Nov 27, 2006 05:53 PM
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Just got this fabulous piece from Canon 2 months back for 17,500.... And made optimal use of it during Diwali... The review is been written after testing the Digicam for over 400 Snaps and 7 Video Shoots.
The USP of this George Eastmann invention is its Zoom Capability... Although you get many higher Zoom cameras than this almost upto 24x Optical zoom from Panasonic and Kodak... but the best thing about A700 is its compactness and price... You can fit this and carry it all along in your Jeans Pocket....
Just to give a brief on its Specifications:
LCD: 2.5 Inch TFT display.... biggest in the league
Optical Zoom: 6x (Really good... I could even read the Numbers coded on Air Planes Flying at the Hyderabad Airport: And my house is located almost 500 Meters from the Air Strip)
Digital Zoom: 4x (As useless as a comb for a baldy)
MegaPixels: 6MP (Much much more than enough, just as much more as an 80 GB Hard Disk for DOS based system) I think 4MP is more than enuf for a good clear photograph.
Batteries: I think this is where Canon has an upperhand over Sony as no proprietary batteries need to be used for Canon. Just 2 AA sized standard batteries. (2 Duracell can get you atleast 70 Snaps, might be an understatement). Anyways best way is to go for Rechargeable batteries... I got 6 Rechargeable batteries and a charger for 1200 Rs (NiMH 1300 mA)... With two batteries I could shoot more than 300 Snaps...1300 mA decides how many snaps you can take with AA batteries. Higher the number the better. You can also get 1100 mA and lower ones. The cost goes down accordingly.
Also dont replace your rechargeable batteries until they are fully discharged, this helps in keeping the battery life intact.
OK enough on the batteries.....
Fully Auto....Fully Manual.... Not a paradox friends.... Its true with A700... You can make it absolutely automatic or you can exhibit full control over the images you take....
4 Types of Exposure Control, to keep a tab on those glary images.... Also available is the Red Eye Reductionfeature
18 different modes of shoots are available in this which includes Night Mode, Indoor, Landscape, Portrait (I liked this mode, it blurs the background and only focusses on the object to be pictured).
Also the image stitch facility lets you take different shots of a wide picture and then you can stitch the images very easily with the software provided to make it one single image.
Two other modes Color Accent and Color Swap are useful utilities to have some fun with your images. You can make them Monochrome with the Color Accent.
ISO settings are available from 80 to 800 and Auto. It just decides how far your flash will go but I think most of the times its better to leave it on Auto. Level of 800 will cause the flash to go farthest but will create disturbance in the image, hence optimal ISO should be between 100 to 400.
Memory provided with the pack is peanuts, so be ready to put some money into an SD memory card. I got a Kingston 1 GB SD memory card for 1100 Rs. I think Kingston is the best in market.
1 GB memory can let you save minimum 800 Photographs at 4 MP setting.
It Can be conected directly to the printer.... and has a USB2.0 port with Cable provided... Also can be connected to any TV set be it NTSC or PAL System.... so no worries even if you decide to settle outside India in future....
Yeah... Most important .....you can shoot videos with this at 30 Frames per second and upto 1 GB limit.... so which I believe would come approximately to 10-12 Minutes @ 640 x 480 Resolution
What Else... Is there anything I didnt cover....
Yup.... compared to a Sony or Olympus.... I find the Canon really good.... although Sony are much more compact and good aesthetically.... But if we compare features I think Canon beats them Hands Down... Especially the A700...
Once Again I would reiterate.... Its Zoom Macha le with A700
Few Tips for Buying DigiCam:
Forget there is any such thing like Digital Zoom
All the available models in market other than A700 are 4X Optical zoom
4 MP is what anyone will need unless he is not a professional photgrapher
Dont go for properietary batteries, just imagine yourself at a tourist spot and your battery goes asleep... You cant use the normal AA batteries
Dont go by the printed price on the box..... Bargains happen Big Time....
If you are in Hyderabad, I would refer you to Chimalgi Photo Optics in Secunderabad, the guys there are very knowledgable and would certainly help you a good buy.
Go for something compact, the bigger ones are the better ones but eventually after the initial excitement what would matter is the comfort to carry
Dont look to save some 1000 Rs and go for a lesser known brand like Panasonic and HP, the quality of images differ a lot.
Hope the experiences I had helps you make better decision in your buying.
Thanks... Happy Snapping
