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Review: What I like: The Price. The A series is great value for money in terms of features per £. If you want cute and dinky as well - e.g. Ixus series - you're going to pay more. Image quality. Canon Lens. Say no more. Detail and colour rendition is excellent. Auto white balance works well. Uses ordinary AA NiMh rechargables or alkaline batteries - not some expensive proprietory battery pack. The ergonomics. I have big fingers. many digital cameras I find just too small and fiddly. The Powershot is just the right size for me and still pocketable (jacket pocket, not tight jeans!) . The 4x AA battery compartment on the right side of the camera makes a good grip and is especially useful for single handed operation - if you're right handed! The flip out and rotate view screen, which is larger and brighter than the fixed view screen in earlier models. Great for composing high angle (overhead) shots, low angle and hand held self portraiture All the control and shooting modes (total 14!) that most people will ever want, including the 4 important ones - full auto, aperture priority auto, shutter priority auto and full manual (including manual focus). What I dont like: Very poor optical viewfinder. Cuts off what is is actually shot by a huge ammount. This is a shame as in some lighting conditions it is easier to use the viewfinder rather than the screen. Flimsy compartment covers. The Smartmedia card cover seems flimsy and a slightly loose fit. The battery compartment hinge is also not so strong. You can break the hinge if you're heavy handed about closing it when batteries are loaded. Ive seen a couple of earlier A series cameras with broken battery covers - being held together with tape or elastic bands. Be careful - if it feels like you're having to force the battery compartment cover shut- Stop! You're not doing it right and something will break! For some reason the video performance has got worse in this new model! My old A40 (sadly lost) would shoot 320x240 video with sound at 20 frames per second, which was fine for smooth realistic motion. The A95 can only manage 15 frames per second. which is slightly jerky. This drops to real jerk-o-vision of 10 fps at the high resolution setting of 640x480px overall: highly recommended at the price point. Top of the pops for still photos, but check out the alternatives if video performance is also important to you. | 
Digital Cameras
