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Canon PowerShot A70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Canon PowerShot A70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $399.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Solid, no-nonsense, easy-to-use camera
Review: The Canon A70 Powershot is my first digital camera. Before this one, I owned a Canon EOS 35mm and spent hundreds of dollars a year on printing photos. However, I wanted to save on photo printing fees, share photos with friends and family over the web, and still enjoy the features that used for years on my EOS. I wanted to take photos in night and dim light situations as well as daytime and wide scenery, and enjoy the creative expression I had with the EOS. Going digital with the Canon Powershot was the most sensible move I could have made.

Things I like about this camera:
- the 3 megapixel resolution allows printing of very clean, clear photos on glossy paper;
- colors are natural-looking, vivid and realistic
- the ISO setting of up to 400 makes it easy to take photos without flash
- CompactFlash cards are cheaper than the other alternatives on the market
- the software included allows easy transfer of photos via USB
- power-up time is minimal
- the camera is a comfortable weight, and feels like a more expensive camera to the touch
- battery life (when using standard rechargeable Ni-MH AA batteries) is more than satisfactory for the casual photographer (I take maybe 50 photos a week, most without flash but with the LCD on, and only have to recharge once a month or so)
- photos taken using digital zoom, while looking grainy on the LCD, end up with surprisingly crisp clarity overall

Things I dislike:
- no 800x600 resolution setting (sometimes 640x480 seems too small and 1024x768 too large for photos shared over the web or used in PowerPoint slide shows)
- inept redeye settings (it never seemed to work too well for me - is there something I'm missing?);
- photos taken in sepia seem a tad yellowish for my taste (possibly a problem that could be adjusted in printing)
- the meager selection of LCD display background and sounds
- camera cannot read or display photos from a CF card that have been edited and resaved in a separate PC application (the LCD just shows a question mark)
- slightly flimsy focus knob/level (I would have preferred a bit more solid feel)
- removing the CF card requires a bit of a trick to get the lid off (it's fine once you get used to it, however)
- focus cannot be adjusted while recording video, and the sound quality of the built-in speaker is comparable to a cheap child's toy
- some purple stripes appear on the LCD in certain lighting conditions during shooting (these do not appear in the final photo, however)

All this said, for the main reasons why I bought this camera, I haven't regretted the purchase. (But for sharing photos over the web, the single most aggravating point is the lack of a 800x600 photo resolution setting! Alas, that is what Photoshop is for...) The camera is simple enough to use, feels sturdy, takes photos that are of excellent quality, and the benefits of this camera far outweigh the disadvantages IMO. Although I'm no expert photographer, I feel like I have purchased a product that will satisfy my basic needs and my creative needs for years to come.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great deal on a very solid digicam.
Review: After all the years and all the digicams I've owned, borrowed and/or tested, I've come to believe that the Canons are the most reliable of the lot. While the "A Series" may be Canon's entry level lineup, they may also be their very best value. They are well built and sturdy enough, not too large to carry easily in a purse (and in fact a bit easier to grip than are the Elph models, therefore making them easier to hold steady), and they offer enough adjustable features for 99% of the digital photo takers whom I know. Happily, the A70 will also function nicely in the automatic mode for folks who just want to point and shoot.
The combination of an optical 3X zoom plus a 3 megapixel resolution is truly ideal, a place where I think most users will find their "sweet spot" in digicams. The 3X (true) optical zoom is powerful enough to make itself useful in many non-portrait settings (sightseeing, sports, etc.) and the 3 megapixel resolution is more than adequate for computer viewing and storage, emailing, website posting and for printing crystal clear enlargements up to 11" x 14". Of course, the A70 offers all the expected niceties, such as easy connectability to your PC, good battery options (including disposables and rechargeables) and an almost infinitely expandable memory. Then there is the price; certainly the A70 is competitive with all other 3X/3Meg cams. This is a good enough digicam that hardly anyone who gets one will likely be the least bit disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: photos from jersey
Review: i want to buy a canon digital camera but having difficulty
arrangeing shipment to jersey uk can you help?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Features, Quality & Great Price
Review: I am very pleased with this camera. The image quality is vivid, even when enlarged. The 3x optical zoom is a must. The LCD screen is clear and bright. I found the move-capture feature worked well, and playback was easy. Overall I am impressed with this camera. Only drawback is the somewhat cryptic LCD menu system, but even it's not that bad.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Digital Camera #3
Review: + all the features I wanted and then some
+ easy to use point and shoot mode but other features to play with
+ a generation ahead of my last digital
+ burst mode is great for capturing a baby on the move
- I'm getting more blurry pictures than with my old Kodak
- the camera can turn off with the lens open if it runs out
of batteries and each time I never saw any warning that I
was running low

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Canon A-70 Great Camera
Review: My Second Digital Camera, I just love it.I am not a professional but the pictures I take with this camera makes me look like a like a professional. The pictures I take are very sharp and no adjustments are needed when you download the pictures,unless you feel you have too. It's very easy to operate,just leave on AUTO if you want too,the batteries last a very long time,(keep a spair set)there is no battery use indication.Just a warning to change the batteries.I discover more and more operating features all the time. You just can't beat this camera. It's small,well balanced ,feels confortable also.Check this baby out! My last camera cost [a lot], but when I downloaded the picture's,I had to adjust every picture to make a decent print.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Happy user
Review: I've had this camera for about a month and I must say it has not dissapointed. If you are comparing costs though, I would include at least a couple of items you may find necessary. A set of rechargables and a higher capacity CF card. I have found the 3.2 MP number to be very acceptable even when printing larger formats. What this means is that when printing a full size 8.5X11 page, you'll get the same quality from this camera as a 5 Megapixel. The higher megapixels will only help if you are thinking of printing poster sizes. One thing I have not liked is the response time when taking pictures. If you really like to take action photos, this camera may not do the trick. When you snap a picture, you have to allow .5-1 sec for it to autofocus. I think you can get around this by disabling some of the auto-functions, but you need practice to get those shots right.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great controls, alright photos
Review: This camera offers all the manual controls you need, plus several preset shooting modes to simplify life, at a very cheap price!. Because it uses 4 AA batteries instead of specialty expensive lithion-ion batteries, you can shop around for the cheapest recharble nimh's. Also because it uses the Compact Flash card, these cards are readily the cheapest out there, and availble in large sizes, plus any multi card reader usually has the compact flash, because it's the most used card in electronics. the camera itself is a bit bigger then u'd assume, but can fit funnily in most kahki pants pockets- jean wearers beware if u wear semi fit to tight jeans.

The photos this camera takes can be quite exellent, although as with all digital photos, extra sharpening is advised(around 80%-100% i'v found is adequate). Also purple fringing is very noticible in shorts with high contrast in light levels.. such as fireworks. Colors are perfect matches, while it may seem like those kodak cameras can take better looking photos, it is because kodak uses a special algorithm to make the colors more saturated and whatnot, in other words, kodak manipulates the colors of images so they look better then real-life, whearas canon photos are 100% exact color matches nearly all the time. ISO 50 to 400 are available , but once again i advise not to use higher then iso100 because images become significantly noisey with extreme film grain visibility.. "iso" is the light sensitivity of the camera to take brighter pics in lower light levels, but at the cost of grain and noise(grain and noise are pixels of unnaturual colors within the photograph, that cause the photo to look very "digitally processed).

The camera comes with a new digic proccessor which speeds up the focosing tremendously, and allows for faster operations in general.. for example the time it takes to turn the camera on is about 2-3 seconds, and the time the camera actually takes the picture after u press the shutter release button is unnoticeable. with about 2 seconds between single shot images, but u can also use drive mode, where u hold the shutter button and it can take about 10 pics at 2pictures per second. then u need to wait 6-10 seconds for the images to write to the memory card.

The camera now has 5 focusing areas within the image, and the camera chooses the best ones to focus with, this may be quicker and easier some of the time, preferably i turn this off and just use the center box to focus so that i know what the camera will focus on myself.

the ability to manually focus is very helpful, because u can set the focus to infinity for fireworks or landscapes without relying on the "landscape" preset mode, also it allows you to prefocus on a spot so u can take photos quicker for fast action events.

Almost forgot a big detail-movie mode. this camera offers VGA resolutions of 640 by 480 pixels, at 15 frames per second. you can take up to 30seconds of video at a time with this resolution, or u can use lower resolutions for 3 minute video clips at a time. personally i love this! i always use the larger resolution and end up filling my camera with more movie clips then photos at parties or special events! the files are saved as .avi extentions and can be played using most all movie players such as windows media player. Also if u have windows xp, and have downloaded the windows movie maker 2, you can use this clips to make a pretty darn good short film to help you remember those special and fun events in life!

This camera is a great find, and buy for the manual, preset, and auto modes it provides along with canon's reputable brand name(canon by the way makes all the parts to their camera's themselves, in other words, canon owns all facilities used to make their cameras). The photos this camera takes are great and may be printed without any need to enhance the images afterwords.. but it's advised to use an autoimage correction, and some sharpening and see if the picture looks beter afterwords. And if the pictures u take look a little, dull in the colors, just use the "vivid" setting and make ur colors stick out more!

***recommendations:
You need to buy at least 1 or 2 4 packs of AA rechargable Nimh batteries, with a charger.
You'll want to buy a case of some sort for this camera,
Buy a Compact Flash card! this is very serious! i would recommend transcend 32x cards or lexmark 32x and up cards. i use a 256mb card, and still find it's not enough space for all the video clips and photos i take!
Take the time to buy a compact flash card reader for your computer while your at it, this allows faster write speeds from the card to your computer, and does not drain your camera's batteries.
Invest in a microfiber cloth to clean your lense, if someone touches the lense(whenever i let someone hold my camera they end up pressing on the lense without knowing it, because they are used to larger film cameras!). DO NOT USE GLASS CLEANER ON THE LENSE, OR AN ORDINARY CLOTH, glass cleaning solvent contains chemicals that can harm and damage the lense special chemical coatings, and an ordinary cloth scratches the lense even if u cant see the scratches by looking into the lense. personally i find just buying a microfiber cloth and using ur breath's moisture enough to clean the lense, without needing to buy a special lense cleaning solvent.
u may want to look at the sony dsc-p8 or p-72, the kodak dx6340, minolta dimage s404, or olympus d-560 zoom.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not a Leica (or even a mini-G3) but
Review: a smartly-designed, efficient, versatile, and reasonably precise tool that can be carried inconspicuously almost anywhere and used well by almost anyone. The viewfinder has a nice high eyepoint (great if you wear glasses, and far better than most competitors' designs) but it shows only about 4/5 of the picture area that the sensor records and it is also unusually susceptible to variable angular distortions; the LCD display is needed for accurate framing. The zoom lens is nice, linear, and sharp at some apertures and focal lengths, but it shows obvious flare, chromatic and linear aberration, and field curvature at others. These "faults" are perfectly acceptable in a digital camera of this price, though, and can have a curiously pleasing effect on portraits. In all, the A70 is a neat little camera.

ps: The perfect case for camera, extra card, and two spare sets of batteries (one set in the bottom of the case, one in the case's special pocket) is the Lowepro D-res 20. The D-res 10 is just a bit too small for the second spare battery set. The common, very light weight, relatively inexpensive Duracell Dynacharge model CEF 12N smart charger is also nearly perfect for automatically maintaining sets of NiMH AAs or AAAs equally charged and conditioned, and it will work between 100 and 240 volts AC without a voltage adapter!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Manufacturer Quality Control is very bad
Review: After reading some other reviews before me, I guess that the Quality control at Canon (Malasia) is very bad. Most of our friends who rated 1 star seem to have similar QC complaints.

[For the cost], A70 clearly has best features than any other 3 MP DC in the market. Also, professional reviews have been the best for this camera.

I got mine after a long wait and I started learning the operation of the camera. I even took a few snaps of my Kitchen (photo had lot of shades, they were just experimental shots though).

Next day when I switched the camera on, nothing shows up in the LCD except for some default menus. This happened in both shoot as well as play modes. I spent about 4 hours reading the manual to get it right but had no luck.

I just returned it and order a new one. Lets hope this one works.


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