Moving on up in the camera world
Written: Jun 08 '04
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Pros: manual settings, many shooting modes, optical zoom, picture quality
Cons: 2MP, fuziness of edges, particularly in landscapes, many modes and buttons can get confusing
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this camera for anyone who wants to take basic snapshots but also wants to expand their photographic horizons.
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| zan720's Full Review: Canon PowerShot A60 Digital Camera |
I first discovered this camera when visiting my best friend in upstate NY. She had just bought one and I was immediately jealous that her 2 MP camera had so many more features than my 2 MP camera. Being the good friend she is, she lent me her camera since she also had an SLR to use, and after that weekend I knew I had to go out and buy that exact camera. The camera in question, of course, was the Canon A60.
(I have taken many pictures with this camera which I have up at images.lunarpink.com if you are looking for examples. They state if they are taken with this particular camera or with my old Finepix 2650.)
Camera body:
This camera was about the same height and width wise as my old Fuji camera, but a little slimmer front to back. That is to say, it fit nicely in my small handbags. It has a "handle" of sorts where the batteries go, and that handle makes it easy to keep a good grip. The body is made of plastic, but still feels very solid. This camera has gone flying across the pavement more times than my heart can handle, but still manages to escape with just a few scratches. No manual lens cap here, when you power the camera on, a little window opens over the lens. There is an LCD on the backside that I found to be adequate. No LCD is really going to give you a good idea of the details of the picture when views on a computer monitor or on a piece of paper. It was certainly fine enough for framing my shots.
The Batteries:
It uses 4 basic AA batteries. They last pretty long, but I would recommend getting a 4 battery recharger and 8 batteries (one set to use, one set to charge). On a one week trip to the UK I took over 400 pictures and went through two sets of batteries. The nice thing about taking AAs is you can buy them anywhere, since recharging the batteries wasn't going to work overseas.
On/off:
I often forget that this camera makes you hold the on/off button at the top for a few seconds before it starts up (perhaps to guard against accidentally turning it on?). Once it starts up, it shows a startup image then goes into shooting mode very quickly for a digital camera. It turns off with just a tap of the on/off button.
The many buttons:
The shutter buttons is surrounded by the zoom control, which makes zooming and taking a picture a one handed process if necessary. The only thing about the shutter is when my nails are long, it's really hard for me to get the shutter button depressed. This camera has a lot of buttons: set, menu, display, function, and four navigational buttons (for going through menus and such) that also double as macro and flash setting buttons. There is also a switch that lets you go between shooting mode and "playback" mode (where you can review pictures/movies). Keeping the buttons straight is an acquired skill. I still sometimes get them confused, but these many buttons are more for general camera settings, sound settings, navigating pictures taken, and more in depth functions.
The shooting modes:
There is a dial at the top of the camera that lets you pick from one of 12 shooting modes: manual, three different modes for selecting which camera setting takes priority and sets the rest of the settings automatically according to that, a fully automatic mode, portrait, landscape, a mode for capturing a subject in the foreground and details in a darkened background, a fast shutter speed for action, a slow shutter speed, a panoramic mode (the camera helps you line up the shots, the software on your computer stitches them together for you), and a movie mode with sound. In general I use the settings that let you set more of the manual options (especially useful if you want to take pictures in low light without using a flash). For many of the modes you can specify the size of the picture, and the level of detail (more detail equals bigger files). In addition you can do vivid color, sepia, black and white, and neutral color modes.
Taking pictures:
The autofocus on this camera picks the correct focus of the shot about half the time for me. The best solution I have found so far is to aim the camera square at the object I want to be the focus then with the shutter half depressed and the focus set I move the camera to frame the actual view I want. The focus of the shot is more of an issue with pictures of things pretty close to the lens however. The shutter on this camera is pretty average for a digital camera. Nothing particularly fast, not particularly slow. Time between one shot taken to going back to shooting mode is pretty quick. It's even faster when you set the camera not to display the picture you just took. Optical zoom on this camera is good. Digital zoom is of course useless, but this camera lets you set it so it doesn't automatically go to digital zoom after reaching the end of it's optical zoom.
Picture quality:
This camera does many things very well, and some things not as well. Outdoor shots are generally very good. However, particularly where the focus of the pictures is a landscape, the landscape is not as crisp as I could like. The edges feel a little fuzzy. This is particularly noticable with trees and mountains.
Macro (close up) pictures on this camera turn out very nice. No complaints here.
I hate using the flash in general, but that's just a personal preference. When taking pictures of things indoors it can be pretty unavoidable, however. On the A60 I feel it does tend to be on the more powerful side, and my poor paler family members tend to look very washed out.
Overall this camera takes very nice pictures on its own. I find I don't have to do much to them with contrast or brightness in Photoshop. I've been able to print up to 5x7s with this camera. 3x5s and 4x6s look the best and give you a little room for cropping. The thing I like the most is that this camera lets me experiment with manual settings. Someday I want to go all out and get a dSLR when I can afford one. But one step at a time. The Canon PowerShot A60 fills in rather nicely in the meantime.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 194
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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Epinions.com ID:
zan720
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Location: Alexandria, VA
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Engineer, sales associate
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