Canon PowerShot A460 digital camera Can this budget 5 megapixel deliver the goods?
- Reviewer
- Doug Harman
- Review Date
- 15 October 2007
- Manufacturer
- Canon
- Price as reviewed
- £99
- Latest price
- compare
Full review
15 October 2007 -
The PowerShot A460 is an upgrade of the popular PowerShot A430, launched last year and keeps the blocky, plastic-built lines of that model.
A silver, metal band stretches over the top and down the left side (from the back) bisecting the two main plastic parts of the main body. A control dial peeps up over the top edge pf the camera where the shutter release and on/off button can also be found.
Powered by two AA cells the A460 fires up quickly enough, with a power up to first shot time of a little over 1.5-seconds. Not bad for a camera at this level. Indeed, performance throughout is good until you get to shooting with flash when shot to shot times extend to around 7 seconds and rather annoyingly, the camera locks up and the screen blacks out while you wait.
Luckily, a clear optical viewfinder is included that so mediates this problem to a degree but while you can continue to compose you still must wait for the camera to fishing replenishing the flash.
The camera’s 5 megapixel CCD is a sensor that benefits from Canon’s DIGIC II processing power and because the sensitivity options have been limited to a range starting at ISO 80 and running no higher than ISO 400, noise while present in some of the latter settings shots, is not a major issue.
Another quirk of the A460 is the combined four-way controller and lens zoom control; this can lead to confusion as the same controller also attends to other shooting tasks including flash and macro/focus mode selection. The lens sported by the A460 is a flexible, 38-152mm 4x zoom offering a better range the average 3x lens found on most such cameras.
However, once used to the camera’s idiosyncrasies it’s actually easy to use and includes some features not normally on camera at this level. These include a custom white balance setting (plus the usual array of presets for daylight, cloud and fluorescent lighting), exposure compensation to +/-2EV and a full range of metering modes. One of the more disappointing aspects is the movie mode, yes, you can shoot widescreen but the 640 x 480 high quality clips on offer are limited to a very jerky 10fps.
A Manual control setting is actually a misnomer, as it does not provide actual control over shutter speeds and apertures but beings into play some of those more advanced features mentioned above that otherwise are not available in the auto or scene modes. Of the latter you a modest eight to play with but these cover the main option such as portrait, landscape, night scene and a kids and pets mode.
An excellent super macro mode allows you to shoot as close as 1cm for great close up work that makes the most of the cameras sensor, focusing system and the metering producing come stunning close ups.
Colours can be tweaked to shoot enhanced colour (vivid) while a sepia and a black and white option allow further creative options for those so inclined. In short, the A460 provides a great balance between build, price and shooting flexibility.
The camera uses external storage in the shape of SD/MMC memory cards and is powered by dual AA cells, which, it must be said were disappointingly quickly exhausted, be sure to get s et of rechargeable batteries and you’ll be okay, though even my set of 2300mAh cells had run dry after about 120 shots.
So what of the all important image quality? The lens is an excellent piece of glass and detail is well captured, the lower ISO settings on offer mean noise is not a real issue until you get to ISO 400 where it becomes obvious particularly in high contrast areas of a shot. Noise processing does not strip detail too much. However, the lower ISOs available means the flash needs to be brought into play more often.
Colour is natural-looking (though you have the vivid, black and white and sepia options to play with too) and white balance control is very good. Metering is reliable but can be hampered by high contrast shots, which forced it to under expose. The focus set up is excellent however, the intelligent AiAF system working well most times with the override allowing you to choose the central AF zone on its own, ideal for macro for example.
Verdict
There are a couple of weaknesses in this camera but they can be forgiven for a camera at this level and given the good image quality and performance; it is well above par.
When you realise for another £40 you can buy this camera with the Selphy CP 520 printer (its complimentary test is elsewhere on this site) as a bundle, it looks even better.
If you want a basic reasonably priced snapper, you’d be hard pressed to beat the PowerShot A460 and some day, perhaps, all entry-level camera makers will aspire to built point and shoot models this way.
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Canon PowerShot A460 Digital Camera
(5 Megapixel, Standard Point and Shoot Camera, 4x Optical Zoom, 4x Digital Zoom, CCD Sensor, Video Capability Included, 2 in. LCD P...)
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£89.98 (inc. VAT) |
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