Canon PowerShot A70

frank2

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
2-5 years

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
2 votes

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
It's a great camera for what bought it for. Throw it in a jersey pocket or backpack and it there when I need it. I've taken several thousand photos with it over the last couple years. It's light enough, easy to use, and the controls allow for different photo types.

Strengths:
uses std AA batteries, easy to use, durable, manual override controls, good multi-frame speed, cost vs. features is hard to beat.

Weaknesses:
the control dial moves when taking it in and out of the case, it did have to go in for service because of the lens retract problem but Canon fixed it no charge

Similar Products Used:
Fuji

Customer Service:
Canon service was great. When I had the problem I boxed it up and it was back in 10 days.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
3.40 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Office Max

Summary:
We decided to buy this camera after a lot of research on the internet. Almost all the reviews were that this was a great camera and i've been pretty happy with it. It took great pictures and I loved the little video mode. Get a bigger memory card because the 16mb will do nothing.

Strengths:
Zoom Different settings when taking pictures, such as black and white, sephia. Battery life

Weaknesses:
The memory card door and the battery door looks flimsy.

Similar Products Used:
Kodac DC3200

Customer Service:
Barely 3 mths after I bought my camera it died completely. It wouldn't power up with 4 different sets of batteries. Called Canon Tech SUpport who told me to send it in for a repair. It should be covered under the warrenty since the camera was so new. 1.5 wks after it was dlvd, I called to get status. They want $105 because the repair is not covered by the warrenty. HUH..? First said that the camera must have fallen.. (Not a chance. Took very good care of it, and was only handled by me and my husband). Afterall this was a $300 camera. Then said that I didn't send them a receipt copy. Wrong again. The receipt copy was there on the other side of the paper that I wrote the problem on. After informing the tech that I was not going to pay the money, then she agreed to change it to a warreny covered repair finally. It will be another 20 days before I get my camera back. I guess I'll jsut have to wait and see. I was disappointed that a repair that was obviously covered by the warrenty was so difficult to get fixed.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $275.00 from B&H

Summary:
I've been using Nikon film SLRs for nearly 30 years but this is my first digital camera of any kind. After much research, I decided on this model due to its features and price. Although a Nikon user, I couldn't find anything from Nikon that offered as much as this Canon model did for anywhere near the price. I've had it about a month and taken several hundred shots. Given it's limitations, I have to say that I'm very satisfied with the results. The pictures are sharp enough to go to 8 1/2x11 although 5X7 is a lot sharper. While I don't plan on going entirely digital (at least not yet) I've given up shooting print film and using the Canon A70 as my basic point & shoot camera for family photos, etc.

Strengths:
Features for the price Sharp lens Pretty solid for a "plasticam". It's not all metal as the ads would lead you to believe I love the fact that it takes AA batteries and that it seems not to be very battery-hungry. I'm using NiMH rechargeables and highly recommend them. Try the ones from Powerex

Weaknesses:
The battery and CF card doors don't look like they're going to last very long It's a little on the heavy side due to the 4 AA batteries but that's just a tradeoff for getting the battery life and easily available replacements The crummy little 16mb card that comes with the camera is pretty much useless. Get yourself at 256mb and never look back Software is just so-so. Pretty much the same as all the others

Similar Products Used:
First digital but was using an Olympus Stylus Epic 80

Customer Service:
Haven't needed it but I've read elsewhere that it's pretty lousy. What else is new these days?

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $408.00 from Visions Electronics,

Summary:
I looked at a lot of cameras before narrowing it down to this one. I really like the manual features, although I don't use them much yet. The purchase price was excellent ($408 CDN) The macro mode is excellent, provided you manually focus. Auto focus has a hard time locking on if you are much closer than 5 inches. In manual focus, I found I could get within 1 inch. You have to manually turn off the flash for such close pictures. Pictures are very clear. One word of warning, don't use portrait mode on young children, as the childs movements blur the picture. Better use action, or fully automatic. The batteries are great. 4AA will easily fill 128M card, even if deleting a lot of pictures that you don't like. My previous camera was fixed focus, so I have had a hard time getting action shots in focus. When I got the camera to focus, my timing with shooting was off, and I missed my moment. I'm not sure if this is a problem unique to this camera, or all auto focus cameras, since I haven't used them.

Strengths:
Fully manual capable Ability to use canon lenses (Although I haven't yet, so don't know how well they will work. AA batteries video mode

Weaknesses:
Easy to bump the shooting mode dial when pulling camera out of case. I have ruined a few pictures when the camera was not in Auto as I expected.

Similar Products Used:
None

Customer Service:
Have not had to use it yet. Visions electronics is excellent.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
0-1 years

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
3 votes

Price Paid:  $300.00 from BestBuy

Summary:
I bought this camera so I could have a point and shoot to bring with friends and family when I don't feel like hauling 30 pounds of equipment. For what I want it for, this is a great camera. Small, easy to use, lots of extra functions, custom controls, and great battery life are just some of this camera's strengths.

Strengths:
-Size -Image Quality -Custom Features -Battery life

Weaknesses:
-None really.

Similar Products Used:
-Canon 10D -Canon 17-40 f4 L -Canon 70-200 F4 L -Canon 50 F1:4 -Sigma 24 F1:8

Customer Service:
-None needeed