Warning! Warning! Over sized Powershot (Canon Powershot A470)

Member Name: geek_squad

Product:	Canon Powershot A470
Date:	26/07/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good battery stamina, fast processing delays, quite compact

Disadvantages: Display screen is not ideal for use in bright conditions

Upon first glance of the Canon Power Shot A470, quite a few people will draw the line and just rule out any possibility of getting it as a camera. Which is understandable to a certain degree, because the camera is somewhat of an eye catcher due to its chunky and almost odd colour scheme.

The shape of the camera itself is easy to grip and use, it is ergonomically designed in terms of ease of use, however the finish is does not do the camera any justice. Some people might find the camera's finish similar to those found on generic products, which is important to some people.

The camera does not have any build in memory capacity, however a 32 megabyte memory card is included. Non rechargeable alkaline batteries are provided with the camera, but you will need to purchase either NI-CD or NI-MH rechargeable batteries separate if you wish to use them.

You would also want to choose a nickel-metal hydride cell rechargeable battery with a higher nimh if you are a heavy user. On the other hand, it is also fine to use disposable batteries if you don't like charging them. When using both rechargeable and non rechargeable batteries, the battery stamina of the camera was quite good providing quite a high number of shots because needing to be replaced.

The Macro mode is quite impressive for a camera of this size, with clear details and sharpness. In total there are 5 white balance modes settings, which can be used to fine tune how the colour of the photos captured would appear under a range of lighting conditions.

When taking photos with flash it is almost unavoidable that the colour accuracy will be a bit inaccurate if the photo was taken in daylight. Therefore the white balance setting is a useful tool to try to correct this issue, especially if you don't plan on spending time on it afterwards using an image editing software.

The camera has a 7.1 megapixel resolution, which is higher than the average but considerably lower than the higher ones. The camera has a 38mm to 132mm zoom range which is adequate for most regular photographs.

There are 6 different ISO settings ranging from 80 to 1600 which allows you to change it dependent on the shooting conditions. For those that prefer auto/default settings but still want to get the perfect shot, there are 10 individual scenes modes which can be used to almost instantly optimize the camera for most shots.

There is a 0.5 second delay of capturing the photo once you press the shuttle button, the camera is capable of taking a photo every one and a half seconds until either the battery runs out or the memory card becomes full, whichever occurs first.

The display screen is reasonably good, however you do get a slight reflection when using the camera in bright conditions, which means it is a bit annoying to use. It takes the camera 2.3 seconds to turn on, which means you can keep the camera off and still be confident that it will be ready in time.

Summary: This is a good choice for a beginner, or for those that only take photos once in a blue moon

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