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Canon PowerShot A70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

Canon PowerShot A70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $399.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Lack of low light autofocusing...
Review: Canon is really making a BIG MISTAKE by not improving on its low light autofocus ability. This is another Canon that takes GREAT daytime shots but is incapable of focusing in low light (even with the assist beam). Even my puny Sony U30 can focus in low light, and its only a 2.0 mp (though not a very good resolution). Sometimes it even lies and double beeps that its focused but its not! Don't get this camera (A60/70/80) or most Canons if you take dark indoor or a lot of night shots, they CANNOT FOCUS in low light!

The images are also a little soft. They require a bit of sharpening to make them decent to view. Nice that there is enough resolution to make it sharp but you "have to" sharpen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing Digi Cam for everyone!
Review: The Canon A70 Digital Cam is just Amazing. It's easy to use and has so many shooting modes and features. 3 min video time and endless shots once you've got the right Compact Flash.
It comes with a 16MB card but i recently bought the 256 MB and now I'm able to take about 530 pix at the highest resolution. I just love this camera and would recommend it to everyone!!!!!!!!!

There lots of Pros about the cam and i suppose some Cons, like blurred images once in a while, but truth is ; i'm still reading the manual so its a lot of stuff to play around with.

Overall , this is a damn good Digi Cam and trust me, Once you buy it and you see what it can do, you'll see how every dollar you spent on it is Soooooooooooo worth it.

I now have so many pictures on my PC and i use it daily to catch all the great moments i've been missing in the past.

SHOUT OUT TO CANON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love My Canon A70 just love ittttttttttttttttt

You should get one too!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: triple failure
Review: Having waited 4 months before coming to the US from the UK in order to get a better price for the A70, I waltzed into my local shop to purchase my long sought after little gem.
Having got it home and excitedly unwrapped it,I tinkered with it for around 10 minutes and then turned it off-much to my dissapointment, only one of the blades of the lens shutter closed. After having come to terms with my misfortune, I returned the camera to the shop and promptly obtained a replacement. Dissapointment then turned to downright disgust, as the function button on my substitued A70 completely failed to work-nothing, not a whisper. Holding my head in my hands, I once again returned to the shop and after much deliberation I decided to give it one more shot (excuse the pun), assuming that the laws of probability would prevent any additional grief; alas, as the shop assistant was telling me how they had sold thousands with no problems, the third camera showed the exact same symptoms as the first-only one of the shutter blades closed properly.
Now it is likely that my misfortune could never be equalled but a word of warning to those purchasing this model: you may want to buy it in a shop to prevent yourself from having to send anything to a mail-order company in timbuktu and never seeing your camera again. Secondly, check, check, check it out in every possible way before taking it home, at least for those problems which I mentioned.
Best of luck. I know I will need some.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Malfunctioned after 6 months, Canon can't seem to fix it
Review: This camera was great - while it was working. High quality photos and very easy to use. After 6 months it completely malfunctioned. Very disappointed, I sent it off to Canon on 11/10/03 to be repaired and here it is 12/20/03 and they still have not repaired it. The factory repair staff has been nice enough and apologetic, but that doesn't really make up for the fact that I've been without my new camera 6+ weeks and will likely not have it back for the holidays. It's bad enough when something like this breaks after 6 months, but even worse that they can't seem to fix it after having it for weeks and weeks. If you buy one of these, just hope it doesn't break - you may not see it again for months.

Update 12/22/03: Just received it back from Canon and, while it seems to take pictures now, there are two new problems: (1) The zoom only works occasionally (it worked fine when I sent it in) -the whole mechanism seems loose now. (2) One of the pixels in the viewfinder is shot. So, after the holidays, back to Canon it goes. I hope to at least get them to pay for postage. Reducing this to one star - don't bother. If I could get a refund I would.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Poor Quality Control?
Review: My first A70 did a very nice job for a few weeks until it failed without warning. The camera simply died completely after writing two black "photos" to the memory card. Perhaps the replacement camera will work flawlessly for years to come. Canon can ill afford hundreds (or even dozens) of customers writing personal accounts of catastrophic failures of their products. In my opinion, this model can only maintain its classification as a good value if at least 99.9% of the units shipped remain failure-free for at least two years in the field.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GREAT VALUE, BUT CONSIDER CANON'S OWN S-230
Review: The A70 is a very decent entry-level digicam with the usual benefits that come from any Canon family camera: excellent options for a point-and-shoot lightweight camera.

But, if you are looking for your first digicam purchase and a smallish camera to carry around, I'd recommend you to also consider at the sleek S series line from Canon, or the smaller Nikons, or more recent versions of the Minolta Dimage.

Since I am recommending AGAINST the A70, I'll focus in this review on what is NOT necessarily so cool about this camera --

(1) The A70 comes with 3.2 megapixels. The S230 comes with 3 megapixels. Not that big of a difference especially if you consider the somewhat heftier price tag for A70.
(2) Images are not as vivid as the S-series cams. The feel of the pics is a bit blurred (soft focus) and need sharpening in a photo-editing software. Quickly gets tiring.
(3) You'll find the camera is prone to the dreaded "E18 error". Google for it.
(4) Uses AA batteries, which means shorter usage time than Lithium-ion.
(5) When you zoom in in dark surroundings, without Flash, the pictures have a problem with horizontal lining that is a pain to get rid of.
(6) Miniscule memory card included with camera forcing purchase of upgrade immediately.
(7) The ON-OFF button is a pain to operate in this design.
(8) Frequent purple fringing, plus red colors appear frequently as purples in the pics.
(9) Speaking of which, there is red-eye galore, even with the red eye reduction setting turned on.

I'm speaking of a 2003 model and while you read this review, Canon may have released a newer series of these digicams. Caveat Emptor. I evangelize Canon in general but this cam I'd recommend you to stay away from. However, do consider some of the other excellent value for money offerings from Canon, including, as mentioned above, the S230, the S400 etc.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very good camera.
Review: A70 is a very good camera. Only problem I have had is that the button is so stiff, that each time I take a picture the camera shakes a bit (if I'm not very careful), which leads to a little soft (shaken) pictures..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mac compatible & easy for a techno-novice
Review: I bought this camera after doing a great deal of online research and reading Consumer Reports. I wanted a simple, point and shoot camera that *could* do all the fancy stuff if I decided I wanted to learn how to use those features. This camera fit both needs--and was very highly recommended by many reviewers, including Consumer Reports.

I've had the camera for about four months now, and I am completely thrilled with it. It takes fabulous, clear pictures--pictures of runners came out just as clearly as those of kids trick or treating in the dark--and the camera is easy to hook up to my Mac with a cable. If you use a Mac, you can easily import the photos into iPhoto. One thing I would recommend to any purchaser--pick up a memory card with more memory than the card that comes with the camera. You'll use it.

I have read very little of the manual, and was able to figure out the camera with ease. I'd recommend this camera to anyone who wants great photos without trying to learn a complicated camera (though this does have the bells and whistles if you want to take advantage of them!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Camera
Review: I won't belabor points other have made. I just want to say in my expirience this is a great camera. Takes outstanding point and shoot photo's with no adjustment, however if you want to control aperture/shutter speed, etc you have the option.

As someone knew to photography it gave me many options.

Consider buying a tripod and rechargable batterys as well

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Feels good in the hands
Review: Besides the Canon name, the first thing that draws me to this camera is the way it fits in the hand with its right-hand grip, and its just-right size...not wafer thin, but not bulky, either. I've had the camera since August, and I'm going to start with its few problems, and then list all the things I like about it:

Problem 1: Maybe it's just this particular camera, but sometimes the macro lens just does not want to focus on the closeup object. I have had to turn the camera off and on a few times to get the macro to work. You know it's working when a little frame appears to show you what it's focusing on. It has a very hard time finding the object if it is similar to the background color. I discovered that sometimes the focus frame doesn't appear just because I'm trying to take the picture from too close, so I have to back it up a bit. Because I use the macro lens a lot for photographing items that I sell, it is not the absolute best for macro photography, but I have been able to get some spectacular photos with it, especially if I do some detailing in Photoshop Elements.

Problem 2: Bright red and blue come out too intense, and I often have to tone them down in Photoshop.

Problem 3: Screen hard to see in sunlight.

That's all for the problems!

Positives: Can take about 300 photos on rechargeable batteries. It has a lens cover that opens and closes automatically when you turn the camera on or off (NO CAP!) The buttons are placed in easy-to-find places and work easily. They are not itsy-bitsy so I don't accidentally hit the wrong one. No toggle buttons! It's easy to figure out how to do some photography besides just point and shoot. With a little time reading the manual, I learned how to turn off the automatic button, and take pictures on the manual switch, adjusting the amount of light allowed in the lens...easy. Crisp, clear photos. Takes short movies with sound. Sturdy, reliable, and once again... feels just right in the hands. I am not a professional photographer, but have found it a great, inexpensive digital camera to use in my business, and the photos sell my products! Great price for what you get!


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