Tuesday August 4, 2009
Snap pretty pictures
By CHONG JINN XIUNG
Shooting photos can’t get any easier because the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS packs a lot of user-friendly features.
THE PowerShot A2100 IS is a standard point-and-shoot 12.1-megapixel camera that is aimed at amateur and semi-pro photographers.
The A2100 is mostly black with contrasting silver borders — it is not as attractive or elegant as the Ixus series of cameras but it still looks good.
Though the body is made entirely of plastic the build quality feels extremely solid and the camera is comfortable to hold.
Still, it is a shame the A2100 doesn’t have a rubberised handgrip which would give you a firmer hold of the camera.
While there’s nothing remarkable about the design, the camera’s compact size makes it a perfect for lugging it wherever you go.
The A2100 is powered by a pair of AA-size batteries so you can always carry spares on days you are planning to shoot a lot of photos.
One small complaint — the battery compartment also houses the memory card slot. So you’ll have to switch off the camera whenever you want to swap cards.
Modes aplenty
The camera also features a large 3in LCD screen for framing and reviewing pictures.
However, the screen is not great for reviewing pictures as often times it would show them to be overexposed but they will look okay once transferred to a computer.
On the back are the usual array of buttons for various functions.
All buttons are within easy reach and if you’ve used a Canon camera in the past, you should be instantly familiar with the interface and menu.
SIMPLE: : The A2100's mode dial makes it easy to switch back and forth between different shooting modes.On the top are the power switch, mode dial and the shutter buttons. Switching between the 10 modes is made easy with the dial.
Among the modes featured is Automatic Scene detection, pretty common in many of the compact cameras released this year.
Basically, the mode lets the camera choose the right settings for any scene, which is perfect for beginners.
If you want a little more hands on approach with your pictures, there’s Program mode. In this mode, you’ll have control over the camera’s various settings including the ISO level, white balance and autofocus.
Unfortunately, the mode doesn’t offer the flexibility of a full manual mode or Aperture Priority. Users who want more creative control over their pictures may want to consider the Canon PowerShot G10.
A reliable shooter
The A2100 has a 6x optical zoom lens that offers a focal length of 36 - 216mm — it’s a rather diverse range that covers both wide and telephoto ends of the spectrum.
Though it doesn’t excel when it comes to taking wideangle shots, but its long telephoto range should prove useful for shooting faraway subjects.
There is a minor barrel distortion at the widest end of the lens but this only affects pictures of buildings and shouldn’t get in the way when photographing people.
Autofocusing speeds were decent and it often took less than a fraction of a second to lock on to subjects.
And although it locks on very quickly when shooting outdoors, it took a second longer to focus when indoors or in particularly dark environments.
We were quite pleased with the photos we took during our outdoor excursion as the camera captured lots of detail with rich colours.
The camera handled chromatic aberration rather well even when we took shots directly under the sun.
In terms of flash performance, the camera lights up a scene well enough to capture objects in a dark room.
However, you’ve to time your shots as the camera’s three-second flash recharge cycle could cause you to miss important moments.
We were quite impressed by the camera’s face detection feature. It locks almost instantly to faces and even tracks them should they move or if you reframe the shot.
Image stabilisation has always been a grey area for me as I can’t really tell if it makes a big difference to my shots.
More often than not the camera boosts up the ISO level to increase light sensitivity and in turn, capture shake-free pictures.
However, there is a catch — increasing the ISO level also introduces more noise in pictures.
That being said, the camera’s noise performance is very mediocre. It takes fairly decent and noise free images from ISO 80 to 200 but the picture quality degrades a little as noise starts to creep in at ISO 400.
ISO 800 still looked fairly acceptable though there is noticeable loss in detail while ISO 1600 removes too much detail .
It is pretty clear that the A2100 isn’t a camera that’s for capturing videos as it only supports resolution of up to 640 x 480 pixels at 30fps.
Videos aren’t silky smooth but are otherwise acceptable in quality though too much movement usually results in blurry videos.
Also, you can’t use the camera’s optical zoom while recording which further limits your options.
The camera is quick to adjust to different lighting conditions when moving from a dark to a bright environment.
However, the white balance took awhile to adjust so indoor shots were slightly off colour but became gradually more balanced after a few seconds.
Conclusion
All in all, the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS is just an average point-and-shoot camera that’s easy to use for normal day-to-day photo taking.
It takes decent pictures in brightly lit conditions and captures a lot of detail with its 12.1-megapixel sensor.
However, it isn’t all that great for taking pictures indoors or in low light conditions.
Auto Scene mode will undoubtedly be favoured by newbies who are just getting into digital photography though experienced users may find the A2100 insufficient for their needs.
Overall, the A2100 is an entry level camera that should appeal to beginners.
Pros: Diverse 6x optical zoom lens; 12.1-megapixel; lots of Scene modes.
Cons: No handgrip; ISO performance isn’t terrific.
PowerShot A2100 IS
(Canon)
Compact digital camera
Sensor: 12.1 megapixels
Viewfinder: 3in LCD
Lens: 36 - 216mm, f/3.2 - 5.9 (35mm equivalent)
Shutter speed: 15sec - 1/1,600sec
ISO Range: 80 to 1600
Exposure modes: Program, Auto, Scene
Video mode: 640 x 480 pixels (30fps)
Battery: Two AA-size alkaline batteries
Storage: SD , SDHC
Interface: USB 2.0, AV output
Other features: Image stabilisation, Face detection
Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.35 x 31.9cm (w x h x d)
Weight: 185g
Website: www.canon.com.my
Price: RM949
Review unit courtesy of Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd, (03) 7844-6000.
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