Best overall 3.2mp camera in its class, and a great value

Author's Rating:

Pros: relatively low cost, great flexibility, manual settings, fantastic Ni-MH battery life

Cons: HORRIBLE software interface, slightly bulky, lens add-ons somewhat expensive

The Bottom Line: 
For the price, I highly recommend this camera to enthusiastic beginners/intermediates who want a little of everything. Some slight problems, but overall it's the best in its class.

Author's Review
Overall conclusion: I've had it for about five months, used it nearly daily, and I LOVE the Canon Powershot A70, with a very few minor quibbles...
This is a long, detailed review, so below, major features are in bold, while my conclusions for each are italicized. (Sorry for the length: there are a lot of things to review!)

Initial research
I did extensive research, for about two full months, before settling on the A70 (paid $299 tax, plus a ~$45 two year replacement/service plan, at Best Buy.) When I tried to buy it at Fry's, and then Circuit City, both were out of stock, and both places said it sells like gangbusters when it comes in. Best Buy had three in stock. This seemed like a good sign...
The main competition was the Minolta Dimage XT, similar in many features, but MUCH slimmer. The Minolta was beautiful for its size and relative flexibility, but I read way too many complaints about the seriously underpowered flash, the SD memory is WAY more expensive than CompactFlash, and overall reviews just weren't as positive.

My needs:
Basically, I wanted a little bit of everything:
Photographically speaking:
* decent resolution for my serious-amateur photography,
* the flexibility of manual controls, but also
* point and shoot ease for when I see a great snapshot that will go away quickly if I dawdle.

Technically speaking:
* I wanted good battery life,
* decent indoor & flash photography,
* some video capability,
* some amount of zoom (equivalent to 105mm was enough),
* cheap flash memory (yay for CompactFlash!),
* portability, and
* fast start-up speed.

Travel ease: This was critical. I really wanted something that took standard (AA or AAA) batteries so I can buy them in a pinch in, say, Mexico or Central America, and
* that had good battery life int he first instance.
* Something I could keep in the car, or camelback (backpack), for when for when I'm wandering around and see a great shot. (Even better if it fits easily in my pocket.)
* Finally, I wanted a camera that looks roughly like a PHS ('Push here, Stupid') model, and doesn't look like a $1,000 camera, when I'm wandering around, say, Mexico or Central America, and if I do lose it or drop it in a puddle, isn't the end of the world.
These travel-ease issues aren't reviewed individually below, but you'll see why the A70 meets these needs pretty darn well, with the exception of fitting nicely in my pocket.


PROS:
Technical & photographic issues
* Resolution: For what I do (primarily outdoor, nature, landscape photography, and 'photojournalism-style' people and wedding photography), 3.2 megapixels is the perfect choice. Consistently good quality (i.e., no noticeable loss of quality) blow-ups to 8x10 are fine for me, the average 1.4mb file size per shot (on the highest resolution) is workable; while the file sizes resulting from 4.0 and greater megapixel cameras chew through memory too quickly for me.

* Point and shoot ease: This camera has it. It turns on and is ready to shoot (in auto-mode) in just over two seconds, I can usually take about a shot a second with basic settings (though it slows after 6-10 shots, but this lag is probably due to write speeds of the Compact Flash I memory I use.)

* Manual controls: (semi-technical discussion): Not everyone will benefit from this, as if you don't have some basic training in photography, the point of adjusting aperture ("f stops") will be sort of obscure. And arguably, it doesn't actually work the same way as it does in manual cameras, but rather just tells the camera what you'd like, and then it tries to do that for you. But I at least wanted the appearance that I was able to control depth of field and shutter speed, and this has been critical, and really worked quite nicely with the A70.

* The A70 has four main exposure modes that I use: Fully auto (35%), fully manual (25%), aperture priority (35%: you specify your chosen f-stop, and it chooses the proper speed), and nighttime (5%.) It has many (~8) others, I just don't use them much: the exposure modes available are way more than enough for basic photography.

* I do find the camera's common default (on full auto mode) to wide-open apertures (2.8 to 3.2) a bit irritating: while it's fine for many snapshots, for anything where you want there to be sharp focus both close-up and deep in the background, you really need to be able to specify a high f-stop.
But this is in the "pros" section, because it's easily overcome by shooting in aperture priority mode ("Av" on the camera dial). When there is decent natural light, I very often leave it on f-8, which in the grand scheme of apertures, is mid-range, and provides nice depth of field (everything is in decent focus), without sacrificing shutter speed (meaning the shutter doesn't move so slowly as to lead to blurring.)

* Shutter speed: from 15 seconds to 1/2000 of a second, the range available on the A70 is HUGE for this price range of digital camera. Short explanation: very fast shutter speeds are good for very bright light and fast moving images (kids running on a soccer field at noon in California), while much slower shutter speeds make low-light and nighttime photography possible. VERY generally, fast shutter speeds mean more grain in the image, and slow allow for more richness.
(On a regular SLR camera, shooting below 1/60 (one sixtieth of a second that he shutter is open) generally results in blurry pics unless you use a tripod or steady the camera on a solid object.)
The A70 does a consistently good job of choosing shutter speeds on full-auto and aperture priority modes, and I love being able to choose my own.


* Battery life: FANTASTIC with NiMH rechargeables: All figures for general use, with probably 30% flash usage, and lots of zoom, lots of reviewing photos on the LCD display:
* With generic Kirkland/Costco brand disposable AA alkaline batteries, I got about 250 images, or ~150 images and two short (~15 secs.) video clips. Decent, but not great.
* With generic brand NiCad (nickel cadium) AA rechargeables (500mA), I got roughly the same performance as disposables, maybe just slightly better. Not really worth the price and hassle of recharging.
* The clear best way: Ni-MH rechargeable AA batteries (see below, Panasonic brand, $20 for six AA and 2 AAA at Costco with charger), I consistently get 400-500 pictures, or 300 pictures and two medium length video clips (30-45 seconds, with sound). Absolutely the way to go: NiMH works fantastically with the A70. I have yet to run the NiMH batteries totally out: I generally recharge them just to be safe. The battery life rivals the expensive ($12-$20) specialty batteries I used to use with my (basic PHS) Olympus camera.


* Memory: Compact Flash memory, which is usually the cheapest of the various brands, at around $55 for a 256mb card. Lots of complaints (for most all cameras) about the tiny 16mb (or 8mb!) card that comes with the cameras, but in the 3.2mp resolutions and up, you just have to accept that you'll be buying more memory.
With a 256mb card, at maximum resolution (2048x1536), I can store around 155 pics shot on full-auto. At the next level, 1600x1200, I can store around 250 per card.
For casual, daily use, downloading pictures once or twice a week, one 256mb card will do you fine. I have three 256mb cards, which I've bought as cheap as $39 at Costco for SanDisk brand. (I've had fine luck with them, though others on the web say SanDisk isn't reliable, I haven't seen this.) Summary: I LOVE Compact Flash, and LOVE that the A70 uses it.)

* Zoom (3x optical): works fine, is reasonably fast for the price range, ignore the "digital zoom" numbers. Using zoom, the camera does smart work with exposure settings, meaning I don't really have to change my depth of field and aperture calculations manually. I like the zoom.


NEUTRALS / So-So things
* Video capability: The A70 has it, and it works fine, especially in a pinch. Make sure you have strong batteries and lots of storage, but this won't replace a good digital video camera (or VHS for that matter.) I just don't get that much use out of it, so I can't say too much about it. I'm in the market for a nice mini-DV camera, for what that says.

* Indoor & flash photography: with natural light through windows, the indoor photography is fine, but the flash tends to be too powerful for close up (and bleaches out shots, and creates weird reflections). Overall, indoor photography is fine, but flash photography is mediocre. However, outdoors, in a range of 4-12 feet, the flash photography is fairly good. In general, I'd recommend that you try to avoid using the flash: work with the exposure settings, and turn off the flash (easily done.)

* Features and design: They are packing a lot into a little package, so I'll forgive them having a so-so user interface. It takes some learning, but once you've got the hang of it, it's reasonably easy to use this camera.
I should note that I've had minimal difficulty with the bright-silver frame around the LCD that other find way too reflective: any situations where this has been a problem (super bright light in Tucson, e.g.) it would've been a problem with many cameras.
Overall, the LCD screen is big enough, and the frame review feature pretty good, though both could be improved: the frame review interface could be more logical, and the screen could be a tad larger and more clear.
While the rubber flap "door" covering the USB port, A/V out, and DC plug-in seems a little flimsy, I've been using it without any difficulty, and this is an area where many camera makers seem to skimp.

* The lens ad-ons were actually one of the attractive things about the A70, as I liked the idea of being able to easily increase zoom, or wide-angle capabilities. Unfortunately, I didn't research it enough first, to discover that a Canon LA-DC52C lens adaptor is necessary to the tune of ~$40, and then the lens choices limited to two: a wine angle and a zoom, and both fairly expensive ($75-$100 range).
HOWEVER, as I'm researching this review for accuracy, it appears that prices have plummeted on these items, to around $18 for the adaptor, and $40-$60 for the lenses. So I may have another epinion to submit soon(!), and this issue has gone from a "con" to a "neutral".


CONS
* Portability: while the A70 is about average for its class and in its price range, it's just a little bulky for me. I'd like to be able to keep it in my pants pocket all the time, and not feel like my pocket is bulging: it's just a little too large for this, and with four AA batteries, the weight is a little high in its class, since many others use lighter, smaller (but often more expensive, and certainly less flexible) proprietary batteries, and charging systems you have to be able to plug in.

* Software is undoubtedly the big stinker of this package. First, Canon's software package is huge: it requires two separate CD-ROMs to install, and my "Add/Remove programs" control panel says ZoomBrowser Ex alone is a whopping 4,095.00mb!.
The proprietary "ZoomBrowser EX" interface for download images to the computer is clunky and slow. You can't select all images on the card to download, or even create a full-size window, but instead have to select four to eight images (depending on your screen size and resolution), then hit the scroll bar, select another 4-8, and so on. This is maddening, and I sometimes use XP's built in photo download feature, even it it's also pretty poor. There are lots of features in the various software pieces, but the interfaces are all pretty mediocre, and I generally just prefer to use Windows PhotoEditor for basic cropping and the like. Finally, whenever you run your mouse over any of the thumbnail images in the download screen, it inexplicably refreshes every image! Conclusion: the software is basically useable, but AWFUL. With any luck, Canon will put out new, better software.


a couple VERY worthwhile accessories:
* I spent about $19.99 at Costco on a Panasonic Ni-MH rechargeable battery set: six AA (2100mAh), two AAA (750mAh), and a small, quick wall charger. Best $20 I've ever spent: the battery life, as noted above, is wonderful.

* Especially if you have a Costco membership, just buy a larger Compact Flash card, at least 128mb, when you buy the camera.
Then keep an eye out for good sales and rebates on flash memory: it's a super competitive market, and stores put it on sale all the time. (Keep an eye on http://officedepot.com, http://officemax.com, http://bestbuy.com, http://circuitcity.com, etc.) They often require long wait-time mail-in rebates, but occasionally have great sales/instant rebates.
I'm not too aware of the relative value of buying Compact Flash 'II' or 'Ultra' speed memory: for me, it hasn't been worth the extra money: standard, Compact Flash 'I' has been more than adequate. But it could increase the amount of shots you can take in rapid succession, and the download speeds, if you care about these things.