Canon PowerShot A470 Digital Camera

Pros: Price, optics, resolution, features, performance, build quality, 2.5" LCD
Cons: Slow flash recharge, no dedicated zoom control, noise

It is difficult to go wrong with any Canon camera. Since I liked the last year's 5-Megapixel Canon PowerShot A460, I got the latest 7.1-Megapixel Canon PowerShot A470 to see how much of an improvement it is. I bought it for only $115, which is $20 ...

Pros: Takes good photographs, (limited) video capabilities, mine came with a free printer.
Cons: Bulky, fragile parts, not very intuitive.

As I recall, the photographs that I took years ago with my old 2.2 mega pixel Kodak EasyShare DX3600 were of comparable quality to the ones that I took recently with my new Canon PowerShot A470 7.1 mega pixel (3.4 zoom) digital camera. This leads me to ...

Pros: Great image quality. Nice interface.
Cons: Fragile: the way the lens pops moves automatically is unreliable and breaks easily.

I purchased this camera on Sunday, June 8th. The second time I used it I started getting errors stating, "Lens error, restart camera." Now, 5 days have passed and the camera is completely useless. I can't even turn it on without getting the error message. There is nothing I can do to fix it. I did not drop the camera or anything to the effect.

While the camera takes excellent quality photos and is very user friendly, this message has really irked me and I would NOT recommend this camera to anyone.

Pros: Good picture quality.
Cons: Easy for the lens to scratch, and grain zoomed in pictures.

While the pictures from this camera were pretty decent, when you zoomed in, they became grainy.  I've been looking for a small compact camera, and recieved this one for our anniversary. 

If you don't have a case for this camera, be warned, the lens will scratch, as mine has and the pictures are not totally ruined, because it comes out blurred in the center of the pictures.   I put mine in my purse and my keys scratched the lens, while it's my fault I know, the lens cover never protected the camera itself.