Canon Powershot A470 (Canon Powershot A470)

Member Name: Celia00

Product:	Canon Powershot A470
Date:	05/08/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Takes great pictures even on low lighting, loads of scene selections, value for money,

Disadvantages: Had to mark it down on reliability since I dropped it and got damaged

Canon Powershot A470

7.1 megapixels camera, 3.4 x optical zoom, Face Detection, Red Eye Correction, Motion Detection Technology, ISO up to 1600, Special Scene Mode, 0.4'' Macro and Movie VGA.

What is included in the pack bought from Argos.

Camera,
Batteries x 2,
Memory Card 32MB SD Card,
interface cable IFC-400PCU,
AV Cable AVC-DC300,
Wrist Strap,
Canon Digital Camera Solution disk,
Canon Digital Camera Manuals Disk and
User Guides.

I like that the camera takes 2 x AA batteries as can always pack extra batteries in bag whenever I need to take it for longer shoots, i.e. week/weekend break. Handy to be able to change batteries in the middle of shooting pics when battery is drained, not like some cameras where you need to recharge and electricity may not be available.

The camera is good value for money as images are far superior that some cameras of similar types. I compare it to my other camera of near similar price and description Hitachi HDC-1061E. The Canon's 7 megapixels image quality is far superior to Hitachi's which is 10 megapixels, but Canon performs well especially in dark lighting due ability to select ISO up to 1600.

There are also good scene selections, I counted 9 different scenes you can select, have not tried them all out, with regards to scenes, I often used auto setting.

Easy to download images on to PC, have not used the CD Roms that came in the box but editing photos with picture editing software, i.e. Adobe Photoshop and Picasa is easy to do.

The user guides are easy to follow.

Playback is also easy. The buttons on the back of the camera are easy to navigate, Func set is also OK button.

The movie setting also looks good, sound for movie cannot be heard from the camera, but sound can be heard when device connected to TV or when file is downloaded to PC. The movie zoom setting can be adjusted during taking movie, but cannot zoom when viewing movie.

I have had this camera for over one year and have been satisfied with its performance, however, I had DROPPED it recently. Since then there is a blue line which shows near the middle of the camera LCD screen when taking and viewing pictures and when pictures are viewed on PC.

Not sure which part of the camera is damaged as no outward evidence of damage, just when pictures are viewed on camera LCD screen and on PC there is a blue line in the pictures and movies.

Cameras get damaged when they are dropped.

Am now thinking of buying Canon Powershot D10 (underwater camera), I like to stick with Canon.

Summary: Great point and shoot camera. It has features that could compete with best cameras of similar spec.

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