You'll look like a pro!

Author's Rating:

Pros: great picture quality, excellent video w/sound, good battery life, durable

Cons: The full feature and option list is a long list to learn!

The Bottom Line: 
Whether you're a casual picture-taker, hobbyist or a seasoned photo professional, the Canon PowerShot A70 has features to please at a VERY reasonable price!

Author's Review
I haven't bought a new digital camera since 1998. My old, nearly featureless Pretec model delivered only 800x600 resolution and all the pictures had an increasingly blue tint to them. I decided it was time for something new. Before I even had the chance to start any serious camera shopping, my birthday rolled around and my fiance bought me the Canon PowerShot A70. He is employed by Canon, therefore his purchase may have been biased. But after trying out the camera and researching similar models from competing companies, I know would have chosen to buy this particular camera without a doubt.


CONSTRUCTION:

The Canon PowerShot A70 is a solid camera. It is weighty for its size and feels comfortable in the hands. All the buttons and switches are easy to reach, even if I hold the camera in just one hand. It is a small camera, but not too small.

The camera body is constructed mainly of metallic plastic and does not seem like it will break very easily. I did drop the camera onto a hardwood floor from a standing position and there is no evidence whatsoever of any misuse.

The rubberized door to the digital and A/V inputs is deceptive. It seems flimsy at first, but is actually an example of genius design. That door isn't going anywhere unless you slice it off with a utility knife. Your digital and A/V inputs will always remain dust-free for optimal transfers.

The battery cover is easy to open and close and is very secure when shut. No chance of the batteries accidentally falling out here!

The cover over the compact flash card is the only part of the construction leaving something to be desired. It's a bit thin and only held on by two small, plastic hinges. I think if anything on this camera breaks, it will be this piece. Still, I don't switch flash cards very often and I am confident the door will last as long as I own the camera.

All the buttons and switches on the camera are made of the same metallic plastic as the camera body and seem sturdy. Even the lens and lens cover are well-constructed.


FEATURES:

The Canon PowerShot A70 boasts a full list of features, enough to satisfy even a professional photographer. I am by no means a professional, but this camera definitely makes me feel like one!

The camera's default (auto) settings are good enough to give you great shots in any conditions. However, you can use the camera's manual settings to get everything just right for your shot. There are also specific modes for portraits, low-light conditions, night shots, fast-moving subjects, landscapes, panoramics, video and closeups.

A quick rundown of the A70's features includes:

3.2 megapixels
9.6x combined zoom
1.5 inch LCD monitor screen
5-46 cm five-point focus
variable shutter speed (15 to 1/2000 of a second)
exposure and white balance controls
flash: on, off, auto, red-eye reduction
14' flash range
self-timer: 2 or 10 seconds
photo size and quality: 640 x 480 up to 2048 x 1536, quality from normal to superfine.
video: 160 x 120 up to 640 x 480, and will shoot up to three minutes of video at a time.
various replay modes and languages
customizable sounds and graphics
supports Exif Print 2.2 so you can print directly to a printer
With the flash and LCD screen on, it will take over 300 shots using 4 AA NiMH batteries, or over 200 shots with the included AA alkaline batteries. (Battery life is slightly shorter when shooting in colder weather.)


WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

Included with the Canon PowerShot A70 camera, you will get:

four AA alkaline batteries (will last through at least 200 shots with LCD screen on)
one 16 megabyte type 1 compact flash card
wrist strap
A/V cable
USB cable
two software disks, containing complete drivers and software for your camera as well as for organizing, editing and printing photos
information on optional accessories for your camera
registration and warranty cards
Quick Start guide
complete camera instructions and software manual


SOFTWARE INSTALLATION:

Installing the camera software and uploading photos to your computer is a breeze. Simply insert the "Canon Digital Camera Solution" disk and follow the prompts to install the drivers and any of the additional software you'd like. Uploading photos is as easy as connecting the USB cable between your computer and camera, turning the camera's dial to "Play mode" and turning the camera on. Onscreen prompts quickly guide you through saving photos to your hard drive.


USING YOUR CAMERA

Right out of the box, the Canon PowerShot A70 is a breeze to use. Install the four AA batteries and compact flash card, turn the camera on and you're taking picture after picture in seconds! The camera is very easy to handle and learn the basic features of. You could feel confident giving this camera as a gift to anyone at all, even a "technologically challenged" relative and know they will be able to use it.

Beyond basic operation, the camera's features are very customizable and easy to use. The menus are quite easy to navigate and only feel more complicated than they are. With a little practice, you'll breeze through all of them. Setting the self-timer, erasing unwanted photos or "locking" the ones you want to keep from deletion is as easy as pressing two buttons.

As a bonus, you will also find three "themes" for your camera: the default Canon theme, a space theme and a nature theme. You can mix and match sounds and graphics from each theme to create your own theme as well. These themes serve to make the camera a bit more "personal" and fun to use. I often get a kick out of surprising my cats with the bird sounds on my camera. =)

I've used this camera for over two months now, taking an average of 600 shots per week. I've experimented with it enough to know that I will get high quality results from the automatic camera settings almost every time, while I can use the manual controls to get just the right night shot or detailed closeup of something as small as a flower petal or anthill at sunrise.

Portraits are particularly wonderful with the A70. A separate portrait mode lowers the flash and blurs flesh tones ever so slightly, giving the subject a flattering, natural appearance while holding every detail, down to the smallest pore.

Image quality is excellent with only one exception: indoor, low-light conditions. In these conditions, the background of most images are somewhat washed out and grainy, though the graininess is generally not noticeable at smaller image sizes.


SO, WHAT'S THE VERDICT?

If you're looking for a good, solid digital camera packed full of features and quality and you don't want to spend a lot of money, the Canon PowerShot A70 is absolutely the way to go. Without putting down the products of competing companies, the Canon PowerShot A70 is likely the best camera on the market in this price range. It's a good purchase that my fiance and I are proud of.