Powershot, the comeback kid (Canon Powershot A480)

Member Name: geek_squad

Product:	Canon Powershot A480
Date:	26/07/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasing aesthetic features

Disadvantages: Lacks the freedom of manual settings

The new and improved Canon Powershot A480, comes with a new and stylish look that is still packed with the qualities of its predecessors. When you use and feel the camera, you get a sense of good build quality and value for money. The elegant colours and silver accents give the camera a classy feel. Its buttons and controls are ergonomically placed and are sensitive, making it a wonder to use.

The camera is lighter and smaller than its predecessor. As an improvement the camera's lens does not stick out the body of the camera even after the camera is switched off, which means it is more compact and you will not need to worry about the lens being easily damaged whilst carrying it.

Furthermore, the lens goes almost straight into the body, which undoubtedly makes the camera look more aesthetically pleasing.

When you start to get use to the camera, you get the feeling that quite a substantial amount of research and development has been performed, because the previous flaws were worked upon.

The menu structure is even easier to use, and there is even the implementation of new features, such as the special playback button which kind of feels like a revolutionary function but it does make using the camera quite pleasant. Upon activating this feature, the camera immediately turns off and switches on again in playback mode, which makes it easy to view photos.

The camera's lens has a zoom range of 37mm to 122 mm which is quite decent for a camera of this size. It also has a higher resolution of 10 megapixel which is sufficient for printing photos in large formats. The auto focus feature of the camera is quite fast at processing and is able to focus quickly and be able to capture reasonable quality photos.

There is also a handy feature of face detection which helps the camera to recognise faces in an image and automatically change the exposure and focus to suite the particular shooting condition.

In total there are 15 individual scene modes that you can use, which cover a wide range of typical shooting conditions. Upon choosing this, the camera will automatically change the settings to try to achieve the best ones suited for the selected mode.

However, the LCD display screen does not excel in bright sunlight, because there is a noticeable glare which can be strong if the sunlight if intense enough.

The camera has a range of ISO settings from 80 to 1600, this is quite a wide range which can be adapted to suit most shooting conditions. Although the camera does not come with rechargeable batteries, but it does supply 2 AA batteries.

This is another feature of the camera which some might find attractive, which is not needing to constantly charge the batteries before using the camera, since these batteries are standard and can be purchased from any high street store or shops.

Summary: This is quite a decent camera considering its functions and improved design,especially for its price

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