First impressions of the Canon A720 IS
I received my new camera today yesterday and am both glad and sorry I waited so long to buy a new one. Although the price of a good digital camera has finally dropped into my price range, the difference between my new and old camera is astounding.
My old camera is the Pentax Optio LF33. Although it’s quite sufficient for snapshots, I have needed to do all sorts of extra things in the setup of my photos to get decent pictures of my sculptures. I can’t believe how much time I wasted to make up for the camera’s shortcomings.
The A720 passes my intuitive-use test, which basically involves me snubbing the manual (at least until I need to learn the more advanced features, and figure out what that button under the lens does). I did, however, need to pull it out of the box to figure out which way the batteries should be inserted. It wasn’t until later that I noticed the battery icons which were inside the casing, and further down than I expected. The icons were not visible from all angles when looking into the battery compartment.
Opening the cover for the batteries and SD card was quite easy…the first time. The second time, I couldn’t remember how I did it and had that squinty, furrowed eyebrow face while I wondered what I did the first time.
The test picture of one of my sculptures turned out very well, considering it was a “candid” shot rather than one setup against a backdrop and with more controlled light:
This is much better than the “candid” photos using the Pentax Optio (no flash on left; with flash on right) with equivalent manual settings:
The video feature was a bit frustrating because I initially thought the audio was…well, crap. It turns out that you get static in the background of videos shot with the A720 in some players. It seems Kaffeine (the default player for my installation of OpenSUSE) is one of those players. The video was fine in other players, and I need to figure out how to add a watermark to my videos.
The only thing I miss is having a swivel-display. The Pentax Optio had a display which would fold and twist in many ways.
The A720 has an exposed display, so I’m a bit paranoid about using it before my magical screen skin arrives in the mail. I need to learn to order those at the same time I order new gadgets, because I’m one of those crazy people who are terrified of scratching displays/screens.
Tags: cameras, canon, gadgets, pentax, reviews, technology, videosRelated posts
By Julianna Yau
On January 10, 2008
At 6:04 am
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Hi…I Googled for printing canada, but found your page about First impressions of the Canon A720 IS…and have to say thanks. nice read.