INTRODUCTION
My dad runs a construction film, and in many situations, photos need to be taken as prove of completions or problems. In the past, my dad have been using point and shoot 35mm camera to perform this task, and the cost to develop the film over the months is alarmingly high.
In order to save his cost, I recommended the Canon PowerShot A10 to him a few months back after the release of the Canon PowerShot A10 in June 2001. Although the Canon PowerShot A10 is only 1.3 Mega Pixels in resolution, it is more than sufficient for the roles for my dad.
With some bargain hunting, I managed to get him the Canon PowerShot A10 at a good price of $200.
RESOLUTION
The Canon PowerShot A10 comes with a 1/2.7 inch CCD with an effective pixels size of approximately 1.25 megapixels. The highest resolution provided by the Canon PowerShot A10 is 1,280 x 960 pixels.
I did most of my test shots in this setting. Photo printout quality on my home Epson Stylus Color 680 printer with photo paper is as follow
1) 6x4 - Excellent
2) 10x8 - Good
3) 11x14 – Avoid Printing at this Size
In Summary, The Canon PowerShot A10 can produce images in the following size,
1) 1,280 x 960 pixels
2) 1,024 x 768 pixels
3) 640 x 480 pixels
STORAGE
The storage media for the Canon PowerShot A10 is by CompactFlash Card Type I. A 8MB card comes as a standard package.
Due to the size of high quality pictures, it is advisable to get a few higher capacity cards to prevent any disappointment due to storage shortage.
BUILD
The build of the Canon PowerShot A10 is rather disappointing. But considering the price I am paying for it, I can’t expect anything better. It do not have the robustness that can withstand shock and impact, so you must be careful with the camera.
The body is small and handy. It is suitable to carry around, especially for tours or in area where handling a big bulky camera is not advisable, like the workplace of my dad.
Weighing just 250g, and with a size of 110.3 x 71.0 x 37.6 mm, it is definitely an easy camera to bring around.
OPTIC
The Canon PowerShot A10 uses Canon 3x zoom lens 5.4 - 16.2mm (35mm-105mm equivalent in 35mm photography), f2.8 - 4.8.
The quality of the lens is of high quality, though not the fastest lens at telephoto range, it is still in an acceptable design.
EXPOSURE CONTROL
The Canon PowerShot A10 only provides Program AE to the users. It will be a limitation to serious photographers who want more controls over their pictures.
METERING
The Canon PowerShot A10 offers Evaluative metering (linked to focusing point) as the only metering systems.
FOCUS
The Canon PowerShot A10 offers Autofocus in the form of TTL 3 point AiAF. This is the only mode of focusing provided by the camera.
OTHER FEATURES
The Canon PowerShot A10 also offers the following features
01) 2.0 x Digital Zoom
02) 1.5” LCD
03) Shutter Speed of 1 to 1/1500s
03) ISO 100 to 150 Light Sensitivity
04) Exposure Compensation
05) White Balance
06) Built in Flash
07) Flash Modes
08) 2.5 fps
09) USB Interface
10) 3 Compression Formats
QUALITY TEST
I tested the Canon PowerShot A10 immediately the day after I bought it in November 2001. Being the son of the owner and the purchaser of it, I do get the privilege to try it out before he does.
I did not go far to test the Canon PowerShot A10, I went to my nearby park during early Sunday morning while there were a lot of joggers and children playing. Being digital, I do not need a film to do my testing. I loan two additional 32MB card from my neighbor digital camera for the testing, so that I will not be restricted by the size of the memory card.
I spend the night before the testing reading through the manual of the Canon PowerShot A10. As I went through the manual, together with the camera on hand, and with my dad beside me, I realize that the Canon PowerShot A10 is a really simple camera to operate. As my dad does not understand English, he have to read through the Chinese version of the manual, which is provided for Singapore units.
This is the first time my dad actually go digital, he is rather unconvinced that it will do better than his usual point and shoot camera. But after showing him how to operate the camera, together with the extra features, he seems to be convinced somehow.
The shape and contour of the Canon PowerShot A10 is very attractive. I really like the design of it, holding it on hand and using it is very easy. It is very small and elegantly designed, so small that it can be just slotted into my pockets.
My dad did not join me for the testing session, as the training session will be conducted at home as I promised him.
I did most of my shots with the only Program AE mode with the Canon PowerShot A10, with light sensitivity automatically set at ISO 100. Although I do not have any other choice on the exposure modes, this mode still proved to be very reliable, with most of the pictures well exposed.
The Evaluative Metering systems provided by the Canon PowerShot A10 is equally good. I do not have problem using it to achieve properly exposed pictures. Like most of the digital cameras that I have used, side lighting still proved to be a problem to the Digital Metering system. I will need to under-expose the reading to achieve the effects I want.
The White Balance functions provided by the Canon PowerShot A10 is very useful, especially when you are indoor with fluorescent lightings. Setting to the correct White Balance, the pictures taken both indoor and outdoor is equally good. This is one of the functions that normal 35mm films camera will not be able to compete.
The lens quality of the Canon PowerShot A10 is very good. The pictures taken with the camera are all very nice and sharp. The color saturation is very good and nice.
I did not actually like the extra 2.0x digital zoom capability. As similar to the rest of the digital camera that I have used in the past, any things that is digital zoomed tends to deteriorate in quality. Printing a 2.0x digital zoomed pictures tends to be terrible for a 1.3 megapixels camera. In my opinions, never attempt to use this function, unless you are doing so for Internet uses.
One very interesting and useful interface the Canon PowerShot A10 is the direct printing through its Card Photo Printer CP-10. In this size of printings, the pictures is very sharp and nice, I got a printout from the CP-10 in the shops when the salesman tried hard to convince me to purchase it as well.
SUMMARY
The Canon PowerShot A10 provides a very cost effective option to home users as well as work applications. The low resolution of 1.3 Megapixels might be low when compared to the flagship model of over 5 Megapixels in the market, but considering its uses in Internet or quality non-conscious photos, it is still a fantastic buy at $200.
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