Canon PowerShot A70

Opinion: A very impressive PowerShot-the A70 has full manual controls, a nice selection of
scene modes and a design that echoes later A series (eg. A580-the zoom lever and
VF are in similar positions).

Features include auto,program,manual and Av/Tv modes, stitch assust for
panoramas, various photo effects, up to 400 ISO,continoins shooting, variable flash
power level,PictBridge capable with a firmware upgrade and 3 metering modes.

Image quality-impressive

Opinion: I bought my A70 in September 2003 - it was my first digital camera (previous film cameras include Canon EF SLR and Olympus u-ZOOM).

It's been a very reliable camera, easy to use and capable of producing very good images under a range of conditions. It feels good in the hand, and in many ways is still a benchmark design for point-and-shoot digicams. While it can't match the specifications, features and value-for-money of more recent models, there's still something about the A70 that makes it a very desirable camera for everyday use.

Recently the sensor failed, and Canon Australia replaced it under the Service Advisory that covers a number of Canon models. They gave me the option of repairing the A70 or changing over to a newer model, and I elected to repair the A70. I'm glad I did, as the new sensor seems a little better than the original - a bit crisper, with better colour saturation - presumably it's from a later production batch.

Opinion: That was my first digital camera. I had chosen this model because I wanted to have a real manual mode, which was by this time pretty unusual on compact cameras.
First excellent surprise : the image quality. Let's go back two years and see what we got... Yes, the A70 produced rather noisy pictures at 200 iso, and there was a very hard and long work to get anything about clean at 400 iso. But no other $300 camera did better, and the colors were just perfect, as was most often the exposure. Long exposures were not a problem, and a 15 s long exposure at 100 iso was particularly clean.
The manual focus was another plus. Some would complain that no "center zoom" helped, but the distance indication made focusing clear and easy -- just need to estimate distance -- and I really miss it, owning now an FZ30.

The only problems with this camera were that you had no dial, just buttons to push again and again to set everything up. Sometimes, in manual mode, flash and manual focus, it needed some time to get everything ready for shooting.
The Function menu was excellent, though, I miss it too : you could set just any picture setting you liked with a few buttons pressed.

Opinion: Purchased this camera in Nov '04 and I was looking forward to using it as I have always been a Canon fan. For the most part it's nice to have all the flexabilty like a SLR in a PS camera and that's why I bought it.

Opinion: Excellent quality and features for the type of camera that it is. Very nice colour. Nice feel. Plenty of settings. Light. Some interesting lens attachment accessories. Easy to use as a point and shoot, yet with more advanced features also available, albeit buried in menus.

Compared to higher end cameras it is noisy, slow to focus, battery-hog, and very difficult to manual focus, in fact the manual focus function is almost useless. Auto white balance is sometimes wrong.

Opinion: The best point and shoot I ever had. Now moved on to an A85, but still fondly remember my A70. The amount of service this camera has done with me is phenomenal. It is a milestone model, but essentialy a point and shoot, a high end one.

Opinion: Excellent!!!

Opinion: very nice camera, can print nice pictures up to 4R.

Opinion: Very very nice camera.