I bought the Canon PowerShot S200 sometime around 2001. Long enough ago, anyway, where I thought I was really cool to be getting a digital camera. Man, I loved that thing. It went with me everywhere for six years, and finally died a glorious death jumping out of my coat pocket onto the concrete at Fenway Park.
I would have tried to get it repaired, but this actually happened on my honeymoon, so I wanted a new camera immediately. This resulted in what I think was the highest price-to-product research ratio of my life, where I ran in to a Staples, looked around the camera section for 15 minutes, and left $195 poorer.
The Camera
I should lead off by saying that if you want a lot of technical photography info, you should look elsewhere. Photography is one of those things I'd like to learn more about, in some mythical future time period when I have some time on my hands. For now, though, all I want is to point the camera at something and end up with a reasonable digital replica. I'll cut and paste Canon's specifications at the end of the review for reference, but I'm not implying that I understand them.
The A570 measures 3.52 x 2.53 x 1.69 inches, which seems big if you're used to a small camera like the S200 Elph. I would have preferred to stay small, but my husband never liked the size of the Elph, and I figured it was his turn to choose. In spite of its larger size, the A570 weighs less that 6.5 ounces, which is barely more than the Elph. And unlike the smaller Canon S-series, the A-series has a rounded right edge for your hand to grip.
This camera has a 2.5 inch LCD viewfinder screen, 7.1 megapixels, and 4.0x digital and optical zoom.
What you get
The A570 comes with the usual Canon goodies: two AA batteries, a 16 MB card, software, a USB cable, an AV cable, and a wrist strap. (Always wear the wrist strap -- don't trust your pockets!)
One particularly nice thing is that this camera takes two AA batteries. The S200 had its own specific rechargeable battery, so unless you had two of them, you had to remove the battery, plug it in and wait before for it to recharge before you could take more pictures.
One reason I bought this camera was that at the time (late September 2007) Staples was offering a free Epson all-in-one printer with the purchase. My ancient printer had died literally the day before we left, so I needed a new one. However, as described in my
review of the Epson CX5000, that printer hasn't added a lot of value to my life. Still, I'd look around for deals like that (just not that particular printer!).
Initial Impressions
I learned to use this camera on a 40-minute ferry ride, which was all I needed to get the basics like setting the flash and other image settings, choosing the image size and reviewing photos. One nice thing about the A570 is that all the different settings are on a round flat knob on the top. You can leave this set on "auto" or move it to something like "kids and pets" (action shots) or "portrait" or "night."
I was very impressed with the general performance of the A570. Of course, bear in mind that I'd been using a camera with capabilities now routinely found on cell phones! That said, my old S200 had a
lot of trouble in low light. It wanted to use the flash unless you were in broad daylight, and if for some reason you turned the flash off the image would look really shaky. I was used to that, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how well low-light photos came out with the A570.
The battery life isn't great. Canon specifies a life of 120 shots or 540 minutes of playback per two AA alkaline batteries. Using the batteries that came with the camera, we were able to get 2 or 3 days of use out of it. We were taking a lot of pictures, but not any more than you'd normally take on a vacation. At home, we use rechargeable batteries, so battery life isn't really an issue. Canon has different specs for NiMH (rechargeable) batteries: 400 shots, or 660 minutes of playback. I thought it was odd that that the rechargeables were supposed to last longer, since I'd always heard that they weren't as good. I'm not complaining, though; I'd much rather use rechargeables.
Picture Quality
I needed to use one of the fancy settings almost immediately. We wanted to get some pictures of some "gingerbread cottages" -- they're these architecturally frilly sort of Victorian cottages that people kept telling us we should see. Anyway, we didn't find them until the sun was setting, and I didn't think any of the pictures would come out. I was using the flash and it was looking lousy; pretty much like you'd expect flash photography at night to look. Then I remembered the "night" setting, and the photos actually turned out pretty well. The colors look maybe a little off, but they came out clear, and you can see all the details. They don't look washed out like the flash photographs did.
I was also able to use the camera's built-in panoramic shot mode to get two good panoramic pictures. The digital "stitch" process was simple, and the pictures didn't end up looking stitched together at all.
The largest image sizes are amazingly clear and detailed. Don't let anyone take large shots of you unless you're prepared to get a good look at all your pores. Seriously, I resized some of ours on the computer before uploading them for friends to look at. I needed to get them smaller so there would be less detail!
The A570 got its ultimate test a few months later, on Christmas Eve, when I tried to get a picture of both my rabbits. One's black and one's white, and with my old Canon I'd either get the white one looking good, with some indistinct black shadow next to her, or I'd capture the detail on the black one, but there'd be this blinding white glare with red eyes next to him. This shot was made more difficult because rabbits don't like to hold still and pose. Plus, I was trying to shoot in a semi-dark room so I could get the Christmas lights. I tried both the "night" and the "kids and pets" modes, and both actually came out well. Of course, there were a few blurry shots I had to delete, and I needed the photo software to fix one rabbit's red eyes, but the end result was cute, and something I probably couldn't have done with my old camera.
The image stabilization feature definitely works. There have been times when I've had to hold the camera at a weird angle and I know my hands were a bit shaky, but you couldn't tell from the photograph.
Other Features
The small size and light weight of this camera make it easy to carry around. I find the controls very intuitive. Not just the big "say cheese" button -- they put that on the upper right, like it is in every camera ever made -- but also the location, size and uses of things like the memory and flash setting features. It seems like some products can really get this type of thing wrong; for example, we've had our DVD player for almost two years, and I still have to turn the lights on and hunt around for the "pause" button; somehow it's just not where I would expect. But everything on this camera just flows for me.
My husband, who actually knows something about photography, likes to mess around with the manual settings and feels like they give him all the options he needs. I'll let him write his own review if he feels like he needs to, though! There are reviews by and for camera geeks, and this isn't one of them! For right now, I'm perfectly happy using the auto settings and the stabilization feature to get clear photographs. But it's nice to know that I can start exploring things like ISO if I want to.
We actually haven't used the movies much, but the ones we have taken have been surprisingly good -- to the extent that I don't think we're going to buy a camcorder anytime soon. Unlike my old Canon, which took I think one-minute movie clips, this camera can shoot for up to one hour, as long as you have enough memory to store the footage. I think I read that one hour would require 4 GB of storage, so this obviously isn't going to replace a camcorder if you're really into shooting movies.
Storage and Connectivity
Here are the storage specs:
Storage Media:
SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, MultiMediaCard
JPEG Compression Mode
Still Image: Exif 2.2 (JPEG)
Movie: AVI (Image: Motion JPEG; Audio: WAVE (Monaural))
Number of Recording Pixels
Still Image: 640 x 480 (Small), 1,600 x 1,200 (Medium 3), 2,048 x 1,536 (Medium 2), 2,592 x 1,944 (Medium 1), 3,072 x 2,304 (Large), 3,072 x 1,728 (Widescreen)
Movie: 640 x 480 / 320 x 240 (30 fps/15 fps) available up to 4GB or 60 minutes, 320 x 240 (1 min. at 60 fps), 160 x 120 (3 min. at 15 fps)
The 16 MB storage card that comes with the camera can store 138 small normal photos or 4 large, superfine photos (which gives you some idea of the range of photo options available!). We bought an extra 2 GB storage card, and haven't had to delete any photos from the camera after nine months of use.
The USB transfer to the PC is quick and easy. I like the A/V hookup. It's nice to be able to look at your photos and movies on your TV set. Not a huge breakthrough in technology or anything, but I thought I'd mention that I enjoy it!
Software
The photo software that comes with the camera was easy to install on my
Toshiba Satellite notebook. The software has several basic functions related to photo editing, storage and sharing. The editing functions are
really basic: things like red eye correction, cropping, and adjustments to sharpness, color and brightness.
The storage functions are basically ways to navigate around your folders. You can do things like view a slide show, rename multiple files and search the images. I always end up doing stuff like this through the regular Windows explorer, but it's nice to have these functions in the photo software itself.
The software also helps you share photos through e-mail, backups and various types of exports. You can export still images, shooting properties, and extract frames from a movie. I haven't had the chance to use any of the movie editing features yet, but I'll update after I've tried them.
Final Recommendation
It will be hard for me to ever really be happy with this purchase, since I never got a chance to research it in Consumer Reports, compare prices and shop around. However, if this camera keeps performing like it has so far, it will probably win me over. And if it shows the kind of durability my old Canon did, it will have years to make it into my heart.
If you're looking for an easy-to-use, good quality camera, you should look into the PowerShot A570. It's small enough to take everywhere, (although larger than the tiny Elph cameras), and the use of AA batteries means it's easy to power. Features like image stabilization and red-eye reduction lead to great pictures, and you can even shoot movies.
The A570 has delivered excellent picture quality and ease of use for me. It has a large number of photo functions, which I look forward to exploring . . . someday when I have the time!
Specs as given by Canon
Lens
Focal Length
5.8-23.2mm f/2.6-5.5 (35mm film equivalent: 35-140mm)
Digital Zoom
4x
Focusing Range
Normal: 1.5 ft./45cm-infinity
Macro: 2.0 in.-1.5 ft./5-45cm (WIDE), 1.0-1.5 ft./30-45cm (TELE)
Autofocus System
TTL Autofocus
Viewfinder & Monitor
Viewfinder
Real-image optical zoom viewfinder
LCD Monitor
2.5 inch amorphous silicon TFT color LCD
LCD Pixels
Approx. 115,000 pixels
LCD Coverage
100%
Aperture and Shutter
Maximum Aperture
f/2.6 (W) - f/5.5 (T)
Shutter Speed
15-1/2000 sec. (settable in Tv and M)
Exposure Control
ISO Sensitivity
Auto, High ISO Auto, ISO 80/100/200/400/800/1600 (Standard Output Sensitivity. Recommended Exposure Index)
Light Metering Method
Evaluative*, Center-weighted average, Spot**
* Control to incorporate facial brightness in Face Detection
AF
** Metering frame is fixed to the center
Exposure Control Method
Program AE, Manual
Exposure Compensation
/-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
Flash
Built-in Flash
Auto, Auto w/ Red-eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash On w/ Red-eye Reduction, Flash Off
Flash Range
Normal: 1.5-11 ft./45cm-3.5m (W), 1.5-7.2 ft./45cm-2.2m (T)
Macro: 1.0-1.5 ft./30-45cm (W/T) (when sensitivity is set to ISO Auto)
Recycling Time
10 sec. or less (battery voltage=3.0V)
Flash Exposure Compensation
/-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
