Prosidius Posted February 13, 2005 Share Posted February 13, 2005 (edited) Canon PowerShot A400 This is a budget camera coming in at a price between $140-180. Here are the specs from canons website along with what the camera looks like. Type of CameraCompact digital still camera with built-in flash and 2.2x Optical/3.2x Digital/7x Combined Zoom Image Capture Device Type 3.2 M pixels, 1/3.2 inch Charge Coupled Device (CCD) Total Pixels Approx. 3.3 Million Effective Pixels Approx. 3.2 Million Lens Focal Length 5.9 (W) - 13.2 (T) mm f/3.8 (35mm film equivalent: 45-100mm) Digital Zoom 3.2x Focusing Range Normal AF: 1.5 ft./47cm to Infinity Macro AF: 2 in.-1.5 ft/5-47cm (WIDE), 1 ft-1.5 ft/30-47cm(TELE) Autofocus System 9-point AiAF/1-point AF (Fixed to center)AF-assist Beam On/Off Viewfinders Optical Viewfinder Real-image optical zoom viewfinder LCD Monitor 1.5 inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD (w/vari-angle function) LCD Pixels Approx. 115,000 pixels LCD Coverage 100% Aperture and Shutter Maximum Aperture f/3.8 (W/T Shutter Speed 1 - 1/1500 sec. Exposure Control Sensitivity AUTO, ISO 50/100/200/400 equivalent Light Metering Method Evaluative / Center-weighted aerage / Spot* *Metering frame with Spot mode is center fixed. Exposure Control Method Program AE Exposure Compensation +/- 2 stops in 1/3 stop increments ND Filter Not Available White Balance White Balance Control Auto, Pre-set (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H), or Custom Flash Built-in Flash Operation Modes: Auto On/Off, Red-Eye Reduction is available Flash Range NORMAL: 47cm-2m/1.5-6.6 ft. (W/T) MACRO: 30 - 47cm/1 ft -1.5 ft (When sensitivity is set to Auto) Recycling Time Approx. 10 sec. or less (battery voltage=3.0V) Flash Exposure Compensation Not Available Shooting Specifications Shooting Modes Auto, Manual, Stitch Assist, Movies, Special Scene (Portrait, Night Scene, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Underwater, Indoor) Photo Effects Off, Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia and Black & White Self-Timer Activates shutter after an approx. 10 sec. or approx. 2 sec. delay Wireless Control Not Available Continuous Shooting Approx. 1.3 shots/sec. Image Storage Storage Media SD Memory Card Print Order Format Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) Version 1.1 Image transfer is not available Image Recording Format Exif 2.2 (JPEG) JPEG Compression Mode SuperFine, Fine, Normal Number of Recording Pixels Still Image: 2,048x1,536 (Large), 1,600x1,200 (Medium 1), 1,024x768 (Medium 2), 640x480 pixels (Small)Postcard Date Imprint Mode: 1,600x1,200 (Compression is set to Fine) Design This camera comes in 5 colors. Green, Silver, Blue, and Gold. The camera is not the thinest thing around. It's about 1.1 inches thick.. The Power button is located on the top behind the Shutter. On the Back as shown, you got a TFT screen as well as the controls and ports for hookup. The lens does come out when the camera is in the proper mode. It also has a built in lens cover. Whats in the Box 1. PowerShot A400 Body 2. Wrist Strap WS-200 3. SD Memory Card SDC-16M 4. 2 AA-type Alkaline Batteries 5. Digital Camera Solution CD-ROM 6. ArcSoft Camera Suite CD-ROM 7. Interface Cable IFC-400PCU 8. AV Cable AVC-DC300 You don't need ArcSofts Camera Suite as you can import pictures via Windows or Canons own software which is provided. It comes with English and Spanish Documentation. Ease Of Use This is not the easiest camera in the world. I don't like having to hold down the shutter to take a pix. Just pressing it turns Auto focus on and off I believe. Menus can also be a pain to navigate sometimes. The symbols on the screen can be confusing at times also. Luckily Canon provided good docs for me to understand this stuff. Setting the different modes is very easy with control dial and hook up to the pc is easy as well. No drivers are needed for this Camera. Picture Quality I was actually suprised at the quality of this camera. It takes very good pix despite having a weak optical zoom. It has a Macro Mode which helps keep quality up for those close up shots. I would suggest not using the Flash close up as it will cause a glare making the image useless. It has a couple modes for location like Snow, Foliage, Night, Beach, Fireworks, Underwater, & Indoor. I have yet to test these. Batterys & Storage As with all digital cameras, this eats up batterys too. The camera came with 2 Alkine batterys which lasted for about 10 pix and 2 videos. I highly suggest getting rechargable NiMh batterys for this Camera! Don't buy the batterys/charger from canon either. They charge more for that stuff. This camera does have a DC In port, but Amazon.com left me nowhere for 3rd party DC Adapters. Again Canon charges way to much for one. (About 30 bucks). In some cases there pricing schemes are worse than Apple. This Camera takes Secure Digital memory. I had a 64MB Secure Digital card from previous months so thats what turned me on to this camera. This camera comes with a 16MB card, enough to hold 8 images in SuperFine mode. They should just include 32 or 64MB cards with Cameras, there only a few bucks more. I plan on upgrading the storage myself to either 256MB or 512MB. These will set you back $20-40 Movie Mode This Camera features a movie mode and has a built in Mic. The Quality in my opinion is below par in this area. The movie is grainy and has low quality. Mic works fairly good. BTW, it records the movie in AVI format. Software I installed Canons software which is easy to use. Canons software opens up right after you set the camera to view mode. You thus are given choices to download the pix to your My Pictures Folder. You can do basic editing from this program like contract, brightness, etc. It's a decient program and take it over ArcSofts software. I have yet to figure out how to get it in webcam mode. Overview For this price this is a good camera. It has good features for a budget camera and is aimed for beginners like me. I highly recomend this Camera. Pros Good image quality Nice LCD Cheap Good Features Cons Bad Battery Life Weak Flash Cumbersome Menus Pix http://adamb10.com/cam/IMG_0114.JPG http://adamb10.com/cam/IMG_0113.JPG http://adamb10.com/cam/MVI_0115.AVI <--Video, 9MB Edited February 14, 2005 by Adamb10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leetsauce Posted February 14, 2005 Share Posted February 14, 2005 Most digital cameras has a double click shutter where a light click would enable the AF while a full click will take a picture. You don't have to "hold on" to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prosidius Posted February 14, 2005 Author Share Posted February 14, 2005 Yeah thats what I mean. I typed it on a Sunday, give me a break. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leetsauce Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Heh, sorry. Great review nevertheless. I'm looking to get a Canon PowerShot SD300 to replace my broken Canon PowerShot S45 (cracked lens). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts