The Powershot A95 Experience

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excelling I.Q., loads of manual controls, camera that grows with you, easy to use interface

Cons: Some redeye, 3x zoom, autofocus a tad slow, USB 1.1, start up 2.5 seconds

The Bottom Line: 
Great overall camera. Good at everything it does. Great where it matters: taking pictures. Get a warranty for this baby, because you'll be damn dissapointed if you break it.

Author's Review
After much research and deliberation, I decided to purchase the Powershot A95, over the Sony DSC-W1. Every camera has its pros and cons, and each are designed for with a different person in mind, but I felt this was the camera for me, although I'm sure everyone would be perfectly happy with it.

As far as a point-and-shoot camera goes, this one does very well. Auto-Mode produces good photos on its own. There are also a variety of scene and program modes, as you become more skilled, and loads of manual controls for when you become more advanced. For the price you pay, you get LOADS of control over your photography. As opposed to the equally priced DSC-W1, with limited manual controls, this is a good deal. Even the lower-end Powershot A85 and A75 models offer the same amount of control.

Start up time is about 2.5 seconds, which is pretty decent, but there are faster cameras, like the Sony DSC-W1. I don't really have any complaints about it, I didn't pick this camera for how fast it would turn on, because I knew I wouldn't be capturing a lot of "in the heat of the moment" shots. The Canon, however, is fast where it counts, and that is at taking pictures. Autofocus is a tad slow (but lots faster than focusing manually!), but shutter lag is about 1/10 of a second. Burst mode also is quite fast, if you're into taking a lot of pictures in a short amount of time. Moving between pictures in playback mode is also a tad slow(again, there are faster things out there), but not any slower than a second.

Image quality is superb. Color is very accurate, hues all good, etc etc. I didn't notice a great deal of purple fringing in my shots, and the camera deals with strong highlights fairly well. Image noise is fairly low at ISO 50, but above 200 things are not so great. Again, this wasn't really a problem for me, because I don't adjust the sensitivity alot. This canon lens is tack-sharp, a good bonus. The Sony DSC-W1 took a route of agressive anti-noise processing, which destroys fine detail, whereas this camera took a less-agressive stance on image noise, maintaining a lot of fine detail.

Ergonomics on the camera were great. It's solid built (durable, too, I've dropped it a couple of times and its fine), and a tad on the heavy side, but nothing unmanagable. It's fairly compact for the amount of features is packs inside, although it won't fit into a tight pair of jeans. I still take it everywhere I go, with ease. The hand grip on the side helps a lot for one handed shooting, as well. The camera controls were VERY intuitive. Within the first half-hour or so (without even reading the manual) I was shooting away, without the use of auto mode! Changing shutter, white balance, ISO, etc. are all very quick and easy to do.

4 AA batteries supply the camera with power, which is a bonus. Whenever they run dead, slap another set in there, or pick up some new ones whenever you need. Personally I can't stand the tiny, low capacity, proprietary batteries that come with a lot of cameras these days. With a good pair of high-capacity (I'd say 2100 mAh or above) Ni-MH batteries,you should be able to get a few hundred shots out of this camera.

The LCD is marvelous. 118,000 pixels on a 1.8" ROTATING LCD screen. Wonderful. The Sony 'competitor' has an anorexic 125,000 pixels on a huge 2.5" screen. Motion is very fluid, rated at 24 fps. Images on the screen are bright and crisp. Did I mention it rotates? The LCD also increases in brightness in low-light situations (unlike the Sony...*glares*). The A95 doesn't have night vision, but you'll at least be able to frame your shot.

The included software bundle is pretty good for being free. You get the standard image downloader, some fairly good photo-editing software, and a program that allows you to connect your camera and operate it via computer.

This camera has only a few quips with me. Only a 3x zoom, which is the standard for most every camera, I know, just 4x or more would have been nice (although we would probably have to pay a hell of a lot more). However, you can add telephoto conversion lenses, to increase zoom power by 1.75x. Cool. USB 1.1 isn't exactly fast for downloading 512MB worth of pictures, either. Some redeye, but not as bad as I expected, as the flash is quite powerful (and you can even crank it up in manual mode!) Movie mode is time-limited, but I don't ever find myself taking more than a few minutes of video at once. I don't intend to video-record an entire wedding, or anything. Just pictures for me, thanks.

I was looking for a more "professional" camera, which focused on what matters, and that is taking pictures. Image quality is superb, like I said. I simply love this camera, I take it everywhere I go, and if you're already looking at buying this, then I doubt you will regret it.