Owners Opinion:
Canon PowerShot A510 (jerry Lee, 5 Feb 05)
 3.1 million effective pixels 35 mm - 140 mm (4x) zoom | jerry Lee's Rating
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OpinionUpside: One of our few knocks on the A75 was its bulky design; according to Canon, the A510 is 13 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter than its predecessor. There's also a 4X optical zoom to replace the A75's 3X lens and a new zoom-linked flash for better low-light exposures. The shift from CompactFlash memory to SD should also please the general consumers that this camera is made for, since SD is the type of memory card they're most likely to use in their other electronic devices.Canon A510 compared to Canon SD200 (the ultra compact): ++ A510 is at least $100 cheaper ++ A510 has manual controls for focus, aperture and exposure; SD200 doesn't ++ A510 doesn't have fuzzy corners or purple fringing; SD200 has them ++ A510 uses two AA bateries (rechargeable or not); SD200 uses rechargeable lithium-ion battery (NB-4L) -- A510 uses the older processor DIGIC I; SD200 uses DIGIC II, hence the differences below ... -- A510 needs bigger time to auto-focus than SD200 but it wasn't a problem for me -- A510 records movies with limited length; SD200 records till the memory card is full -- A510 has worse noise reduction than SD200 in low light conditions (more pixel noise in incandescent light without flash, including the movie mode) -- A510 doesn't have 'indoors' white balance; SD200 has it. A510 has an 'indoors' shooting scene but you can't use the manual controls in a scene mode. | ||||
ProblemsCanon's sticking with the same first-generation DIGIC processor that was used in the A75. That means you?ll still be limited to 30 seconds of VGA (640x480) video and 12 frames per sequence in the burst mode, as opposed to the unlimited movie clips and higher-capacity burst modes featured in Canon's DIGIC II cameras. The A510 will have a lot of competition from 4-megapixel cameras at the same price point this year, although most won't match its broad feature set.We loved the A75, and all of the changes Canon has made in the A510 appear to be positive ones. DIGIC II would have been nice, and in its absence, consumers will likely have to choose between the A510’s manual features and the DIGIC II-enabled SD200’s speedier operation. The Canon PowerShot A510 will hit store shelves in late January for a list price of $159.99. NO MPEG4! |
