Canon PowerShot A510 3.2MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

This is the best camera I've ever owned! Here's the strong points: - Great pictures! - I've always had problems with the "push the button halfway down to focus" and watch for lights. This gives you a tone so you don't have to bother with lights so you can focus on taking the picture. - Great that you can have the camera automatically set the settings, or manually adjust individual ones if you want. - Great for Panoramics. The included software does a great job stitching, provided you have a common element to use. - Great price for what you get! Canon paid attention to detail, and did a nice job making this camera!

If you are looking to buy your first digital camera at a good price, buy this one. The Quick Start Guide is very easy to read and got me up and running immediately. In less than 15 minutes I was able to load the batteries, insert the memory card, turn the camera on, set the date and time, take my first picture, load the software onto my computer from the CD, download the image to my computer, and finally e-mail it to a friend. Documentation that is included in the box: - Quick Start Guide (2-sided, poster size, step-by-step pictorial) - Camera User Guide (160 pages, pocket-size) - Direct Print User Guide (49 pages, pocket size) - Software Starter Guide (102 pages, larger pocket size) - System Map (2-sided, A4 size, diagrams how all the accessories fit together) - Warranty Card (postcard) - "For Windows® XP and Mac OS X Users" Leaflet (2-sided) - "Canon Customer Support" Leaflet (2-sided) Two accessories you should definitely buy are a larger memory/SD card and NiMH batteries with a battery charger. The 16 MB card that comes in the box does not hold many images. (I want to purchase a 256 SD Card, but the documentation does not specify how many recordable images it would hold.) Also, you will save money and trips to the store in the long run by using rechargeable batteries. As someone who has been using a six year-old 35 mm camera, I am writing this as a novice user without the ability to compare other digital cameras. However, at this price and with 3.2-megapixels, I am happy to finally get away from my 35 mm camera.

This is my 3rd digital camera, purchased after my previous camera was lost. I got the A510 because all of the more expensive models didn't really satisfy my needs and wants - so if I was going to replace the camera in a year or two (when the new Canons, Nikons, or others catch up to my expectations of them), then why spend too many $$$ now? I wanted compactness & portability, point-and-shoot plus manual control capability, a longer optical zoom (more than 3X), a wide-angle that was really wide angle (at least 35mm using the old "35mm camera equivalent" scale). Also, I'm doing glorified snapshots of the family, so really high resolution and pixels were not so important to me; 3.2 Megapixels is enough. This Canon A510 met all of the above criteria, at a bargain price, and had the full manual operation capability (which is a bit rare to find) in case I ever wanted to get really serious about one or the other photo situation. It's big brother the A520 was overpriced for the amount of improvements it gave me. After purchase, I find that the A510 is basically "as expected; sometimes even better". I have not noticed any significant lag after shooting as others have reported, but then I am not doing action sports photos, and do have some good NiMH batteries. Things I would like to improve: (1) the zoom can be jerky at times (not so great for fast changes and action photos), (2) when the battery indicator starts to say "low" you are very nearly "inoperative", (3) in video mode the zoom and exposure are locked at the beginning and will not adjust during "filming" (a very common failing of still cameras doing video). Also, you do need to be careful with the little doors that cover the memory card and the batteries, since they are a bit fragile. They're plastic on metal hinges; abuse them, and they can break a bit too easily. (I have seen this, but not experienced it myself.) If your needs are like mine, then you should be very satisfied with this camera. I am.

I bought this with the iP4000R Wireless Photo Printer to get the $70 rebate for the 2 items together. I never got the rebate and after contacting Canon for a month they tell me they never got the box tabs. Of course I sent them with the rebate form. So now I have no boxes and no rebate. Very aggravating and disappointing!

I just wanted a digital camera. Nothing too complex, but with enough features that once I got used to it, I could branch out to new things. I shopped & shopped. Looked at about 100 or cameras online, read a ton of reviews, and asked friends who had cameras, and finally figured out want I wanted: Point & shoot - a camera with which I could take basic family photos. 3+ megapixels - enough to get great resolution up to 8 X 10 prints, without having to pay a ton of money. Features - but not so many options that I would have to take a class to figure it all out. Hand friendly - small enough to carry along anywhere, but big enough that I didn't feel like a giant trying to operate tiny little controls. Well, this camera was absolutely perfect. I took my first picture approximately 5 min. after opening the box. Literally put in the batteries and memory card, turned on the power, and hit the shutter. My first attempt at downloading photos to my computer would have been flawless if I had ony remembered to actually turn the camera on. (pesky little details) The pictures are the best I have ever taken, were incredibly easy to take, and I haven't even begun to explore the possibilities. For the price, which was phenomenal, I am more than pleased. And I didn't have to hang around Best Buy for hours waiting on some teenager with angst. Double bonus!

My folks wanted a digital camera but are not technology saavy people. Also, they are getting up there in age and not enthused about taking alot of time to learn something new. I did a lot of research and found that the Canon A510 got high marks on both the quality of pictures and the ease of use. So we took a chance and bought on for my folks. I am impressed! I was able to load the batteries and the memory card and show my folks a few basics to get them off and running. They are able to take clear, vibrant pictures without any hassle. (For the first time ever, my mom hasn't cut heads off of any of her photo subjects!) I have shown them how to upload their photos and my dad has been e-mailing pictures to all his relatives. I was so impressed that I bought one for myself and have been having a blast! I have taken short videos of my puppy with it and some fantastic action shots of him and was able to create a little video of the photos and movie set to music with the Zoom Browser software that came with the camera. Next week I might even open the instruction manual to see what else can be done....so far the interface has been intuitive enough that I haven't even opened the plastice bag the manual came in. The pictures printed off my folks plain laser jet printer look fabulous! If you are a beginner and not looking to print wall sized photos with a lot of fancy stuff, this camera is a perfect start!

Did extensive research before we bought this camera, so surprised and disappointed. Might be OK for static subjects, but we bought to take photos of our kids, and this is just no good for that. The shutter lag is interminable, and thus we never get the shot we want, even when set at the kids and pets setting. We put a rubber band around our old Nikon Coopix 1000 and are using that again. Much quicker. Who needs all those pixels for snapshots unless you're printing large photos. With the 1 megapixel you get thousands of photos on a small memory card, and the photos send much quicker via email/web. If you're shooting kids, don't waste your money - save up until you're ready to spend enough to get a camera with no shutter lag -- and be prepared to spend hundreds of dollars on memory cards.

Let me start with the bad, and get the complaining out of the way. First, the CCD is a little bit on the noisy side, especially in low light situations. That said, I'm still surprised at the number of low-light, no-flash pictures that can be salvaged in Photoshop. Second, it has an artificial limit on video length - 30 seconds at 640x480 and 3 minutes at lower resolutions. I cannot see any good reason for this, as the A530 and A540 can record video until you run out of power or memory. Also, those later models will let you do "digital zoom" while shooting and this camera will not. The zoom ratio you start with is what you are stuck with for the entire video. Third, the flash recycle time is longer than I would like. This is probably due to the choice of two AA batteries as a power source, and it does not seem to be any better on my mother's A530. Fourth, the display is small. It's a small camera, deal with it. You can zoom in on a picture if you feel it's necessary to check it on the spot. Finally, it has significant barrel distortion at the wide end of the zoom range. Most of the time you aren't going to notice, but it is visible and somewhat bothersome in architectural photos. These flaws rule out a five-star rating, but the camera still has plenty going for it. First, the optics are sharp, although I noted the distortion issue above. I do not get the purple fringing I have seen on some other cameras. I believe these optics went unchanged into the A530 and A540, which means they are probably overkill for a 3.2MP sensor. The f/2.6 maximum aperture is quite usable. Second, the flash is surprisingly good. The red-eye reduction doesn't work particularly well, but it never does with a flash this close to the lens axis (and you can fix that in the bundled software). I noted the cycle time issue, but I can't complain about the amount of light generated once it does charge. Third, it's not as hungry as some other cameras I've tried. I would tell you how long one set of NiMH AA batteries last, but I can't -- I've never been able to run them flat. I just pop in freshly charged batteries before every adventure and I'm good to go. The fact that it uses AA batteries also means you're never more than a trip to 7-11 away from a fresh charge, if the situation calls for it. Fourth, it's very versatile. The "Auto" mode is dead simple to operate, enabling macro focusing is a single button press, the zoom is very intuitive, the pre-focusing behaves exactly like you would expect from a larger camera, and it does shoot video with sound. At the same time, it has manual mode, Av and Tv modes, a rear-curtain flash sync mode, and many other ways to bend it far beyond mere snapshots. Simple when you need it, complex when you want it -- perfect balance. The mode wheel is a good, old-fashioned click wheel, so once you memorize where your favorite click stops are, you don't even have to look. As you would expect from a Canon camera, it also has 2-second and 10-second self-timer modes, so you can line up a family photo and have time to sneak yourself into it. The camera sits quite stably, so you can usually improvise a platform to use if you don't carry a folding tripod. Fifth, the included Windows software is pretty good. You don't absolutely have to use it, but if you don't want to, you pretty much have to use a card reader to transfer. Thus it's fairly important that the software is both easy to use and flexible enough to do most of the things you want. Sixth, it uses a standard "mini USB" cable to connect to the computer. This means that if you ever lose it, or wish to have a spare, you do not have to get a special part. Also, since so many other devices use the same style cable, you can (as I do) leave the cable permanently attached to the computer and attach devices to it as necessary. I have a webcam and MP3 player that use the same type of cable, so there's usually something attached. Finally, it has a removable ring around the lens to attach an adapter, allowing you to attach all manner of filters, wide and tele lens extenders, or whatever you would want to attach. The Canon adapter is also threaded to 52 mm, which is a very common filter size. If you have an old SLR, chances are you already own some 52 mm filters. If you are wondering if 3.2MP is enough and you wouldn't be better off with more megapixels, all I can say is this: If you don't know exactly why you need more than this resolution... you probably don't. I have been able to run 12" by 18" color laser prints from my pictures with quite acceptable quality -- do YOU have access to a printer bigger than that? I would not mind an upgrade to the A530, but only because of its significantly better video capabilities. More pixels in the same size sensor usually means more noise and longer save times between pictures, though admittedly you do not have to run at maximum resolution at all times. It generally is easiest though to shoot at the highest resolution and worry about reducing it after you get home. If you feel you need the enhanced capabilites of the A530 or A540 (for an additional $50-120, last I checked), then by all means buy one. You won't be disappointed. But if you want an inexpensive, pocketable camera that doesn't take cheap-looking pictures, you can't go wrong with the A510. All the accessories are the same, so if you decide to upgrade later, it is only the camera you have to buy.