Canon Powershot A470 Review
Posted on 05/05/2008
Gets The Job Done... Mostly
Review By Joseph B. Keough
The Canon Powershot A470 is an affordable, diminutive shooter that will get the job done, but if you're looking for real power, you're in the wrong neighborhood. Check out our hands-on review and see if this camera fits your needs.
The Powershot A470 is Canon's replacement for last year's A460, the bargain end of their well-respected A-Series line. A-Series cameras have long been Canon's bread and butter: compact but robust performers that offer a wide range of options, solid quality, and easy operation at a typically low price. So, let's see what this latest scrapper can do!
Operation and Interface
Overall, I was quite pleased with the A470's responsiveness and ease of operation. It starts up more quickly than most cameras in its class, meaning that it will probably be ready to shoot before you are. Without flash, shot-to-shot time is actually pretty snappy—you should be able to fire off several shots in under two seconds in continuous drive mode. The increase in shot-to-shot time when using flash is noticeable, but no worse than average for cameras in this class.
Owing to its somewhat archaic, bricklike shape, the camera is very easy to operate singlehanded. The power button is on top, just to the left of the shutter release, while on the back side of the camera you'll find a four-way control pad, a Function/Set button, a Menu button, and a Print button that the user can conveniently assign to a wide variety of custom functions.
As with most compact cameras, the buttons on the A470 often have multiple functions. This setup is somewhat unintuitive at times, and users will find that they often have to navigate through several sub-menus to make what should be quick adjustments. Just one example: when using Scene Mode my natural inclination was to use the left and right buttons on the 4-way controller to scroll through the available scene modes. Unfortunately, as I found time and again, the left and right buttons control macro and flash settings respectively. To change the selected scene mode, you need to enter the Function menu and make your selection from a submenu there. This is a minor complaint, however, and something that will become second nature over time.
Middle of the Road
The A470 seems to shoot for the middle of the performance and features spectrum in nearly all regards. In terms of specifications, it's as standard as it gets in the budget compact class: 7.1-megapixel sensor, 3.4x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD screen, and some limited manual adjustment options. The photos the camera produces with default settings are well-exposed, though somewhat flat-looking, and tend to exhibit a bit too much blue and green saturation.
The 3.4x optical zoom lens covers a focal range of about 38-132mm in film camera terms. This isn't wide enough for great crowd or landscape shots, or long enough for bird watching or moon shots. That said, the overall image sharpness in the range it does cover is quite good, and there is surprisingly little softness at the corners and edges of shots.
The camera also offers a "Super Macro" mode that allows the lens to focus on subjects that are nearly touching the glass. This is a very useful mode that works perfectly, and gives the average user the ability to get some fantastic detail shots with very little work.
Manual exposure controls are quite limited. Though the camera offers a "Manual" mode, it's really more of a Program Auto mode—all that it offers in the way of manual adjustments are ISO (Auto, Hi, and 80-1600), white balance (including custom), and exposure compensation (-2 to +2). There are no shutter speed or aperture adjustments. This is par for the course for cameras in this price range, but it would have been nice to see some wiggle room for more adventurous amateur photographers.
Extra Features
Canon has added several extra features to the barebones A470, most of them aimed squarely at casual photographers. Most important are the new and improved Face Detection and Motion Detection functions, which attempt to lock on to and track human faces and moving objects. As you can imagine, this is quite useful for tracking children, sports players, and the like. I can report that as long as the lighting is good, these functions work wonderfully and really are a huge help in capturing an elusive subject like a young child. In dim light, however, I wouldn't bank on them working as advertised.
Also included and very useful for many users, the A470 offers a date stamp option. This option is limited to 2-megapixel captures, but that should be more than enough resolution for 4 x 6-inch prints or emailing and computer screen viewing. A much-requested feature that often went missing on entry-level digitals, it's nice to see it here.
Bumps in the Middle of the Road
The areas where Canon has cut corners to keep costs down are immediately apparent. For instance, where slightly more expensive A-Series cameras offer optical image stabilization, the A470 offers a high-ISO mode that attempts to accomplish the same effect via software. This occasionally works as advertised, but it's not effective nearly as often as optical stabilization. Moreover, in most shots it results in much higher image noise.
While large, the camera's 2.5-inch LCD screen is fairly low-resolution (115,00 pixels), meaning that it lacks detail, and it also suffers from high image noise and an extremely low framerate in dim light. More importantly, it lacks the contrast and brightness to be of much use in direct sunlight. Like many other cameras in its price range, the A470 doesn't include an optical viewfinder. This makes composing outdoor shots on sunny days very tricky.
Another stumbling block is the unusually high level of chromatic aberration (purple fringing) produced when shooting in bright sunlight. This was a major problem with cheaper point & shoot cameras several years ago but looked to have been curbed in recent models—unfortunately it's quite bad with the A470, particularly with the lens at its widest zoom setting. Lens flare and ghosting are also readily visible when shooting in bright sunlight.
Finally, focusing can be a bit hit and miss, whether using 9-point AiAF or Center AF modes. This is a particularly annoying problem when focusing on subjects closer to the lens, and subjects in dim light. What's most frustrating is that the camera often appears to have properly focused on the subject, drawing the familiar green box around the subject and snapping away. Reviewing the photo later on reveals that the background is in sharp focus while the subject is blurred beyond recognition. With practice this can be avoided, but the low-resolution LCD screen makes such problems difficult to detect on the fly.
Conclusion
The keyword for this review is "considering"—as in, "considering how cheap this camera is, it's quite the performer." The styling is outdated and utilitarian (despite some attempts to spice things up with color accents on the casing), there are no manual controls, and the camera's corners are cut to the quick. Lay down a few more bills and you can easily find a camera with optical image stabilization, a longer zoom, and manual exposure controls. But considering its class and limitations, the A470 is a steal and perhaps an ideal solution for a youngster wanting to cultivate an interest in photography or to an adult who just wants to get the job done without a lot of fuss.
Canon Powershot A470 Comments & Questions (write your own!)
the display window is fine when the menu/camera settings are displayed
Janice
This sounds like something might be smeared on your lens. This would cause the distortion in the image. Do not try to clean the lens with household cleaners at all. I would go to a camera shop or order lens cleaning tissue ( amazon.com/Zeiss-Tissues-Pr... ) online to wipe the lens clean. If this doesn't work, I would contact Canon customer support ( usa.canon.com/consumer/cont... ). Good luck.
Andrew
When you take your picture is there any chance you are moving the camera during your shot?
This sounds like something might be smeared on your lens. This would cause the distortion in the image. Do not try to clean the lens with household cleaners at all. I would go to a camera shop or order lens cleaning tissue ( amazon.com/Zeiss-Tissues-Pr... ) online to wipe the lens clean. If this doesn't work, I would contact Canon customer support ( usa.canon.com/consumer/cont... ). Good luck.
Andrew
The differences between these cameras is minimal. You can get closer when shooting in Macro mode with the Canon A470 ( digitalcamera-hq.com/digita... ) (0.39" vs 15" while set at the widest angle lens), and it has a wider ISO range (80-1600 vs 80-800). The higher ISO will allow you to take more visible shots in lower lighting situations, but will add a level of graininess to the photos.
The Canon A550 ( digitalcamera-hq.com/digita... ) will allow you to manually adjust the white balance settings, and it uses AA batteries. If you ever run out of battery power, it is easier to replace AA's on the fly than recharge a lithium ion battery. The lithium ion batteries do last longer though.
While these differences are not huge, they are differences. You have to ask yourself what type of photos you'll be taking before choosing. If you plan on taking pictures indoors at gatherings where there isn't a lot of light, I would go with the Canon A470 ( digitalcamera-hq.com/digita... ) because of the ISO capability. If you think you'll need the flexibility of a AA battery, then the Canon A550 ( digitalcamera-hq.com/digita... ) might be the camera for you. Either way, Canon makes a good reliable camera. Good luck and happy shooting.
Andrew
No need to lose the moment because you relied on one card one when several can solve that problem. At the very least, you want to get more than one of whatever size you settle on.
One last thing. Cards have different speeds. The faster a card is, the quicker it'll save the photo and cycle to be ready for another shot. In the end, your camera is only going to be as fast as it's slowest link in the chain. So check for speed when you purchase a card.
As for prices, they'll vary depending on make and speed. I like SanDisk Ultra III for fast writing times. Check out Amazon for good pricing.
The Canon is the top dog in your list there. Outstanding performance. Superior lenses. IMHO, I'd be laying the plastic down on that.
Thanks!
I may not need any more answers now onwards.
If something is gray market, it means that - although you may have gotten a great deal on it - it doesn't come with a warranty that will be honored here in this country. Which means if something goes wrong with the camera, you'll either have to send it to China to repair or pay to have it fixed yourself.
Be warned.
This web site is definitely incorrect listing lithium-ion battery for this camera. This camera needs NiMH for best operation and it can use regular AA alkaline batteries, too.
Every site makes mistakes. If you want a site with a load of mistakes, try dpreview.com. I have even emailed corrections to them and get no change and no response. Oh well.
I even caught Canon in a mistake on their own website once.
You must always be like an investigative reporter and confirm the information.
And, yes, I agree with you, it IS disappointing.
Auto, Camera M, Special Scene (Portrait, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Fireworks, Aquarium, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot), Super Macro, Movie