Canon PowerShot A70

I have used my Canon Powershot A70 Digital Camera for over two years. This was my first digital camera. It served me well when I took photos until its power intake got the better of it. I was charging the batteries for ages and found that it only worked for less than an hour. Then I decided to use my batteries in my coffee machine - one fell and rolled under my washing machine, paid 5 pounds for a new set, was worse off, at parties and weddings the camera cut out again, now the memory card has failed, at the wrong time (on the way to my cousin's wedding!) and now I could not take photos on five occasions (FIVE wedding parties) I have now decided that a digital camera is a waste of time and money and I have now opted for my 0.3 inbuilt camera on my Nokia 3220. What a waste! I know that my camera has not let me down, but I know that its accessories let it down!

After buying the Canon PowerShot A70 digital camera new and owning it for a year and a half, it developed an E 18 error message and the camera no longer worked. I discovered this was a common problem with all Canon digital camera; some sort of manufacturing glitch, but Canon refused to make good on this product.

Recommend to potential buyers: yes

Full review of the Canon PowerShot A70

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A brief history of my digital camera fun.

I started about 3 years ago with what was basically a toy digital cam.

This rubbish, but functional item was bought from a giant Pound land type of superstore for the terminally skint, well, I like a bargain . Buy cheap buy twice as they say!

It took pictures at a max resolution of 640 x 480, no LCD screen, no flash and no frills, was quite fun, but soon got fed up with the blocky pics' and the fact that it fell apart in a short time. It did get me interested in digital photography though.

Next I bought a Canon A100, 1.2mp then and A300, 3.2mp. Always liked Canon cameras and had used them in the past as 35mm film compacts. No matter what product you buy from Canon, I recon the quality is first class.

Santa this year was kind enough to drop me off the Canon A70 I'd been lusting after. This model for me, being the next step on from the A300.

First impressions.

Ripping the wrapping paper off and diving in ha, cheers, just what I always wanted! Lush, another digital cam for Chrimbo, building up quite a collection now.

The socks, hankies, smellies and other stocking filler presents discreetly elbowed out of the way so I could give this my full attention!

The A70 takes 4 AA batteries, unlike all the others, that took 2. I think the extra 2 provide reserve capacity to power the excellent 3X optical zoom lens.

I love the fit and feel of the A70, it sits in the hand so naturally. The bulge on the right hand end (caused by the battery compartment) makes for a comfortable hand hold. Index finger sits on the shutter while thumb falls into a dip molded to the rear of the body. Sliding the index forward a tad will operate the optical zoom. This can also be doubled up to about 10x by switching on digital zoom (but with a loss in picture quality). Optical zoom is true zoom with no loss of quality.

The operation of the cameras varied functions for me are a bit like using Nokia phones, being intuitively laid out, and after a short while very easy to operate. Just keep in mind what you want the camera to do. If you think in terms of record (take pictures) & play (look at what you've taken) you now have the basics of how all these cameras work.

Menus are provided for both modes. Again move the thumb a tad and the play and record modes are there at the flick of a switch. The thumb is the main operator here for menus flash options, binning of bad pics'. All of the operational functions would only pad this review and make it a boring read. The Info' provided with the cam will get you going in no time.

The addition of the rotating wheel on top of the cam is a nice addition. This frees up a slightly cluttered back that made my previous Canons a bit more difficult to use.

The Full Auto mode is great, bright, vivid and well focused pictures are the norm here. I think most people will use this as I do. The A70 is also a lot quicker off the mark in terms of start up and the charging of the flash. The A300 used to make you wait around till it was ready to take its next flash shot, often the moment had passed. Fair play to the 300 though, it is a bloody good cam also and would never put it down. You just need to get to know your equipment.

The great thing here is that now your photographic talents can take on a new edge. There is a manual mode giving shutter or aperture priority. Foregrounds can be clear and well focused while the background can be blurred giving a nice depth of field.

Shutter speeds are adjustable, and with the use of a tripod you could get those blurred nigh shots with trailing lights, or blurred waterfall effects. Fast sporting events can be captured with the motor drive mode and a fast shutter speed / large aperture.

Of course if you know your stuff here you'll know all about these nice effects. (I'm not saying I know my stuff here!).

Another nice touch is a night shot mode, ie, a subject in low light can be photographed with flash and the background will be exposed also, instead of being black.

It will take video with sound, the length of which is governed by the size of the flash card.

The lens has a plastic ring surround (that can be rotated anti clockwise to remove). In it's place Tele converters can be attached for wide angle or increased zoom shots, but these will set you back around £70.

It has the old viewfinder with centre cross to line up shots, but don't forget it will not be a true representation of what you're seeing.

The A70 is a super piece of kit, the quality is outstanding. There is tons on here to keep you busy for a long time, but you'll soon grow into it. I recon 3.2 mp is fine for nearly every thing I need. A4 sized pics are of high quality too.

Get yourself some ( NI - MH rechargeable batteries) don't bother with NI - CAD's as these will fail in half the time, + they'll suffer from memory effect. (if you charge them when only flat the battery will think it's full, and slowly loose its capacity) You'll soon find yourself saving a fortune in batteries. Disposables . Paaaah . Don't even think about those either.

A good quality leather case will keep this baby fresh and protected for a long time. I love my gadgets and would hate to see the thing damaged for the lack of some basic protection.

If you want a bloody good digital camera. I order you to buy this now !!!

After the lens cover on the Canon PowerShot A70 jamming a few times, either not closing or not opening it finally fell off!

Also, when using the Digital camera with gloves on, I obstructed the lens a couple of times by accident when switching it off. This results in an error code and no further function even when cycled off/on. With some manual intervention it could be brought back to life! The picture quality is good. I've got some good pics of lightning using the manual features.

I upgraded to this Canon PowerShot A 70 digital camera from a Powershot A40. I was never really impressed with the overall picture quality even set at it's best resolution. So after only two months, I have shipped it into Cannon repair and hopefully they can correct the "fuzzy" resolution problem.

This Canon PowerShot A 70 was my first digital camera and I did some research to find what would be the best. The A70 came on top, for a 3 million pixel camera, with an adequate zoom capacity. It was a bit bulky, but that was due to he fact that it took standard AA batteries.

I was amazed by the excellent picture quality and just how easy the camera is to use. You have an excellent range of auto functions and you can also do things maually. The video clips are brilliant.

This is a lovely camera, until you drop it!! It does not like being dropped even from a short distance onto a soft surface. I had this camera for only 4 months and I dropped it from a height of 50 cms on a carpeted floor. Wine glasses are more durable!!.

For me I was advised by Canon that the repair would happen under warranty and then was informed that I had to pay fro the repair - which looks like it will be around 30% of the original price.

This experience has tarnished my rating for the camera hence my low scores for value for money and overall rating.

I bought this camera recently, quite off hand without doing any research, as I had some bonus dosh and wanted an upgrade from an old Fuji 1.2MP thing.

Shortly after, I decided to learn about manual photography as I rather like taking pictures, and I think my composition is ok. Never understood all that ISO and F.Stop stuff though!!!

I was exceedingly pleased to find, as I plowed thru various books on digital photography, that this little number is incredibly versatile, giving access to manual control over stuff like apeture, ISO speed, flash intensity, multiple auto focus setting etc.

This has been a real boon to my practice and learning.

Obviously its full of automatic settings, like portrait, landscapes, nightshot etc, but having access to the manual controls, if (or rather when) you feel like dipping your toe further into photography, this camera will support you pretty much all the way.

Picture quality is outstanding, battery life good, build quality is very cool!

At some stage, I`ll probably blow a grand on a decent digital SLR, but until that happens (another year at least) this camera will both snap away down the pub, and also help me learn to take decent photos on the way, so when I finally blow the wad on some huge SLR number, at least I`ll know what I`m doing. :)

Cheers

T

This is my first digital cam. I did a lot of research before getting this Canon PowerShot A70. For all features this camera offers, this is a good deal. I like the manual controls and all other 10 shooting modes for stills. Pictures captured in lowest resolution still give good qualities.

One negative thing is the compartment doors (for batteries, CF card and cables) look kinda cheap and not closed tight enough though they are shutted already. Compare with S400, A70 is heavy and a bit bulky but it is cheaper and seems offer more manual controls. If you don't have a big budget for S400, A70 is a good choice.

This was my first venture into digital photography and i wanted to start on the cheap (Epson C82 (under £100)) left me with £300 for the camera. I went for the A70 (and a battery charger) after reading some reviews on the web and overall I'm incredibly pleased with the whole package. The images are clear and colourful and printed out at 10x8 you can't fault them. The controls are simple, and yet give the user plenty to 'play' with and experiment with exposures etc. The LCD is great and clear, in all but the brightest sun, but the one let down was the ease with which it scratched after only a few days.

The software that you get with it is enough for anyone starting off to get prints and photo albums with ease.

Overall I'm very pleased with the camera and wouldn't hesitate recommending it to anyone on a tight budget!