24 seconds, and if he does something else I have it; if not I simply cut the last 24 seconds out. Also, there is a speaker included for playback on the camera. This is now standard on all Canons (to my knowledge) but it is worth noting as it wasn’t available on the A40.
Ease of Use
Overall, the Canon A95 is extremely easy to use. However, I’ll limit myself to more objective analysis, as having owned 3 prior Canons my perspective is a little skewed. But the buttons are easy to use. Things have been simplified since the A40, and you are now able to set most customizable functions with the ‘function’ button; you no longer need to delve into the bowels of the menu. You can switch between the photo shooting modes and review mode by sliding a switch down – much more convenient than a separate mode on the dial, like the A40, yet this change had been made on the S50 as well. The startup time is fast and good; very useful for when you need to whip your camera out, turn it on, and snap something right before it disappears. The screen, as I already mentioned, is easy to use.
Transferring photos and software
The A95 includes a USB cable to link to your computer; plug it in, install the software, (more on that later,) and you’re all set. The other (and better) option is to buy a CompactFlash reader, (if you don’t already have one,) for about $20 and just download the pictures straight from your card. I don’t do this because Window’s Camera Wizard doesn’t pick up my reader for some reason; I can cut and paste manually, but then I’d have to rename the files myself and truthfully I don’t care for the “( )” that Windows adds. It makes no difference, in any case.
Most will find the usefulness of the included software within its ability to transfer pictures to the camera as well as create settings. While this is a minor thing, it’s convenient if you want to show someone your pictures and use your camera as a viewer. The A95, like all other Canons, also includes an AV output (including cable) that will plug into any TV less than 7 years old. This just throws whatever is on your camera’s screen onto the TV screen, but with a slight downgrade in quality.
Review
I tried to keep this review short but I think I failed. In any case, I’ve attempted to include more information about the features most people will use without delving into the more complicated information that, frankly, those who would use probably already know. The only thing that may concern some users is that the A95 is unable to support an independent flash. However, the one included is sufficient for most situations, and, again, if you need more you should probably be looking at a better camera. The A95 includes a screw-in tripod mount, but this is standard. It, like all other Canon’s manufactured in the last 2 or 3 years, also includes ‘Direct Print’ capability, but with another ‘bonus’. After you plug the camera in to your computer or a ‘direct print’ printer, a designated button will light blue; push this button and the camera will automatically transfer, (or print) all the pictures on your card. Convenient, but seeing as plugging the camera into any of the above automatically brings up a menu prompting you to either transfer all pictures or select certain pictures for transfer, I don’t see much use for this button other than to promote Canon’s portable Direct Printers. Also, note that you will need to upgrade your Flash memory to accommodate this camera. With my A40, three 128MB cards were good for about 360 pictures. Seeing as the same storage would only get me about 150 pictures on the A95, (on maximum resolution,) I had to upgrade to a 512MB, and still hold on to my three 128’s. No big deal, but worth noting.
Recommendations
Finally, I would recommend this camera to anyone who is in the market for this type of camera. For example, if you’re looking for a small camera you can fit in your purse so you can snap pictures of your friends, you want to go with a smaller, less capable camera that is targeted for such use. If you’re looking for a camera to use in any line of professional photographic work, (be it paparazzi, sports photography, or just looking to take some scenic shots and send them in to a magazine in the hopes of discovery,) you should know that this camera is not for you; instead I point you towards Nikon but be prepared to spend more than $1000. However, if you’re in such a line of work, you have no reason to be dabbling in this review anyway. But for 80% of us, including those buying their first digital camera to those, (like me,) who are on their fourth, I strongly recommend this camera. It’s done nothing but amaze me so far, and its cost is just absurd for a camera of this quality. Its list price is $349, yet I would expect to see a comparable camera for $100 more. Also, it’s still rather ‘new’ which means more price drops are to be expected. I’ve heard the main reason for its low price is the fact that it mostly consists of the Canon A80, with a new screen and some new features; this would explain it.
I hope you found this review helpful. E-mail me with any questions, or leave feedback below.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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