In-depth review of high-end compact from Canon

4 weeks ago, I found this camera in a rubbish bin at the dump. I took it home and found that it works. Unfortunately, it is only compatible with SD cards smaller than 2 gigabytes. It is difficult to find such cutting-edge SD cards in the shop nowadays, so I had to borrow one from a friend.

The Canon Powershot A540 has a 1/2.5 inch sensor, which is the smallest sensor I've ever heard of. It's smaller than the sensor in recent mobile phone cameras.

Photos taken with this camera are 6 megapixels. The lens covers a focal length of 35-140mm. The aperture is f2.6-f5.5, which is not great for wilflife photography, especially in the dark.

I think the lens is too slow for a sensor of this size. Surely they could have made the lens a little larger. Nevertheless, the camera works well in sunlight.

The camera takes video at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. But it can't really compete with the Panasonic GH4 or the Canon 1DX mk II.

The Canon Powershot A540 has less dynamic range than both the Canon 5D mk IV and the Canon 80D, so you should probably give the A540 a miss if dynamic range is your thing.

This camera takes AA batteries. It goes through 2 alkaline AA batteries within about 20 mins of use (50-60 photos). This is not very economical, in fact it is ridiculous, so I don't plan to use this camera very often.

The best thing about this camera is probably the colours. They look natural. There is also a nice vivid filter and an interesting Sepia filter, which may be a bit brown for some people's taste. I get the feeling that the lens is quite sharp at close distances, but I haven't had a chance to try that out.

The things that surprised me about this camera are: 1. It works; and 2. It takes decent photos for a 10 yr old camera found at the dump.

The fact that this camera still works makes me think Canon products are quite reliable. There is something quite satisfying about getting a decent photo from a 10 yr old scratched piece of trash found in a rubbish bin.

I've attached some random shots taken with this camera. Some of these will look a bit grainy on account of the small sensor and the excessive post processing I did in Snapseed.

Edited with Snapseed

SOOC (sepia filter)

Edited with Snapseed (to recover highlights)

SOOC (vivid setting)

SOOC (vivid setting)

Camera's sepia filter, edited with Snapseed (slightly over-sharpened)

Same photo as above, edited to make it less brown and less sharpening

Night shot, edited with Snapseed

Night shot on full tele, edited with Snapseed and cropped