Drop, charge, and lose the cords
- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 14 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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19 out of 19 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great camera with two quirks"
Pros: Great picture quality; intuitive menu; large LCD; good zoom; takes filters
Cons: LCD washes out in bright light; "average white balance" results in blue colors in cloudy weather; dinky viewfinder
Summary: I'm a "serious" medium and large format black-and-white photographer and writer. I wasn't looking for a digital SLR, but was looking to "modernize" from my Olympus C-4000 for general snapshooting etc. I was looking for a relatively compact camera with truly great image quality; at least 6MP; at least 2.5 in. LCD; decent zoom; at a relatively low price. The Canon SD series was too expensive, plus I didn't like the feel of those very small cameras. After a lot of research, I'm picked the A700. I'm very happy with it, but it does have two "quirks", as I'll call them.
The first was covered in the CNET review: The LCD "washes out" in bright light. Comparing it with my Olympus, it simply appears to be that they've set it brighter than some other LCDs. I can live with it because of everything else I like so much about this camera.
The second "quirk" is maybe common to many digital cameras, but it wasn't much of an issue with my Olympus: You REALLY need to use the "cloudy weather" white balance in cloudy weather: Using just "average white balance", there is a strong shift towards cooler, even blue, colors.
Neither of these "quirks" dissuade me from this camera. The menu not only has a lot of choices, but is very easy to use and intuitive. The image quality is great. I own more cameras than you want to know about, and with every camera I've ever tried, I knew within 1/2 hour (or less) whether I would like using it, whether it was "sympatico" with me. This one is. And to boot, the price is great.
One last "ding", and one additional nice feature:
The viewfinder is very dinky. This doesn't bother me, as I've come to use the LCD almost exclusively. The framing is precise, I can see the exposure effects of slightly different metering placements, and I can see the effect of filters, which leads to the last point:
It is one of the few "point and shoots" that takes an adaptor for filters. The adaptor is $25 (though you'll sometimes see it for more because it is somewhat of a "rare" accessory), and allows you to use 58mm filters. I like to use a polarizing filter at times; plus you can use an infared filter for digital infared, as they have not "blocked" infared sensitivity, as some digital cameras have. The way you tell is to turn on the camera with the LCD on, look at the LCD, point your TV remote control at the lens and press the on button. If you see the light your camera can record infared. The Hoya "72" filter is about $49 for a 58mm, not cheap, but much less than the series of infared filters that you can pay $100 for.
One thing I've learned over many years is that no camera is perfect; but this has so many great features and qualities that it is one of the best cameras for its purpose I've bought.
My apologies for these long comments, but I hope folks find them helpful and informative.Updated
Yet another really great aspect: This camera has almost NO shutter lag if you've pre-focused. Combined with the 6x zoom, this is actually a pretty neat action camera.
Last week we were on vacation at a tennis resort. Two world-class stars were playing right there on the end court. Standing there, using ASA 400 and full zoom, I was able to get some amazing shots. A friend who was shooting some publicity shots was very impressed with what this "point and shoot" is capable of!Updated
Yet another really great aspect: This camera has almost NO shutter lag if you've pre-focused. Combined with the 6x zoom, this is actually a pretty neat action camera.
Last week we were on vacation at a tennis resort. Two world-class stars were playing right there on the end court. Standing there, using ASA 400 and full zoom, I was able to get some amazing shots. A friend who was shooting some publicity shots was very impressed with what this "point and shoot" is capable of!Updated
As an addendum to my earlier comments, this is a great "action" camera, for a point-and-shoot, although you must use a higher ASA, as there is no image stabilization. With its 6X zoom and negligible shutter lag, it allowed me to get some great shots of some pro tennis players recently. Another quality I really like about this camera.Updated
In my recent addendum, I mentioned the negligible shutter lag. I should have pointed out that this is true when you pre-focus. But until recently, point-and-shoot digital cameras had longer shutter lags even when you had pre-focused (and some may still have that problem.) After you pre-focus with the A700, the shutter lag, as I've said, is negligible.
Where to buy
Canon PowerShot A700:
$399.67
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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