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Monday, August 21, 2006
I'm not much of an expert on digital cameras. Although I'm an avid photographer, my range of expertise lies primarily in 35mm cameras, and I tend to avoid working in digital whenever possible. Sometimes, though, digital is just plain quicker and easier (not to mention cheaper). With that in mind, I decided to spend a little money on a digital camera, and what I came out with was the Canon Power Shot A85.
Released in 2004, the Power Shot A85 is a compact little camera that is usually priced from 150 to 200 dollars and originally retailed for about 300 dollars. I bought mine off Ebay, and ran into a problem immediately: the outlet on the side of the camera that plugs into the computer to download pictures was not working. After an extended conversation with Canon's customer support (which was excellent), I ended up buying a card reader to download pictures directly from the memory card instead of using the camera jack. This wasn't a big deal, but did cost me a little extra money (about thirty dollars for a good card reader), and according to Canon this particular jack on this camera is rather susceptible to problems. In my opinion, because card readers are good investments anyhow as they save battery power for your camera, there are plenty of worse problems a camera can have.
The Power Shot A85 is a 4.0 megapixel camera. This is, as far as I'm concerned, all the pixels that are required for casual shooting. Anyone who is investing big money in five or six megapixels is wasting their cash unless they work in graphic design, or unless they intend to make huge poster-sized prints of their photos. The Power Shot A85 also has a 3x optical zoom, which does marvelously when shooting objects that are far away. It also has a digital zoom that allows you to hone in on photos you have already taken. I have not yet figured out whether or not you can save these digitally-zoomed photos. The manual doesn't say anything about it. If you can, great; if not, there isn't much point to this feature.
Now, on to the good things. This is one of the sturdiest little digital cameras ever built, and its color reproduction and way of handling light are marvelous. In low-light, no-flash situations, your pictures develop a yellowish tint; personally I love this look and tend to leave it as-is, but if you prefer the yellowness can be filtered out simply by using the "auto levels" feature in Photoshop.
One caution: When you take a picture in fairly dark conditions and then view the image on your camera, it will show a lot of detail and you may think your picture has turned out well. But when you transfer the photo onto your computer, chances are it will be almost black. I'm not sure why there is this discrepancy between what you see on the camera and what is on the actual photo you have taken, but it's something to watch out for… your extreme low light shots are probably not as great as you think.
In sunlight and regular light conditions, the Power Shot A85 performs extremely well. It captures brilliant colors in crisp detail, and the Auto setting adjusts itself to compensate for over-exposure of white surfaces or bright sun. This camera also has manual settings, so that those of us who are more comfortable with typical SLR cameras can change the exposure times and apertures just like we are used to doing.
The Power Shot A85 is the single most battery-efficient camera I have ever heard of or handled. It uses four regular AA batteries, and if you use standard batteries it is less efficient, but rechargeable batteries (which cost about six dollars, plus a ten-dollar charger) you will find yourself forgetting that the camera runs on batteries at all. I use my camera at least once a day, and have not charged the batteries in two months.
This camera is a little awkward to handle- it is just a bit too large to fit into your jacket pocket- but sturdy, and the wrist strap helps. Overall, if you're looking for a low-cost, efficient camera that takes excellent pictures under fairly common conditions, you can't go wrong with the Canon Power Shot A85.
-by bjp
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