Consumer ratings: Canon PowerShot A560 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

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Category: Electronics
Brand: Canon
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Canon PowerShot A560 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom Consumer Report

Canon PowerShot A560 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom Review by D. J. Craig (Washington state)

I LOVE this Camera. I bought it to use on my recent road trip to Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. The camera took great photos, even the ones when we were riding down the road at 65-70mph. They were not blurred. I bought a 2 GB. chip for it, so even on the 7.1 setting I could still take over 1000 photos. It was nice to have the 4x zoom lens, that can actually go up to 16x.
Before the road trip, I took this to a ballgame, and was able to get better and closer shots of the players at bat, than my friends 35mm camera with a zoom lens.
I am very satisfied with this camera. And you can't beat the price.

Canon PowerShot A560 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom Review by trainer (TX)

My Panasonic Lumix died on vacation, I needed a small camera that took an SD card and either the same battery as the Lumix or AA batteries. I took it out of the box and went hiking and was impressed by the ease of use and the AWESOME macros it took. The only drawback is that it does not have Image Stabilization which is makes for a few fuzzy photos when zooming in of a moving thing like an eagle flying or waterfall at a distance...you have to be VERY steady or use a tripod for those shots. All-in-all, I would NOT go back to the Lumix because it had no viewfinder and in full sun you could not see what you were shooting and it had issues with darkness like in museums (exposure issue). I would recommend this camera to the individual looking for a small size, easy-to-use general user who takes a lot of people photos because of the "face recognition" feature to aid in focusing. It is best at macros, absolutely top notch for the person who wants to take photos of flowers or bugs or tiny things. It gives photos a yellow/orange tinge at night indoors under low incandescent lighting which can be adjusted with software. I have looked many months before for a camera and have not found a digital camera that is a better value than the Canon PowerShot a560 camera for the general purpose user that uses SD cards. It is quick to take the shot and with a high quality (fast) SD card, it writes to disk quickly (meaning you press the button and you will not likely miss the shot if you've got a steady hand). For sports shots or moving subjects, I might recommend a camera with a sports shot mode to freeze the subject and with Image Stabilization.

Canon PowerShot A560 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom Review by Cap'n Stoob "Stoob" (USA)

This camera is a good compromise in price between the next level up and the lowest level of camera. However, the imaging chip is the same 1/2.5 CCD as can be found in any other comparable camera. The main difference is apparently in the DIGIC III chip, which processes the images to make them look good. Canon has a reputation for solid photography, so I chose this camera to take good photos without having to think a lot about them.

Image Quality: Good

This camera, in the ISO 80 and 100 range, takes great photos. In daylight and bright indoor light, it's nice. At ISO 200, some noise pops up and that's due to the tiny image sensor. ISO 400 and above are super noisy. All in all, a decent performance. However, the color misses a bit of saturation and this can easily be fixed by post-processing.

Build Quality:

Cheap and plasticky. The zoom rocker is hard to control in fine steps. The buttons are well-placed and easy to push.

Hand Feel:

This camera is a delight to hold, even for people with larger hands. It has the battery compartment on the right side, so you can really get a hand on it. Wonderful!

Convenience:

100% awesome. It uses cheap SD cards and AA batteries. This means that you will ALWAYS be able to find batteries in a pinch. The importance of this cannot be underestimated! You can also get a cheap set of AA Ni-MH batteries and carry a spare set just in case. The battery life is great. Where this camera falls a little short is in the case department. The grip is nice for the hand, but this won't fit slimline bags, at all!

Big Flaws:

The camera's BIGGEST flaw and the major reason for losing 2 stars. The screen quality has to be seen to be believed. You won't believe that it can be as low in sharpness and color as it is! The screen is almost useless in composing photos, especially since it washes out in bright light with purple vertical bars on the highlight parts. It's not sharp enough to show you whether something is perfectly in focus, so you have to trust the camera. It's not viewable in sunlight, at all. Big minuses to Canon for cutting corners on the most CRITICAL part of the camera! This screen just doesn't have enough pixels to show the detail from the imaging chip!

Another huge flaw is the softness in the zoom lens at 4x. I turned off digital zoom and took some shots at max zoom. It looked like I had a thin layer of grease on the lens! The blurriness is not acceptable for my photos, so I had to keep myself to about 2.5 to 3x zoom, only.

The movie mode is OK, but doesn't seem as smooth as offerings from other manufacturers. The "smooth" movie mode takes a tiny (320x240) movie at 60fps, but the playback just makes it look like an old silent movie with the unusual speed.

This could have been a 5-star camera with just 100000 more pixels in the LCD screen. As it is, now, this is just an average camera, but should serve well as a pocket or everyday camera.