Canon PowerShot A300

How much do you have to pay to get decent
image quality from a digital camera? While
outright resolution isn’t increasing in the
digital market, the performance-per-pound ratio
certainly is. Here, for example, is a 3.2-megapixel
camera from a premium-brand maker selling for a price
that wouldn’t have got you a 2-megapixel model a
couple of years back.
However, even though you do get resolution that’s
suitable for enlargements up to A4 size, there are
compromises. The PowerShot A300 comes with a fixed
focal length lens, instead of zoom. The equivalent focal
length in film camera terms is 33mm, so it’s a versatile
semi-wideangle lens suitable for interior shots,
landscapes and general snapshots. But if you want to
zoom in on sports action or take tightly-framed portraits,
you’ve got to use the digital zoom. Although the A300
offers a 5.1x digital zoom, like all digital zooms it works
by magnifying a progressively smaller central area of
the image – there’s inevitably a loss in image quality,
which gets worse the more you zoom.
Although Canon cameras are all well made and the
A300 feels in a different class to the Ricoh Caplio G3 we
reviewed last month, for example, the low price is
represented in its plastic construction. And if you want
genuine pocketability, you need to spend more money
on the likes of the Casio Exilim EX-S3 or Pentax Optio S.

Controls and options

This PowerShot’s got limitations, then, but it’s also got a
lot of quite good features for the money, including some
powerful photographic options. As well as being able to
apply EV compensation and manual white balance
presets, you can also choose from three different
metering patterns – evaluative, centre-weighted and
spot. There’s a movie mode capable of shooting at an
impressive 640 x 480 resolution (but the frame rate’s
only average, at 15fps) or you can use the continuous
shooting mode, which manages a decent 2.2fps.
And there’s Canon’s excellent panoramic mode,
where the camera guides you through the process of
shooting overlapping images in sequence, and its
accompanying PhotoStitch software, which assembles
them for you on your computer.
You switch on the A300 by sliding back its lens cover.
Unlike most digital cameras, the lens doesn’t pop out as
you do so, but still it takes around three seconds before
the A300 is ready to take any shots.
The autofocus isn’t particularly fast, but it’s reliable
and positive. It uses five AF frames, highlighting those
used to focus in green on the LCD. A five-point AF
system seems a like overkill on a camera with a fixed
focal length lens, but it does help keep close-up shots
sharp, and the minimum focusing distance is an
impressive 5cm for macro shots.
On the back, the control layout’s the one used
across the majority of Canon’s snapshot range. The Set
button lets you choose Auto, Manual or Panoramic
modes. Don’t get too excited about the Manual mode,
though. This doesn’t give you direct control over the
shutter speed and aperture. Instead, it opens up options
that are disabled in Auto mode. It pops up a menu on
the left of the screen, displaying EV compensation,
white balance, ISO, image effects, image quality and
size. In Auto mode, you can only change the image
quality and size.
You don’t always have to use the menus to change
your shooting options. It’s become standard practice
now to make the navigation buttons double up in
shooting mode as shortcuts to different options. On
the A300 you press up to change the metering
pattern; right to change the flash mode; down to set
the self-timer or sequence shooting; and left for
macro/infinity focusing.It all works pretty well, too.

Speed and efficiency

This camera’s features are limited, but there’s
enough control for both snapshotters and more
serious users. The different options are easy enough
to get to, but we did notice the menu response
seemed sluggish – it takes a moment or two for
your button presses to register, and makes the A300
seem a little less positive than other Canon models.
The LCD is small, and while it’s a bit gloomier
and grainier than the LCDs on more expensive
Canon cameras, it’s still good for a camera of this
price. If you want to save battery power (the
A300 will get through a set of alkalines pretty
rapidly), you can use the optical viewfinder instead.
Because the main lens doesn’t zoom, the optical
viewfinder doesn’t have to either – as a result, it’s a
bit bigger, brighter and more usable than those on
zoom cameras.
To go into Playback mode, you have to press a
button on the back of the camera. The A300 shows
its sluggishness here, too – you need to hold the
button down for around 30 seconds to swap modes.
If you only give it a quick press, nothing will happen.
Once you’re in Playback mode, though, images
display very quickly. If you want to zoom into
check for sharpness and fine detail, the A300 is
very quick indeed – most budget cameras are pretty
slow at this.

Image quality

But what about the picture quality? Is that little fixed
focal length lens really up to the job? It looks pretty
puny, but looks can be deceptive, because while the
Canon’s images aren’t the sharpest we’ve seen from
a 3-megapixel camera, they’re not far off. Exposure
accuracy is first-rate, too, and so is the focusing. The
limited maximum aperture of the lens is just f3.6,
meaning longer shutter speeds in low light, but we
didn’t lose any shots to camera shake, so the A300
is a pretty stable shooting platform.
Indeed, it’s a good camera all round. The
sluggishness of the menus is a bit of a
disappointment, and the lack of an optical zoom
will hold you back in some situations, but if you just
want a good, basic snapshot camera without
spending a fortune, the A300 fits the bill well. The
trouble is, competition at the £200 price point is
tough. If you shop around you might be able to pick
up one of HP’s gauche-looking but effective HP720s
(Jessops advertises them for £150) and you get a 3x
optical zoom into the bargain. And Nikon’s Coolpix
3700 throws in an optical zoom for £200, too. The
A300’s not necessarily the obvious choice