A2000 - one of the best compact digital cameras around! (Canon Powershot A2000 IS)

Member Name: TheHenDog

Product:	Canon Powershot A2000 IS
Date:	07/09/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great picture quality, superb optical zoom

Disadvantages: Bit ugly, limited ability to manually fine tune photos

I bought my Canon Powershot A2000 IS in January of this year, as I wanted a decent quality digital camera before my trip to Rome in February. Canon is a name synonymous with quality when it comes to cameras, and the A2000 doesn't disappoint!

Cons

Firstly let's get the negatives out the way. I've heard several grumbles that the A2000 isn't the best looking digital camera, and I have to agree. It has a fairly dull grey and dark blue colour scheme and has a more plastic feel than other Canon models (the IXUS range for example). Also, some people will also always complain that it's inconvenient that the camera takes 2 x AA batteries rather than a rechargeable Li-ion battery (which comes as standard with many digital cameras). This works fine for me however as i'm terrible at remembering to charge things so I always carry some spare AA batteries and I know that at vital times (weddings etc) the camera won't die on me! I have to also agree with some of the other reviewers on here that the manual settings are a little limited on this camers, meaning basically that you have to stick to the 13 or so shooting modes the camera has (although all these work well as stated below.

Pros

The auto shooting mode is idiot proof (really is as simple as point and click) and yields high quality/sharp results. The other settings (e.g. kids and pets/landscape/fireworks) all do exactly what they say on the tin and produce high quality images. The image stabilization funtion on the camera also means that you won't get any ghost-like blurs in your pictures.

The 6 x optical zoom on this camera is fantastic. Don't go beyond it though as then the digital zoom kick in leaving images grainy. This however is the case with most digital cameras, so don't let that put you off. The camera also has a high maximum ISO setting which you can change accordingly to the lighting conditions that you're working with. Face-detection also works well. One other important note, the video setting is great and the camera has a decent quality built in microphone for picking up sound.

In short, the picture quality you get from this camera is superior to the vast majority of digital cameras out there, and works well as a stop gap between a compact digital camera and a full blown DSLR. A great little camera which is a bit of an ugly ducking but delivers on picture quality.

Summary: Great quality camera....the step between a compact and a DSLR!

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