Powershot A540

[Chris]

Does anyone have any first hand experience with this camera? I was thinking of buying it so I read a few reviews on amazon one of which put me off it. Can anyone confirm what he says?

I had Canon A70 and FujiFilm F11 and I now have Nikon D70s dSLR and Canon A610 so I know what I'm expecting from camera at reasonable money.

At first, it seemed to be a great value for money considering it has 6 megapixels, ISO of up to 800 and 2.5 inch LCD although I know it has lower LCD resolution. It shares the same 6mp sensor as top end A700 which costs £100 more so it should be good?

Nope, my first hand-on experience with this camera was disappointing.

With 2 AA batteries (instead of 4 used with old Canon A70) and SD memory card format meaning you get more compact and lightweight camera. Not really a pocketable but just almost.

But as expected, there is a couple of drawbacks with using 2 AA batteries instead of four, you get a less powerful flash but much slower flash recycle - about 4 - 8 seconds depending on distance/light condition. In absence of powerful flash, you get higher ISO 800 but it is useful for low light without using flash though.

The build quality seemed to be on cheap side especially with buttons. On the rear of camera, Func/Set button is offset toward bottom/right from centre, pressed against the inner edge of direction button. Not good but at least, it is working as normal and at this price, you get what you pay for.

Thanks to new latest 6.0 megapixel sensor, ISO performance is impressive. ISO 400 shots looked very acceptable to my eyes so I would be happy to leave autoISO on. Noise level on ISO 800 is similar to ISO 400 on other cameras so no loss here.

Unfortunately, its f2.6 - f5.5 lens and sensor is a mismatch made in hell! At night, flash pictures comes out good but seemed to be on soft side. However, I didn't expect it to be that bad when I tried it outdoor under good daylight. The focus on centre appeared to be average but toward the edge of image, it's blurred! I won't call it corner softness, it's the lens!

My camera choose aperature F4 on bright day which is a sweet spot for this lens but the softness is still there and begins from centre of image, gradually worsen toward the edge. At first I thought left/right side of images were out of focus but after shooting several more, it becomes clearly to me that it wasn't out of focus, it is blurred due to poor lens!

I have some shots from 3 years old Canon A70 which actually looked better than A540 so we are actually stepping backward with this camera with such a poor quality lens.

I had looked at samples of A540 in a couple of camera review sites, I noticed that they seemed to be soft. Funny enough, images from A530 model using same lens as A540, appears sharper than A540. I have no explanation for this one.

Although A700 using the same sensor as A540, it can produce much sharper images using high quality f2.8 - f4.8 lens and clearly superior to A540 which is why it commands such a high price tag, £100 more than A540. Despite using same sensor, I won't dream of putting A540 up there with A700!

Get either A530, A610, A620 or A700 depending on your budget/needs. For faster flash recycle (and powerful), get A610 or A620 but they are bit bigger and heavier with 4 AA batteries.

I have Canon A610 which has only 5 megapixels but produces sharper results than A540 so extra megapixel is pointless until you coupled it with excellent lens like A700 has.

Avoid A540 at all costs.

[JohnnyRotten]

I have one, and I like it. I'm no photography expert though.

[BitterElegy]

Originally Posted by JohnnyRotten

I have one, and I like it. I'm no photography expert though.

what kind of battery life do you get out of it? Im trying to recommend a good P&S for my parents and this fits most of the criteria

edit: the problem with the last camera was just that you would take like 5 shots and its batterys would be dead

[foamy]

Originally Posted by BitterElegy

what kind of battery life do you get out of it? Im trying to recommend a good P&S for my parents and this fits most of the criteria

edit: the problem with the last camera was just that you would take like 5 shots and its batterys would be dead

its not the camera that is the problem most of the time but its batterys if you want the most out of battery life buy some rechargables as when fully charged they last much much longer than normal batterys with my fujifilm 1800mAh rechargables I went on holiday for a week took about 200shots (no flash) lasted the whole time this is with a canon powershot a75 btw

[TRiXTER]

i had an a520 and i loved it. now i shoot with a dslr

[JohnnyRotten]

yeah, don't use regular batteries in digital cameras unless you're rich and like changing them every few minutes. i have some energizer 2500mAh rechargeables and they last atleast 100 shots usually. honestly, i haven't counted..but i know it takes a lot before a batt switch.