Canon PowerShot A470
For these past few years, I have been relying on a rather rudimentary Argus 3185 digital camera, which, to give all due respect to it, was not necessarily a bad camera considering it cost $50 when new and now retails for $20 on Amazon. But its fixed lens, 3.2 MP and poor 1†screen was a disappointment, as was its 3 second shutter lag. But I’ve taken hundreds of photographs with it and have almost always completely drained the 3 AAA cells required to power it – after approximately every 200 shots (no flash), with decent pictures under the sun and horrible otherwise.
But the time arrived when I simply had the money to purchase a new camera. Actually I had saved enough to buy something for Rs. 6000, and a camera became an obvious choice. So, the hunt began. The first and perhaps the only port of call for me to scour out electronic deals is over the internet – and only those sites which update their prices often and make sure that their claims of a discount are on the real price and not the marked price, which may have come down significantly. It’s a great trick employed by some sites to make you feel that you are getting 50% off when in reality it’s less than 5%.
I chose BSbazaar.com – it’s a venture of those guys who run the Business Standard newspaper, and I usually head there to get pricing information on products – and was attracted immediately to the Olympus FE 310 camera which has 8 MP and 5x zoom which was listed for Rs. 5600. No other camera in that price range offered as much in terms of sheer specs.
Having decided on the camera – well actually this was my major error that was averted in the nick of time – I began referring to online reviews of the model. Sample pictures taken by reviewers shows a decent colour reproduction, a very good zoom and a decent sharpness in the pictures, though the edges tend to get slightly blurred. But what these reviewers hadn’t mentioned – and which I chanced upon only when I saw the user reviews on Amazon – is that the camera had a major battery problem. Most people could take only about 10 shots on an AA Panasonic Industrial alkaline set, and the FE 310 would not take a rechargeable AA due to some voltage issues!
So out went the FE 310 and the search continued until I rested on the Canon PowerShot A470. The FE 310 had taught me not to trust a product on the basis of the brand alone, and the lesson learnt was utilised to do a thorough search of all possible reviews of the product and comparable products. Reviewers will always put in actual test photographs in their reviews and comparing them – a set of same photographs taken by different camera makes under similar lighting conditions – gives a very good indication of how good a camera is.
I purchased the camera online for Rs. 6474 (all inclusive) and the price included the camera, 2 AA Panasonic Industrial Alkaline cells, a 1 GB Kingston card, a bag, 2 AA Nimh Kodak 2100 rechargeable cells and a battery charger. The same set costs Rs 6900 in Nehru Place (New Delhi), but you get a better bag. (I would have to pay 2% surcharge to buy it from a shop; no such surcharge when I’m buying online).
The A470 is basically a tuned version of its previous model. It’s a development over the A460 which was also a brilliant camera. Introduced in February 2008 and on the shelves beginning March 2008, the A470 is a relatively recent entrant. The camera is bulky by standards but it more than compensates by taking stunning pictures – sharp and bright. Reviewers have been saying that the picture quality is favourably comparable to camera a step more expensive, which is a good thing. The 3.4x zoom is almost standard spec, but for the most part, it’s not enough, at least for me.
You may have noticed that the FE 310 and the A470 both come with AA batteries! That seems to be the new development which manufacturers have been bragging about. AA cells mean that in case you run out of them, you can easily purchase them at the corner shop. Though if you had Zn-Cl cells in mind, please chuck that out and get an alkaline – ie. at least an alkaline.
I’m using the Kodak 2100 Mah batteries and the response is good as long as you don’t leave the batteries in the camera for days. I have a feeling that this way they tend to drain away a lot quicker. The manual claims a 400-shot life for the cells, but in reality, it’s not even 200!!!! I guess I really need to keep the cells out of the camera when I’m not using it.
The camera has no viewfinder and you don’t need one either. The 2.5†LCD screen is more than enough – even in bright sunlight, despite claims made against it. The best thing about the camera is that it gives a lot of manual control to the user. I almost never use the camera on Auto mode. The Manual and the Scene modes are the best. There you can change almost everything except the focus, though you do have Macro, Super Macro, Normal, and Infinity focus settings – more than enough for me! BTW, I’ve even taken shots at 15 second shutter speed. Lovely! But I’m trying the 1/2000 second (got up to 1/600 till date).
And I must add – I love the lens this camera’s got. The reason is that for most of the time, I get sharp images that are sharp throughout. Some actually surprise me! The down side is that this camera can also take some terrible shots! Face recognition is not an issue, but if a picture is being taken in low light, then the result will be a blurred image – the camera does not have image stabilisation. This has to be the greatest pissing-off point for me with this camera. I don’t use flash unless forced to, and I need image stabilisation.
On the materials front, the camera feels very sturdy and the buttons carefully designed. But not very carefully positioned – I end up triggering the zoom whenever I’m not careful while taking pictures. But it’s a habit which can be mended. I like the pictures – especially since they are sharp at the edges even, a feat not achieved by most cameras in this price range, including the FE 310.
Honestly I’m surprised at just how good this camera is, and thankful that I didn’t fall for the Olympus FE 310. Guys, a word of advice here – always read what actual users have to say about products and not just reviewers who get to spend little time with individual models. I haven’t yet checked out the video mode – yes this camera has one – so I’m not going to comment on it here. If you are in the market for a camera for under Rs. 7000 you can’t go wrong with the Canon PowerShot A470.
Sample Images (Images are cropped portions of larger images/ Click on the link/ File size s 2.94 MB): RapidShare: Easy Filehosting
Picture_01 – Utensils: Take a close look at the fine lines on the utensils that are a result of daily scrubbing. The camera has actually got that in such sharpness!
Picture_02 – That’s my dining room. Look at the colours, and this one is in Auto mode!
Picture_03 – Look at the sharpness of the flower at Macro mode.
Picture_04 – I never noticed there were these ‘squares’ on my laptop screen!
Some things to note:
1. Use the Auto mode only when you are not sure of yourself. At all other times use the manual mode. If I’m clicking a picture with lots of colours – like plants, or even nature in general, or something I would like to have in more vibrant colours – I choose the Scene Mode and then choose the Foliage mode.
2. The best zoom for the camera is halfway, but the camera can perform very well even at full zoom and at no zoom. Be careful about full zoom – sometime you might have issues with picture blurring. (I might get a tripod one of these days. The no-image stabilisation thing is a pain).
3. Don’t always expect top-notch pictures with the A470 – it all depends on how well you click
so don’t blame the camera.
4. Remember that some pictures at the superfine mode and take up as much as 8 MB of space!
5. Use super macro mode – you can shoot from a distance of only 1 cm from the object – for clicking insects. I do that .
6. Keep using flash, and the battery will go south in no time. But the flash in the A470 is very powerful and illuminates the object very properly, but takes away the warm glow.
7. The manual provided with the camera is a starter’s guide only and is not adequate. You can download the full Pdf guide from RapidShare: Easy Filehosting which is far more detailed and useful.
8. CCD is better than CMOS sensors! (I corrected this)
Hope this was helpful. Cheers
For these past few years, I have been relying on a rather rudimentary Argus 3185 digital camera, which, to give all due respect to it, was not necessarily a bad camera considering it cost $50 when new and now retails for $20 on Amazon. But its fixed lens, 3.2 MP and poor 1†screen was a disappointment, as was its 3 second shutter lag. But I’ve taken hundreds of photographs with it and have almost always completely drained the 3 AAA cells required to power it – after approximately every 200 shots (no flash), with decent pictures under the sun and horrible otherwise.
But the time arrived when I simply had the money to purchase a new camera. Actually I had saved enough to buy something for Rs. 6000, and a camera became an obvious choice. So, the hunt began. The first and perhaps the only port of call for me to scour out electronic deals is over the internet – and only those sites which update their prices often and make sure that their claims of a discount are on the real price and not the marked price, which may have come down significantly. It’s a great trick employed by some sites to make you feel that you are getting 50% off when in reality it’s less than 5%.
I chose BSbazaar.com – it’s a venture of those guys who run the Business Standard newspaper, and I usually head there to get pricing information on products – and was attracted immediately to the Olympus FE 310 camera which has 8 MP and 5x zoom which was listed for Rs. 5600. No other camera in that price range offered as much in terms of sheer specs.
Having decided on the camera – well actually this was my major error that was averted in the nick of time – I began referring to online reviews of the model. Sample pictures taken by reviewers shows a decent colour reproduction, a very good zoom and a decent sharpness in the pictures, though the edges tend to get slightly blurred. But what these reviewers hadn’t mentioned – and which I chanced upon only when I saw the user reviews on Amazon – is that the camera had a major battery problem. Most people could take only about 10 shots on an AA Panasonic Industrial alkaline set, and the FE 310 would not take a rechargeable AA due to some voltage issues!
So out went the FE 310 and the search continued until I rested on the Canon PowerShot A470. The FE 310 had taught me not to trust a product on the basis of the brand alone, and the lesson learnt was utilised to do a thorough search of all possible reviews of the product and comparable products. Reviewers will always put in actual test photographs in their reviews and comparing them – a set of same photographs taken by different camera makes under similar lighting conditions – gives a very good indication of how good a camera is.
I purchased the camera online for Rs. 6474 (all inclusive) and the price included the camera, 2 AA Panasonic Industrial Alkaline cells, a 1 GB Kingston card, a bag, 2 AA Nimh Kodak 2100 rechargeable cells and a battery charger. The same set costs Rs 6900 in Nehru Place (New Delhi), but you get a better bag. (I would have to pay 2% surcharge to buy it from a shop; no such surcharge when I’m buying online).
The A470 is basically a tuned version of its previous model. It’s a development over the A460 which was also a brilliant camera. Introduced in February 2008 and on the shelves beginning March 2008, the A470 is a relatively recent entrant. The camera is bulky by standards but it more than compensates by taking stunning pictures – sharp and bright. Reviewers have been saying that the picture quality is favourably comparable to camera a step more expensive, which is a good thing. The 3.4x zoom is almost standard spec, but for the most part, it’s not enough, at least for me.
You may have noticed that the FE 310 and the A470 both come with AA batteries! That seems to be the new development which manufacturers have been bragging about. AA cells mean that in case you run out of them, you can easily purchase them at the corner shop. Though if you had Zn-Cl cells in mind, please chuck that out and get an alkaline – ie. at least an alkaline.
I’m using the Kodak 2100 Mah batteries and the response is good as long as you don’t leave the batteries in the camera for days. I have a feeling that this way they tend to drain away a lot quicker. The manual claims a 400-shot life for the cells, but in reality, it’s not even 200!!!! I guess I really need to keep the cells out of the camera when I’m not using it.
The camera has no viewfinder and you don’t need one either. The 2.5†LCD screen is more than enough – even in bright sunlight, despite claims made against it. The best thing about the camera is that it gives a lot of manual control to the user. I almost never use the camera on Auto mode. The Manual and the Scene modes are the best. There you can change almost everything except the focus, though you do have Macro, Super Macro, Normal, and Infinity focus settings – more than enough for me! BTW, I’ve even taken shots at 15 second shutter speed. Lovely! But I’m trying the 1/2000 second (got up to 1/600 till date).
And I must add – I love the lens this camera’s got. The reason is that for most of the time, I get sharp images that are sharp throughout. Some actually surprise me! The down side is that this camera can also take some terrible shots! Face recognition is not an issue, but if a picture is being taken in low light, then the result will be a blurred image – the camera does not have image stabilisation. This has to be the greatest pissing-off point for me with this camera. I don’t use flash unless forced to, and I need image stabilisation.
On the materials front, the camera feels very sturdy and the buttons carefully designed. But not very carefully positioned – I end up triggering the zoom whenever I’m not careful while taking pictures. But it’s a habit which can be mended. I like the pictures – especially since they are sharp at the edges even, a feat not achieved by most cameras in this price range, including the FE 310.
Honestly I’m surprised at just how good this camera is, and thankful that I didn’t fall for the Olympus FE 310. Guys, a word of advice here – always read what actual users have to say about products and not just reviewers who get to spend little time with individual models. I haven’t yet checked out the video mode – yes this camera has one – so I’m not going to comment on it here. If you are in the market for a camera for under Rs. 7000 you can’t go wrong with the Canon PowerShot A470.
Sample Images (Images are cropped portions of larger images/ Click on the link/ File size s 2.94 MB): RapidShare: Easy Filehosting
Picture_01 – Utensils: Take a close look at the fine lines on the utensils that are a result of daily scrubbing. The camera has actually got that in such sharpness!
Picture_02 – That’s my dining room. Look at the colours, and this one is in Auto mode!
Picture_03 – Look at the sharpness of the flower at Macro mode.
Picture_04 – I never noticed there were these ‘squares’ on my laptop screen!
Some things to note:
1. Use the Auto mode only when you are not sure of yourself. At all other times use the manual mode. If I’m clicking a picture with lots of colours – like plants, or even nature in general, or something I would like to have in more vibrant colours – I choose the Scene Mode and then choose the Foliage mode.
2. The best zoom for the camera is halfway, but the camera can perform very well even at full zoom and at no zoom. Be careful about full zoom – sometime you might have issues with picture blurring. (I might get a tripod one of these days. The no-image stabilisation thing is a pain).
3. Don’t always expect top-notch pictures with the A470 – it all depends on how well you click
so don’t blame the camera.4. Remember that some pictures at the superfine mode and take up as much as 8 MB of space!
5. Use super macro mode – you can shoot from a distance of only 1 cm from the object – for clicking insects. I do that
. 6. Keep using flash, and the battery will go south in no time. But the flash in the A470 is very powerful and illuminates the object very properly, but takes away the warm glow.
7. The manual provided with the camera is a starter’s guide only and is not adequate. You can download the full Pdf guide from RapidShare: Easy Filehosting which is far more detailed and useful.
8. CCD is better than CMOS sensors! (I corrected this)
Hope this was helpful. Cheers
