Canon PowerShot A540 - What a Good Point and Shoot Should Be
2
This was one of the best gifts I've had in photography. It succeeded in nearly erasing memory of previous digitals I had owned. Worked competently in nearly every place I took it. Still works well after 50,000 shots and a 1000 videos, even though 1/3rd the case paint is wearing off. If you disable the afterview, auto focus light and red eye reduction, the A540 will reshoot as fast as you can press the shutter. Also with these options disabled, I have nearly instant and repeatable response to the shutter button after the autofocus was in the neighborhood (half shutter push). Very good auto focus response. Even with max 800 ISO it did decently in low light so long as I went to Sepia tone (which was a great effect for the 30k+ Bluegrass venue shots I took). The rotating mode selector is bigger and more readable than most.
The OEM Canon access software was nearly perfect and various updates to the 2016 version still work fine even in Windows 10 as of 2/2017. It's economical on power usage for a 2 AA camera. With 2 spare NiMH rechargeable AA's in the bag I can shoot well over 1000 frames or over half a day's worth of 640 video. Only failure was the auto lens cover failed at about 20k pics. A half hour with needle nose, tweezers and mini screwdriver removed it and the A540 kept ticking.
The CON list: doesn't allow bigger than 2gb SD cards. Has no fill flash, needs higher ISO and better microphone quality and case location is easy to cover with fingers. Batteries could be in a separate door from SD card. So-so auto lens cover. Needs a manual focus (esp to infinity) and active zoom when shooting video. Case creaks when taking video if hands move much.
Now used mainly around the house and for quickies of Craigslist items, the A540 may outlast all others unless I find another at the pawn shop.