• On GameSpot: Wii Fit tells 10-year-old she's fat
advertisement
camera on palm buttons bag
camera on palm buttons bag

Product summary

The goodThe good: 4x zoom lens; optical viewfinder.

The badThe bad: Very noisy images; awkward zoom rocker; no 30fps VGA movie mode.

The bottom lineThe bottom line: With heavy image noise and merely decent performance, there are better budget cameras available than the Canon PowerShot A460.

Specifications: Resolution: 5 megapixels; Optical zoom: 4 x; Display type: 2 in LCD display; See full specs

Price range: $94.22 - $95.95

CNET editors' review

  • Reviewed on: 02/14/2007
Budget cameras are everywhere these days. Plenty of snapshot cameras cost less than $200, and you can even find some for around $150. The Canon PowerShot A460 is in that second category of inexpensive shooters. This basic, 5-megapixel camera comes in at the very low end of Canon's PowerShot A-series of digital cameras. On paper, it looks like your average budget camera. Unfortunately, a lackluster design in addition to image-quality issues make it feel like Canon phoned this one in.

The chunky, brick-shaped A460 weighs 7.4 ounces with batteries and memory card, and at 1.6 inches thick, it's a bit too fat to fit in your jeans. The minimalist control layout consists of four buttons and a zoom rocker integrated into a menu-navigating joy pad. This is an irritating design, and large thumbs will be prone to accidentally bumping the zoom in or out, or changing settings such as flash when using the zoom.

As a budget shooter, the A460 fails to really stand out of the crowd. Its most notable aspect is its 38mm-to-152mm-equivalent 4x lens, slightly more powerful than the 3x lenses found on most snapshot cameras. Its 2-inch LCD, however, is just a bit smaller than the norm. Fortunately, the small screen leaves enough room for an optical viewfinder, offering greater flexibility when framing shots. Besides those features, the A460 has the standard compliment of scene modes and presets, though its movie mode is limited to either VGA resolution at 10 frames per second or QVGA (320x240) at 30fps. Most cameras have a 30fps VGA movie mode, making this a disappointing omission for users who want to shoot videos with their camera.

The Canon PowerShot A460's performance was acceptable, but not great. After the camera took 1.7-seconds to start up and capture its first image, we could take an additional photo every 1.5 seconds. With the flash enabled, however, that time quadrupled to a full 6 seconds between shots. Shutter lag was a decent 0.5 second in bright light, though it increased to 1.2 seconds in dim light. We shot 47 full-resolution images in 31 seconds for a rate of 1.5fps. This would be a decent score for a 6- or 7-megapixel camera, but we expected a bit faster rate for a mere 5-megapixel shooter.

For a camera with a maximum sensitivity of ISO 400, the A460's images were awfully noisy. We saw at least some grain on almost every test shot. Our ISO 100 test image looked like it was taken at ISO 200 on almost any other camera, our ISO 200 test image could have been taken at ISO 400, and our ISO 400 test image resembled one taken at ISO 800.

Continue reading
See more CNET content tagged:
Canon PowerShot,
Canon Inc.,
camera,
shot,
image

User reviews

Submit your review

Log in or create an account to submit your review for:

Canon PowerShot A460

1. Rate this product:
(Mouse over the stars to rate this product and click to set your rating.)
2. One-line summary:(Summarize your review in one line. 10 characters minimum; required.)
0 of 55 characters
3. Pros:(Tell us what you like about this product. 10 characters minimum; required.)
0 of 250 characters
4. Cons:(Tell us what you don't like about this product. 10 characters minimum; required.)
0 of 250 characters
Bottom-line summary:(Explain to us in detail why you like or dislike the product, focusing your comments on the product's features and functionality, and your experience using the product. This field is optional.)
0 of 5000 characters

The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks are prohibited.
Click here to review our site terms of use.

Submit

Where to buy

Canon PowerShot A460: $94.22 - $95.95
storepricein stock?rating
Refurb Depot
$95.95 Yes 3.5 star rating
Amazon.com
$94.22 Yes 5.0 star rating

see prices from 2 stores

Similar products

Where to buy Canon PowerShot A460

Price range: $94.22 - $95.95

Special sponsor stores

advertisement Special Sponsor Offer
advertisement
advertisement

Reviews from around the Web

  • photographypress.co.uk

    Editors' rating: 90

    Summary: The PowerShot A460 is an entry level digital compact with some neat and advanced features that make it look a cut above the run of the mill models filling the shop's shelves

    Read full review

  • pcworld.com

    Editors' rating: 83

    Summary: This bargain-priced camera offers a solid body, a 4X zoom, and exposure compensation; but some images looked noisy.

    Read full review

  • pcmag.com

    Editors' rating: 60

    Read full review

  • digitalcamerainfo.com

    Editors' rating: 86

    Read full review

  • pocket-lint.co.uk

    Editors' rating: 80

    Summary: The Canon PowerShot A460 brings a few much needed tweaks to the bottom range of Canon's digital compact "A" range

    Read full review

powered by alaTest

Before you buy
Digital camera finder
Editors' top digital cameras
Digital camera buying guide
Digital SLR buying guide
See all digital camera reviews
sponsored
advertisement
Click Here