Canon PowerShot A310

[kombolcha]

My dad had emailed saying he wanted a digital camera and the budget was $200. my first hit was BestBuy and i looked at a sony camera and returned it the next day! then after looking at a few more cameras like a fuji, sony, and kodac i found the cannon. What i noticed about these low budget cameras is that they all lack one big feature. Sometimes they are loaded with features but do very poorly in image quality and vice versa. What i needed was a good quality camera with the features i wanted and a good image quality to go with it. I have found the camera for it.

I picked up the Cannon becuase at first glance it looked good compared to the fat kodaks and platic looking olympus cameras. It is just the right size and easy on your hands, you don't have to deform your fingers trying to press a button while taking a picture. the menu is easy to figure out if you havn't read the manual and has a few little "hidden" features. So far i've uncovered one which is when you want to go back to taking pictures from any mode (reviewing pictures) just pull the front sliding cover back a little and it'll switch.

Price:

$170, i should have checked newegg because they're selling it for $150

Included in the box:

32MB CompactFlash card

Manuals and warrenty/registration form

Double AA batteries (non-recharchable)

Cannon Software (i'm not going to install their software, so no review for this!) but here's a briefe description anyway.

Software supplied includes browsing and printing software ZoomBrowser EX (Windows) and ImageBrowser (Mac). Other software includes PhotoStitch, plus photo and movie manipulation software ArcSoft PhotoStudio and VideoImpression. Drivers include TWAIN (Windows 98/2000) and WIA (Windows Me). Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) support allows the camera to connect to any Windows XP and Mac OS X

Features:

Processor:

Canon DIGIC

Monitor:

1.5" TFT LCD

78,000 pixels

File Format:

JPEG

AVI

resolution sizes are:

640x480

1024x768

1600x1200

2048x1536

Quality Levels:

Super fine

Fine

Normal

Shooting Modes:

Auto

Manual

Stitch Assist

Movie

Video Clips:

640 x 480, max 30 sec

320 x 240, max 3 mins

With audio

White Balance:

Auto

Daylight

Cloudy

Tungsten

Fluorescent

Fluorescent H

Custom

Flash:

Built-in

Modes: Auto, Manual On or Off

Red-Eye reduction. On or Off

Storage:

Compact Flash Type I

Supports cards over 2 GB

Self timer (10 seconds or 2 seconds)

AF-assist beam

Digital Zoom (no optical zoom, but who cares)

Languages:

English

Deutsch

Francais

Nederlands

Dansk

Suomi

Italiano

Norsk

Svenska

Espanol

and i think it's japanesse/chinesse, koarean ? i can't tell, but there's two of them.

camera also has 3 different themes :blink: why? i don't know :laugh:

3.2 Mega Pixels

5.1x Digital Zoom

print/share button

PictBridge (compatible with pictbridge printers)

Weight:

6oz.

I like this camera a lot, i bought it for $170 and added $20 to buy 4 re-charchable batteries with the charger and a 128MB card for $45. As i had written in the begining the problem with finding a good camera at this price ($200) was that some lack the features i want or they have the features but the interface is too hard or the image quality is bad. This camera is good both in image quality and its features, i don't know if this works for everyone, but it works for me. I like this camera.

Edit:

I was playing with the camera again and i noticed something, whenever i take a picture, just before i press on the button it adjusts the focus and puts up a small green square where the center of focus is going to be, well what i noticed is that, if it is a green box, your picture will come out perfect, if it is an yellow/orange/red box that means the picture will come out blurry. basically the more red the box the more blurry the image.

I also uploaded two videos, one in color and another in black and white. here it is.

color (save target as) (10 seconds) 2.7MB

black and white (save target as) (7 seconds) 1.22MB

here's an example of a picture (1024 resolution in superfine mode)

Edited May 25, 2004 by Vice King

[Storm]

I have the powershot A300, whats the difference?

[kombolcha]

i didn't look hard, but from the picture the difference i see is that my (310) has the Print Share button

[AJerman]

Hmm.. That looks like a nice camera for the price. I need to get a camera, and I don't want to spend a lot (college). Now that you have had it for a while, is it what you would get again? I don't really care about features, dont need video, just want something that takes high quality pictures that look good, and isn't too picky about lighting and all that. My webcam doubles as a (crappy) camera, but it's only 640x480, and it looks horrible if you have bad light.

[kombolcha]

Hmm.. That looks like a nice camera for the price. I need to get a camera, and I don't want to spend a lot (college). Now that you have had it for a while, is it what you would get again? I don't really care about features, dont need video, just want something that takes high quality pictures that look good, and isn't too picky about lighting and all that. My webcam doubles as a (crappy) camera, but it's only 640x480, and it looks horrible if you have bad light.

yes i would buy this same brand again, more and more i'm loosing my faith in sony products as their quality is slipping a lot. i also tried a fuji camera and that also sucked.

it's a good camera, you should go and check it out at a store and then go to newegg and buy it from there it's about $30 cheaper than buying it at the store, then go to target or sav-on and buy 4 recharchable batteries with the charger for $20

[AJerman]

yes i would buy this same brand again, more and more i'm loosing my faith in sony products as their quality is slipping a lot. i also tried a fuji camera and that also sucked.

it's a good camera, you should go and check it out at a store and then go to newegg and buy it from there it's about $30 cheaper than buying it at the store, then go to target or sav-on and buy 4 recharchable batteries with the charger for $20

Hehe, I have talked to a few friends and done a little reading and I definatly think I want to get one of these. I like photography, but I have never had a camera myself that I could take pictures whenever I wanted to, so I don't know exactly what features I would want on a nicer camera. This way I can get a cheaper one that certainly still does a wonderful job and can give me a starting point to see what is most important to me :)

And I am certainly set on batteries, I have about 15 NiMH batteries lying around :happy:

[kombolcha]

Hehe, I have talked to a few friends and done a little reading and I definatly think I want to get one of these. I like photography, but I have never had a camera myself that I could take pictures whenever I wanted to, so I don't know exactly what features I would want on a nicer camera. This way I can get a cheaper one that certainly still does a wonderful job and can give me a starting point to see what is most important to me :)

And I am certainly set on batteries, I have about 15 NiMH batteries lying around :happy:

i took some more pictures..

superfine mode, 1600x1200 resolution settings.

http://www.venezian.net/images/flower.jpg

http://www.venezian.net/images/bluerock.jpg

http://www.venezian.net/images/oceanrock.jpg

http://www.venezian.net/images/bluewaterfall.jpg

[HPMCommander]

My new Fuji Finepix A205 does the trick for me ;)

[Premgenius]

I have the Canonc IXUS II, had to buy this as I was due for a holidaye and they had no A70/A80 but it does it's job well

[Apollo]

nice review... i'm thinking of buying that exact camera... kicks the nikon's ass

[Daniel F. Administrators]

congrats - https://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=20738&category=main

[lexor]

the left side on the second pic (the trees especially) are really blury, did you take the shot through the glass of your window or is that how it always is?

[ThunderRiver]

What i noticed about these low budget cameras is that they all lack one big feature.

and that one BIG missing feature is..?

For more detailed spec about the camera, check it out at DPReview

The reason you can take nice close pictures is because it has macro mode range of 5 cm minimum. However, the camera doesn't have any optical zoom. A good camera will definitely have a better result with optical zoom. Nonetheless, if you had $300 to spend, I would definitely recommend you to get Cannon A70 or Pentax Optio S4i.

[uniacid]

awesome, I need to get a better camera looks like canon is the best

[stncttr908 Veteran]

Nice review. I like my Powershot A300.

[Ryan Hoffman]

New Revew x2. I have a Canon Digial Elph PowerShot S400, and its soo pretty :-).

[devilman2590]

After reading this I've decided to review my Canon Powershot s50 :).

[kombolcha]

the left side on the second pic (the trees especially) are really blury, did you take the shot through the glass of your window or is that how it always is?

yes, sorry, it was through the glass, didn't wanna open the door, too cold.

as for the feature it lacks. compared to the more expensive cameras, obviously, it's the mega pixels, but other than that i was comparing it to my uncles 4.0MP kodak (which i will write a review soon) and what i found was that the kodak was able to focus on more than one subject where as the cannon focus only on one subject.

it gives you the option to take a picture of someone and still be able to capture the subjects behind.

[mmcqlm]

[GLOW=blue]

I had the same issue with my 10 year old daughter. The real cool feature is the video mode geves you 3 minutes to capture your favorite moments.

Great deal! :o java script:emoticon(':laugh:')

java script:emoticon(':laugh:')

[JeremyWeisser]

Not having optical zoom is really a disadvantage. It is going to really limit you when you want to get great shots and aren't two centimeters in front of an air can:)

[ThunderRiver]

[GLOW=blue]

I had the same issue with my 10 year old daughter. The real cool feature is the video mode geves you 3 minutes to capture your favorite moments.

Great deal! :o java script:emoticon(':laugh:')

java script:emoticon(':laugh:')

yeah, and it will always record 3 min at most for each video even if you have like 512 Mb memory card in there..

[baseballpro9]

gettin that canon today, probably the best deal for thge price....you get the bang for the buck as they say.

3.2 mp and $170, sold me.

[loki102]

canon's are the best.. i am still in love with my A60.. but i'm thinking about upgrading in the near future

[kombolcha]

gettin that canon today, probably the best deal for thge price....you get the bang for the buck as they say.

3.2 mp and $170, sold me.

newegg = $150 :pinch:

with the extra 20 you could buy 4 recharchagle batteries w/ the charger