Reviews for Canon PowerShot A430 Compact Camera - Silver

nice basic camera

Strengths: small nice lens great support AA batteries

Weakness: weak flash only 4megapixel

For $125 more or less, you're not going to beat this. If you're looking for a beginner digital camera, this is a good choice. Not a ton of options, etc., but a nice choice for a high school/college student, for example. Canon tech support is always the best, too.

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Good for my second camera

Strengths: Everything but the included memory card. Works in Linux!

Weakness: Small memory card included.

For a camera that was launched in 2006, this thing shipped with a SD card equivalent to about 10 floppy diskettes... That's sad. But I'm still pretty glad because I paid only $25CDN for a 1GB Kingston SD card afterwards. The camera is a huge step up from my previous Epson PhotoPC 650, which was a 1MP cam with no video, no zoom, no nothing really. I am very glad I went with a Canon, and will stick with them for a long time I think. The only complaint I have other than that is that I am having a harder time than other people seem to with getting good image and video results. I have been impressed by Super Macro mode though, although I tend to shoot at night and without a lot of light, the results are not so good. But it is great, and even when using digital zoom in Super Macro mode, you can see individual fibres of say, denim. Very impressive, when people mistake this for carpet. :) I have some trouble with the auto-focus stuff, but I haven't yet read the entire manual to figure out the best method to get the best focus possible. Right now it seems hit-or-miss. Even so, I've taken some really good pictures with it, and they are high enough resolution that I can use them for my album artwork. And when I plug this cam into Ubuntu Linux, it pops up and asks me if I wanna import my pictures. That is fantastic and means I didn't need to buy a memory card reader (although I did anyhow).

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Great budget digital camera

Strengths: Easy fit in one hand for snap and shot, 4MP very good picture quality, cheap price

Weakness: A little thick compared to other cameras

This is a very good digital camera for a limited budget. The 4MP picture quality is very good for outdoor scene. It only requires 2 AA batteries and it's light and small to easily fit in one hand for snap and shot. The movie function works great. It is compatible with both SD and MMC memory card. Recommmend this camera to you if you have a limited budget but looking for a upper-mid-level camera.

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Canon A430 Digitl Camera

Strengths: Low price Good overall performance

Weakness: Easily dented

This is my 3rd Canon Sure Shot, the other ones are A20, A520. Overall I'm presently surprised at the good performance of this low price camera, especially the video function and low light performance. Great for the amateur, the pro can use this as a cheap spare for the glove compartment so you will always have a digcam available. The camera body does dent easily, not very tough material. Battery life is excellent considered its only 2 AA.

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By member: MikeGratis - Jun 3, 2006

A Great Camera For Novice Or Experienced User Alike

Strengths: Compact, full featured, 4 MP, 4X optical zoom, uses 2 AA batteries, automatic & manual exposure modes, records video & sound, audio/video output to monitor/TV, supported in Linux, price.

Weakness: Only ships with a 16 MB MMC.

I've used a lot of digital cameras over the years and have never been disappointed with Canon's offerings. I used my Mom's A20 for a while before buying my own A40, and both performed flawlessly and never let me down. With my wife's birthday coming up, she let it be known that she'd like her own camera and Canon was once again at the top of my list of possible candidates. As always, I did a lot of on-line researching before making my final decision; but in the end, the A430 was pretty much a "no brainer" choice. If you want to spend a lot more money, you can find cameras with better features and resolution; but for under $150, the A430 can't be beat. The A430 is about half the size of my A40; but comes with both more and better features. It comes packed ready to go, with manuals, CD-ROM, USB cable, AV cable, wrist strap, two AA alkaline batteries, and a 16 MB multimedia card (MMC). The 16 MB MMC is my only quibble; but all manufacturers seem to do this to save costs and keep the initial price of the camera low. You'll want to upgrade to a much larger one (1 GB is very adequate and can be found on sale for $30-40), especially if you intend to take full, high resolution pictures. The camera is both easy to use and gives outstanding results in a wide variety of conditions. Rather than rambling on here about all of the features and such, I'd highly recommend that you do your own on-line searching ("Canon A430 Review" or ("Canon A430 Test" should give desired results) for specifics at reputable web sites. Suffice it to say that both my wife & I are very impressed with the A430 and expect it to be around for many years to come, just like the above mentioned A20 & A40 still are. As a side note, the Canon cameras I've used have all worked flawlessly in Suse Linux 9.3, instantly recognized upon plugging in the USB cable and easy to set up in DigiKam and other programs.

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Canon Quality continues

Strengths: 4X optical zoom, included cables

Weakness: Size, weight, skimpy card

I own a lot of Canon products (camcorder, SLR, digital Elph, other cameras) and have never had any issues with their products as I have with Sony, JVC or Hitachi so it's nice to see this high quality continue in this camera.

This is a great camera for a beginner. I got the A410 for my daughter and my niece liked it so much she wanted one just like it so I got her this A430 for even less than the A410 at Staples (with a free after rebate printer even). Like the A410, this one uses two AA batteries (I prefer the slim, rechargeable Canon proprietary batteries that come with my S410 Elph, but you can get rechargeable AAs too and at least it doesn't require 4 of them). It also seems to have the same weight and size factor, not huge by any means but not as slim and light as an Elph. However, it improves on the 410 by upping the megapixels to 4.0 instead of 3.2 and likewise the 4x Optical zoom over the 410's 3x.

It takes short movies as well and even comes with an A/V cable to hook the camera right up to your TV as well as a USB cable to hook up to your computer (most printers don't even give you a USB cable for some reason). As a Mac user, I appreciate the fact that Canon does not ignore Macintosh OS and they include Mac versions of the Image Browser, Photostitch and the EOS utility as well as ArcSoft Photostudio on the included CD-ROM.

The only qualm is that the included 16MB MultiMediaCard is pretty skimpy for a 4.0 megapixel camera. You will definitely need to go buy a larger capacity card. Luckily, MMC cards are pretty cheap nowadays.

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Great camera for beginners.

Strengths: This is a very decent beginner camera, very easy to operate, the price is affordable.Use 2 standard AA battery.

Weakness: The outlook of the camera looks a little too wide and not as compact as other canon cameras, takes a while to take a second picture after you take one.

Overall this is a very good camera at a acceptable price, the picture it captures is very clear and vivid. It does not consume battery very much, two rechargable Sony AA battery can take more than 150 pictures. The only weekness I found with this camera is that you have to wait a while for the camera to become normal to take the second picture after you take one.

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Canon a430 Product Review

Strengths: Excellent camera for 1st time digital camera user. Takes above average pictures with very little effort. Navigation is very easy to figure out without using the manual.

Weakness: The camera comes with a 16 mg mmc card, which allows for very few pictures. You will have to invest in a bigger memory card. I purchased a 512 SD very inexpensively after the rebate.

I would highly recommend this camera to first time digital camera buyers/users. Takes above average pictures with very little effort at a very affordable price. The navigation is very easy to figure out without referring to manual. I really like this camera.

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Low cost yet solid camera

Strengths: 1. Speed, Digic II is really fast 2. Zoom, 4x optic is good for entry level

Weakness: A little bit bulky

Got this camera from Staples with free printer. For a very
reasonable price, the camera is beyond my expectation. I particularly like the ability to zoom shooting movies. Most camera won't let you zoom during movie shooting. The A430 can let you use optical and digital zoom up to 7.8x. It gives
you the feeling of using camcorder. By the way, digital zoom
is not useless in this context.

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For the price can't be beat

Strengths: Uses AA batteries, can use both SD and Multimedia cards and price

Weakness: A very skimpy starter card that comes with it, almost useless

I purchased this for my mom as a birthday present. She wanted a camera that was easy to use, didn't cost much and was user friendly. I opted to go with this model because of Canon quality, the price point, the fact that AA batteries are available anywhere and that it uses the most common and cheapest type of memory cards. I am not disappointed. The movie mode works wonderfully and pictures are fantastic. The width and depth are a little wide for my preference.

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Great camera, Great movies too

Strengths: Takes great movies with sound, takes picture quickly compared to other digital cameras

Weakness: A bit slow to recover from taking a picture, editing software cumbersome

Overall a very nice camera at a great price. I especially like the quality of movies with sound. It has a faster shutter speed than other digital cameras yet I agree about the slow recovery.

I haven't figured out how to get the date to automatically print on the pictures like it did with my old camera (Nikon CoolPix3100) so I miss that. Also, the editing software uses too many steps to do something simple like correct red eye.

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Very good camera for a student

Strengths: User-friendly, easy to learn, lots of options, easy transfer of images, comes in different colors

Weakness: Image quality very good, but not "professional". As it is not an SLR camera your images will turn out blurry when you manually turn flash off. This means you'll have to buy a tripod.

Before I had this camera I had a non-digital Olympus amateur-camera. Since then I have learned a lot about photo techniques and I'm planning to buy my first "serious" camera.

The Canon A430 is excellent for students. It comes in different colors which give it a cool look. I recommend you don't take the "boring" grey model but ask for a red or blue one.
It takes around 1 second for the camera to start. If you take a photo without flash and 0 exposure it takes around 2 seconds per photo. You can increase/decrease this by changing the exposure length. Using flashlight greatly increases the time it takes to process one photo. I am not sure what influences it, but sometimes a photo is taken in just 2 seconds, while sometimes I have to wait almost 5-8 seconds! Not very good when everyone is waiting on you.

There's a digital and optical viewfinder. I've never used the optical viewfinder as I found it makes the pictures a bit inprecise. The digital viewfinder is excellent, but you can turn it off to save batteries.

The camera has 3 modes and a movie mode.
- automatic mode: you can adjust the zoom, decide to use flash or not, and whether you're zooming in on a small object (flower button)
- manual mode: you can adjust the zoom, decide to use flash or not, set the camera for a small object (flower), large object (mountain) and "default mode". There's a supermacro mode where you can take photos of very small objects (beatles, wrinkles on a paper money). The resulting image is not very sharp, however if you use a tripod to stabilize the camera you get exellent results. There's a black/white mode, or you can select white color density. By doing this you can take blue, red or green images. ISO 64, 100, 200 and 400 are supported, as well as an "auto" option. ISO 100 gives pretty good results, while 400 is grainy and almost unusable. There are special auto-settings, for example: sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent... There's a panorama mode where you can take 360° image. I've only used this option once, but it gave pretty good results. There's option to take one picture, 3 in a row, more in a row, or wait 10 seconds and then take a picture. The images are in different resolutions: 640x480, 1024x768, 1600x1200, 2272x1704, 2272x1280 (wide) and 1600x1200 (postcard).
- scene mode uses auto-settings for different scenes: indoors, on the beach, running children, fireworks etc. Very good if you don't want to waste time on manual settings. The fireworks feature is really impressive, though you'd need a tripod for optimal, non-blurry quality.

Optical zoom is 4x, while you can zoom digitally up to 14x but in this case the image is almost unusable. For comparison, on top resolution and with 4x zoom I can take a picture of a person from the 7th floor and you can almost clearly see his face.

Uses two AA batteries. I use rehargeable ones, so I still use the batteries I bought 10 months ago. It takes around 12 hours to charge the batteries on a low-cost $10 charger. I can, of course, use standard batteries in case I run out during taking pictures.

Pictures are named by a counter which you can switch on/off or reset. The pictures are in JPEG format and they contain various information such as the date when you took the photo, which exposure you used, did you use flash etc. You can extract this information with a computer software.

There's an option to send the images directly to the printer, but I've never used this.
To connect to the computer use a USB cable.

It's main weakness, and the reason why I'm considering buying a new camera, is that it makes blurry images when you've manually turned flash off (for example in museums). This means yu'll have to use a tripod to get good quality images (or try standing very, very still).

Overall an excellent camera if you want to learn about taking photos, while it will also suit your needs if you only want to take photos "without thinking" as the auto-mode gives excellent results. It is a little bulky, but I have placed it in my pocket countless times and couldn't even feel I'm carrying it.

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canon 4 megapixel a430

Strengths: price,megapixel,optical zoom

Weakness: size

this product is a good bet for beginners who want to take pictures of any fun events of their life .if picture quality is decent although the video isnt that great at only 15fps.

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Great value for money

Strengths: Easy to use right out of the box.

Weakness: SD memory.

This is an excellent value for money. You have to upgrade memory. Good beginner camera with a lot of features you can use. Pictures are good quality. All accessories are included.

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A good entrance level DC

Strengths: Small size, good shape, low price. The quality of the photos is good. Powered by AA batteries, a lot of functions.

Weakness: The LCD screen is kind of small, and it goes off when the flashlight is charging.

When I got this camera, my first feeling was that it looked kind of cheap. The design of the buttons is very simple, but makes it take a longer time to finish a setting. It has a lot of shooting functions, which are strong and complete. Especially the microshooting function, the quality of the photo is very nice. Although it is only 4.0 M, as a entrance level camera, it is worth the money.

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Great camera for the bundle price (w/printer)

Strengths: Takes nice photos, overall great design, video with audio

Weakness: I loved this camera until I got my GF a Nikon, now this camera seems very basic (which it is) and I wish it had better macro & advanced features.

This is a great camera, I rarely take photos but it served my ebay and vacation needs well. its very simple to use but simplicity means no advanced features, which often equates to not being able to take those impossible shots and make them work, but its a great camera.

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Great camera for cheap price!

Strengths: 4M pixel, light weighted (two AA batteries), easy nevigation, great picture quality, take both SD and MMC cards

Weakness: the shape is a little thick

Got this camera in a sale and it is so good for the cheap price. The camera is small even with 2 AA batteries in it. The picture quality is very good and the flash works well. It has 4M pixels which give you enough resolution. The 4x optical zoom is a plus. The nevigation function is easy to learn and use. Overall this is a good camera for the cheap price.

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By member: wahiba - Nov 3, 2008

4 mega pixels and an optical view finder

Strengths: Optical view finder. Standard batteries.

Weakness: LCD weak in bright light.

I bought this as an end of range model to complement my SLR. It sits on my desk and gets used for snap shots and when I need a pocket camera. 4 MP is sufficient for decent pictures. Movies are surprisingly good and I have used that feature more than I expected.
Easy to set up and manual feature makes it quite versatile. Considering I paid half the original new price I am well pleased.

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Canon PowerShot A430

Strengths: Excellent pictures, convenient size, long battery life.

Weakness: None that I have found - well OK other than the ridiculous 16MB MMC flash card it came with, which was quickly replaced with a 2GB SD card.

I can not tell the difference in pictures taken with this camera and my older Canon G3, which I really like.

At first I was concerned about the battery/flash-card cover latch, but it quickly "settled in" and now closes very easily. BTW, I have so far always taken the flash card out to upload the pictures to my computer.

I'm still on the original batteries, though they are getting very low; and I will soon replace them with NIMH ones.

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great buy!

Strengths: it takes wonderful images, affordable price, user friendly features and a whole lot more. .

Weakness: a little bulky

this is my first digital camera and i know i did a good job with this purchase. Even my kids can operate this camera with no difficulty. I was so amaze how the pictures look when i connected the camera to my television, its a great way to share it to my family members and the sound of the video is very clear. And the AA batteries too, they are so convenient, you can get it any where when you're travelling. this is a great buy! thank you
Canon!

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ReviewGist for Canon PowerShot A430 Digital Camera

Image is Good according to 16 Digital Camera experts. -- "It takes nice pictures with an Auto mode thats nearly infallible, so you can concentrate on composing your image, zooming in or out, and waiting for the right moment."-imaging-resource.com -- "the PowerShot A430s images looked great when printed on the i9900, with very bright, vibrant color, and very good skin tones."-imaging-resource.com...

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Canon PowerShot A430

Testseek.com has collected 14 expert reviews for Canon PowerShot A430 and the average expert rating is 73 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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Canon Powershot A430

Canon Powershot A430 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 2.11 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #291 standard digital camera of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a...

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