Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/19/review_canon_powershot_a460/
Review Quality used to cost. We all know that whenever we bought a consumer electronics product, part of what we paid went on the brand name. Well, things have changed and the Canon PowerShot A460 is sure testament to this, and a snip at just £70, the A460 is very much a budget-priced product.
At this price, quite a few compromises have to be made. For starters, this is hardly the most compact camera in town - indeed, it’s rather on the bulky side. That said, we happily carried it around in our pocket and it didn’t give our jacket a noticeable bulge.
Canon's A460: bulky but budget-priced
The A460 is also supplied with two alkaline AA batteries, so it’s going to cost a little more to run - although opting for rechargeables will help cut the cost.
This probably explains why the A460 has both a 2in LCD screen and an optical viewfinder. The latter making it possible to switch off the screen and save battery power. Still, it's nice to have a viewfinder for those bright sunny days.
The A460 comes with a few accessories, including a combined AV/PC cable, puny 16MB MMC card - it also takes SD and SDHC cards - and the ubiquitous CD containing the instruction book and photo software.
Taking a trip around the camera, on the top is a large power button and shutter control, with a small AV port covered by a plastic cover on the right. At the back is the LCD display, viewfinder, display and menu buttons, function set control and printer button. There’s also a large rocker control that doubles as zoom control and gives access to macro and flash settings. Also on the rear is a dial for selecting auto or manual control, scene settings and movie mode. At the other side of the camera body is the battery/memory card cover.
Despite its modest price, the A460 offers a fair sprinkling of features, including a five-megapixel sensor; 4x optical zoom equivalent to 38-152mm on a 35mm camera; and 12 shooting modes, including Portrait, Fireworks, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, plus colour effects, like sepia, and black and white, which can be applied to both still images and movies.
Movie recording offers three modes, with 640 x 480 (VGA) at 10f/s being the default setting – and highest resolution. ISO speed ranges from 80 to 400, and the shutter speed goes from 15-1/2000th second. Picture resolution ranges from 2952 x 1944 pixels to VGA, and there’s also a wide mode (2592 x 1456) for printing onto wide paper.
Simple to use
The relative dearth of features means that the A460 is very simple to use. Just open the (fiddly) battery/memory card cover, insert batteries and card and you’re ready to go. Power-up isn’t bad in terms of speed and it’s very easy to find your way around the controls. Switching from still to movie mode or to a particular scene mode didn’t involve navigating endless menus or sub-menus - a good thing in our book. Our main gripes are the zoom control, which is not as convenient to use as a conventional rocker, and the slow flash power-up - it took around half a dozen seconds, a drag obviously due to the AA batteries.
Sample shots
(http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/bright_indoor_big.jpg)
This predominately white scene exposes some picture noise, otherwise the A460 performed well shooting a brightly lit scene
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(http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/twilight_without_big.jpg)
Twilight without Night Snapshot taken at dusk at ISO 250 and shutter speed 1/60 sec
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(http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/twilight_with_big.jpg)
The same scene shot at the same time, only this time with the Night Snapshot mode on. The ISO remains the same, but the shutter speed is slowed to 1/8th sec
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So how did the A460 perform? Overall, very well, especially when you consider its low price. Outdoor shots in bright light were sharp, well-defined and had vivid colours. The only downside was a touch of picture noise here and there - see the first shot on the previous page - but the end results were pleasing. The 4x optical zoom also pulled in a lot more detail than you might expect.
(http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/outdoor_big.jpg)
Performance was excellent when shooting outdoors in good light
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Things were not so great when it came to shooting in low light and the increase in picture noise was quite noticeable; for example, when we took shots inside the dimly-lit main hall of the Tate Modern gallery. It was the same outdoors and when we used the Night Snapshot mode, a twilight scene was magically transformed into a daylight scene, but at the expense of sharpness and detail.
(http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/wide_big.jpg)
Shot taken with the shortest focal length of 5.4mm
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(http://regmedia.co.uk/2007/12/19/zoom_big.jpg)
Same scene, but with the 4x optical zoom fully extended to 21.6mm
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The 640 x 480 move mode worked better than we had hoped, with fairly smooth motion even if the recorded sound is nothing to write home about.
Canon says that two AA alkaline batteries should give you around 120 shots and we took more than 100 shots around London, plus recorded several short movie clips – and still had power left in our batteries.
The A460 comes in three colours (red, blue and silver), measures 106 x 51.8 x 40.2mm and weighs 165h, excluding batteries and memory card.
When you consider that the Canon A460 offers features that would have been found on a camera costing several times more only a few years ago, it’s incredible to think how much technology has moved on. If you’re after value for money, then the A460 offers it in spades. We think that at this price point, you’re getting a decent camera with a solid set of features and a decent performance.
If you’re looking for the best in performance then you’re obviously going to have to pay a little more. But we think this camera will appeal to anyone who simply wants to test the water when it comes to digital photography, is on a tight budget or perhaps doesn’t want to risk losing or damaging an expensive camera when out and about. Quality does indeed cost, but the PowerShot A460 shows that budget doesn’t have to mean bad.
 | Canon PowerShot A460 |
| Summary | A cheap, chunky, cheeky chappie of a camera that won’t break the bank - but will give you lots of photo pleasure... |
|---|---|
| Rating | 80% |
| Price | £100 / €140 |
| More info | Canons' PowerShot A460 page (http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_Camera/PowerShot/powershot-a460/index.asp) |
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