Gadgetrepublic.com - News: Imaging

At first glance, the PowerShot A495 does not seem like anything special: it's not particularly slimline, it's not particularly shiny or particularly funky. But it is a good and solid digital compact and that's what you want for slinging in your bag for a weekend away or rambling nature walk.

^{The A495 has a 3.3x lens zoom}

With 10-megapixel resolution and a 3.3x zoom lens, you're not getting cheap as chips picture quality: the A495 holds up well for both group shots, landscape imagery and close-up macro shots, too.

Physical appearance

The recently released PowerShot A495 has a plastic casing but the metallic red, blue or silver finish saves it from looking cheap, however, I wouldn't let it take too many knocks to the head as the casing could crack.

_{DC in and Av out connections on the PowerShot A495}

Setting up and transferring images is pretty straight forward. There are two openings: one for the battery (it takes two AA) and SD card and another for the DC in and AV out, which takes mini USB.

The LCD screen is 2.50 inches; plenty big for view finding and tweaking settings, and there are only a few buttons to get used to. You're basically switching it on, snapping, zooming, and switching between still and video or auto and programmable.

I guarantee you'll get the hang of it in less than an hour and operating it is quite similar to the current Canon digital compacts on the market.

^{Macro shot on the A495}

Ease of use

I'm not a fan of sticking to auto and I certainly didn't feel that there were too may choices on this to get confused with. There are plenty of those custom settings, such as super vivid, low light, indoor, night snapshots and the like.

There's one called FaceSelf-Timer for those looking for a new Facebook profile pic: it simply tells you to look straight into the camera and count down.

I can also see Face Detection Self-Timer being used lots by families: you can time for a group shot and it will do its face-recognition magic and make sure everyone is in focus for the image.

Target market

This is obviously not a camera for the aspiring photographer but it is a good quality choice for your teen's first digital camera or a great one for family use. It's fairly inexpensive but has all the bells and whistles that allows for some creativity instead of the usual flash or no flash, zoom or no zoom limitations that would might expect for entry-level models.

By Marie Boran