Customer Reviews

Canon PowerShot A60 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

If you're reading this review, you're probably like me, a novice user buying his first digicam. And like me, after having read and re-read reviews of several dozen cameras, this camera keeps showing up your short list. Still, there's so many options out there you keep obsessing about making the right choice. I finally decided to take the plunge and order this camera, and I'm amazed how correct my choice was.

Here were my main areas of concern while I was trying to decide on whether to buy this camera (they'll probably sound familiar) and how my actual experience stacked up against my concerns:

1. "Low" resolution of 2 Megapixels:

Unless you plan to blow your shots up to poster-size, 2MP is ideal. Don't get caught up in the "my MP is bigger than yours" race, as another reviewer said 2MP is the sweet spot for photos. Just leave the camera at its max settings and it's perfect, the file size is reasonable yet you'll still get every amazing detail. For example, I took a shot of my cat and you can see every hair and every whisker, even a little bit of "sleepy stuff" in the corner of her eye since she had just woken up from her nap. And this was just the third shot I took after removing it from the box. Yes, it's that good.

2. "Not enough zoom":

I'll admit, this was a huge issue for me. I was bound and determined that i wanted a camera with a higher zoom capability, like one of the Olympus 10x models. But actually having gotten a chance to use it, i've found the zoom capability, while nice, isn't the holy grail I thought it would be. Certainly not enough to spend a couple hundred dollars more to get.

3. Size -

The photos make the camera look tiny. I thought it might be better to get a bigger camera with big Tonka-toy buttons and that it would be easier to handle. Don't worry, the camera feels great in my hands, and i'm over six feet with big stubby fingers. I'm sure it will fit your hands just fine as well.

4. Other competing models in the Canon line:

This was another problem area. The A-series and G-series cameras all seem so good, that i wanted badly to get one of the more fully-featured (and expensive) models like the A80 or G5 to make sure i wasn't missing out on anything. And looking back now, most of the features I thought would make a huge difference don't seem to matter now. What seems important to you now when you're trying to make a buying decision probably won't be when you're actually out there using the camera. Out in the field, you'll want something which is relatively straight-forward and not tediously complex, but flexible enough to change a setting if absolutely necessary. This camera offers exactly that.

Trust me, when you're out in a picture taking environment, you're not going to be telling yourself (or wanting to tell your photo subjects), "hold on for a couple minutes while I put on the wide-angle lens."

5. Controls and the learning curve:

For a novice, the controls look a bit intimidating. And they can be, if you don't read the manual at all or spend any time going through the settings. But thankfully, the camera controls are well set-up, intuitive, and easy to learn. Yes, you can start shooting straight out of the box, but if you spend as little as 15-30 minutes reading how to operate the controls before you begin, it'll be well-worth your time. That won't be enough to learn everything the camera can do, but is enough to get you started on the right foot, and will put you weeks or months ahead of the game. I spent about 20 minutes learning about my camera after I got it, and my first pictures already looked better than the ones my father takes with his Canon G5 that he's owned nearly a year but never bothered to read the manual for.

THE BAD:

Shutter lag is perhaps my biggest gripe. Depressing the shutter fire button half-way focuses the camera, then depressing it the rest of the way fires the shutter. There's a brief but noticeable lag between depressing the button and the photo being taken, perhaps a half-second or so. Not a huge issue, but sometimes annoying, and can definitely get frustrating if you're trying to get just the right shot of a non-cooperative subject. Like with my cat, I'd wait for the exact moment when she was looking at me, I'd press the button, and the lag meant that she was no longer looking at the camera when the photo actually gets captured. I'm sure it would be more of the same if you were trying to take photos of an infant or child. Not a deal-breaker, but it can make for some frustration.

Inserting batteries in the dark can be a pain, unless you have memorized the pattern for which batteries go in which direction. Again, not a huge issue, but can be frustrating.

CONCLUSION:

If you're trying to decide between the A60 and either another manufacturer's offering or another Canon A-series, get this camera. This is a better camera than the competing Nikon, etc. and if you're thinking you'll need the additional features or MP of a more expensive model, you likely won't. If you did, you'd know that already and wouldn't be looking at this camera. So save your money and get this instead, it will MORE than meet and surpass your needs. You'll be very happy you did. I already have my Dad thinking she should switch cameras with me, and considering his costs about triple what mine did, that tells you that this little gem is a winner.

I just had a chance to test my friend's A60. After taking several pictures, here are what I came up with....

Goods:
- Fast start up time: less than 3 seconds. You are not gonna miss a quick shot. 3x optical zoom is also fast and quiet. The other nice thing is...it doesn't have a separated lense cap. This is what I hate about my Olympus C3040.
- Good picture quality: A60 produces properly exposed pictures and saturated colors in several different light conditions.
- Aperture and Shutter priority modes: you probably need this feature to take advanced shots.
- Great macro capability: you can take a picture of flowers as close as 2-3 inches. Focus is also fast. Compared to my minolta f100 and olympus c3040, I love A60's macro better.
- Improved night/indoor mode: this is what I don't see in canon s200 and the only reason I returned that little S200.
- Movie w/sound record: this camera records and playbacks movie with sound in AVI format at 15 frames/second. It runs pretty smooth.
- Lens adaptor: This camera can accept external wide-angle, tele, and filters.
- Use standard AA batteries: I think A-series is the only canon line that support AA batteries. If you don't wanna spend [money]for a second propietary battery, get A-series. Four fully charged batteries seem to last very long. I took about 100 pictures with LCD turn on, it's still full.
- Fast and easy USB connectivity: Compared to Olympus c3040 and Minolta F100, it takes very short for my windows xp to recognize this A60. In addition, you DON'T NEED a software at all.
- Feels: this camera is not too big or too small. It just comfortably fits in my hand. The body looks like metal and the handle is plastic. It's a good combination since you don't wanna touch a cold metal camera in winter.
- Low price

Bads:
- Ocassionally, purple fringe is visible in very high constrat shots.
- Poor auto white balance under tungsten light.
- No 1280 x 960 resolution. It has 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480.
- Small LCD: could be 1.8" instead of 1.5".
- Rubber USB/AV port cap: with frequent uses, it can be broken soon.

I bought the Canon PowerShot A60 as a replacement for my two year old Fuji Film 4700 Zoom, and I am extremely impressed. The camera at its highest resolution (1600x1200) takes gorgeous photos, with rich warm colors. No pixilation and very little purple fringing appear on the images. The camera itself includes some very advanced features for its price, all of which can be adjusted in manual mode. However, most users will never touch these options, instead opting for the simple Auto mode, which automatically chooses the perfect settings. The only downside to the camera itself is that instead of using metal, the casing is plastic, and therefore feels somewhat cheap. Nonetheless, the build quality is generally good and the buttons and ports are conveniently located. The camera is small, but is by no means one the smallest and lightest digital cameras on the market.

Along with the camera, the box includes an industry standard puny 16MB Compact Flash card, that should be immediately replaced, and four alkaline batteries. The battery life is very good; the camera can operate for several days of heavy use without replacement. Nonetheless, I recommend Ni-MH Rechargeable batteries, which provide an even longer life. The included `Zoom Browser EX' software very easy to use and incorporates some fairly powerful features.

If you don't want to spend much money and want an easy to use digital camera with great image quality, look no further than the Canon PowerShot A60. However, if you want a camera that can take larger photos and has more powerful features try the Canon S45, S50, or the Canon G3. If you want a smaller camera you might want to consider the Canon S400 or the S200.

Ok I've been looking for a digital camera for about a year now, I'm cheap so I waited until I found a product that had what I want for the price I wanna pay. .... the 2 mega pixels is just fine for ANYONE taking pictures and printing them.. 2MP Cameras print out great 8x10 photos so if you dont need to print anything bigger than that save your money and stay with a 2 mega pixel. In less than 10 mins i had this thing out of the box and taking pictures. It has some advanced manual features that I probably will not use because Im not a professional. The control are eays to use, the LCD display is fast and looked just like tv looking at the screen, the compact size fits great in your hand and doesn't take up much room.. Amazingly the batterys last for an very acceptable amount of time. I have a set of hi cap recharagable batterys from radio shack and i've been using it for a week taking movies and pictures and its just now getting low on batterys.. This is my first digital camera and Im very satisfied that I made a good choice first time around. There are many cool accessories (tho they are not cheap) like telephoto lenses and underwater cases too.. ....

I purchased this camera on a recent trip to Korea and took hundreds of pictures. One of my friends accompanying me on this trip bought one shortly afterwards and another bought one upon our return to the US because they were so impressed. Great camera for the money and for what I use it for. It is nice and compact but not overly so. The controls are easy to use and understand with very little familiarization needed. This camera has many more options than most consumers will ever use, but for those of you who want to be creative, this definitely allows for it. I particularly like the ability to "stitch" a panoramic scene together. The packaged software does a great job of this and is extremely user friendly.

This came with a 16MB CF card which is kind of useless I think. I bought a 256MB CF card at the same time I bought the camera and have been using it. We took a short vacation and I was able to take several video clips and almost two hundred photos without downloading. Most of these were at the highest resolution so I would recommend a higher capacity CF card. I also use the rechargeable NMh batteries instead of alkalines. I get more time out of these and are shorter in the long term than replacing alkalines all of the time.

So far I am very, very pleased with this product and would recommend it to anyone. My friend who also bought this owns a top of the line EOS digital SLR that cost many $$$$ more and is very pleased and satisfied with this. It takes great photos yet doesn't cost so much that your afraid to take it out and use it.

I have been using a Canon A20 for a little more than 1 year. It was a great camera. A60 is similar to A20 with new shape and enhanced functions.
After my A20 was taken by the sister of my wife, we were searching the web to find a replacement camera. After compared the features and sample pictures of several candidates: canon s230, canon a60, canon a300, nikon 2000, olympus c520. We found this one fits our needs the best.
S230 is a good camera, but too small to hold stable in hand.The picture quality of a300 is not good, even it has 3 mega pixels, due to its inferior lens.The nikon 2000 does not even record sound when taking video. C520 is OK but picture quality is so so.
So, if you just want to take some good picture of your family on a trip, A60 is one of the best choices.Make sure you grab a 256 M compact flash card before you leave the house.

One of these days, I'll be just as good with Aperture Priority-shooting on this digital camera as I am with my Canon SLR, but there's no need to hurry. In all-automatic mode, this A60 is great!!! The Canon lens is superb. Pictures I took of my Siberian husky on the lawn showed in excellent detail my dog's blue eyes, whiskers and fur, plus the green strands of grass of the lawn. The metering-, flash and other electronic systems are superb. Indoors inside the house, and indoors at a restaurant... the camera performed very well with perfectly (flash-)illuminated and focused pictures. It was also easy to review pictures taken and deleting those I didn't care for. Using the USB to copy files onto the hard drive was straightforward.

I bought 8 NIMH-rechargeable batteries plus charger as well as an AC-adapter. ( I shouldn't have bought the AC-adapter; the rechargeable long-life NIMH batteries are sufficient.) I also bought a Simpletech 128MB CF card since the CF card that came with the camera was good only for a handful of shots. The 128MB-CF card will go a long way since I've started taking 1-megapixel pictures. [ 1MP pictures are easier to send via email] I've also used the picture "editor" software for cropping and to reduce red-eye; learning how to do these things was easy.

I am extremely pleased and I highly recommend the Canon A60. Picture-quality is superb; the menu system is straightforward and user-friendly. The more-commonly used options are easy to remember and use and result in high-quality pictures. Moreover, there is more to the camera (macro-photography, movies, "stitching" for panoramic shots) to challenge one's creative photography cravings. [ But do remember: it is necessary and most useful to read the well-written manual. ]

Since there are already plenty of positive reviews, I will focus on the few lacks of this camera.

- Impossible to record the "date picture taken" on the image.
(Trying to pass for professional camera? :) Many simplier models have this useful feature).
- Zoom lever is not most conveniently located. It would be easier if it was on the back of the camera.
- Navigation buttons look strange being round instead of arrow shaped. This is changed in Power Shot A80.
- Power on/off button is easy to be accidentally activated. Sliding type would greatly decrease the chances.
-Every time the camera is turned on, a lot of energy is used to mechanically extend the telescopic lenses. If they were fixed with attachable cap, battery performance could be improved; size, however, would definitely suffer. Reliability of lenses moving motors is naturally limited, which possibly could be the the cause for the famous Error 18.
-Ergonomics. "Set" button, could be better positioned somewhere near the side navigation buttons - on the right, as set up on most cameras.
-Camera also doesn't come with sufficient memory card and reliable battery/charger, requiring spending additional money on accessories. This is, however, what keeps the price at its level.
-Side rubber cover can break if used repeatedly over a long period of time. Design could be more reliable if the cover would open freely.
-Very important issue - batteries have to be removed every time they need to be charged, which places great strain on the plastic battery cover that would eventually break with extensive use. Cameras that enable batteries to be charged without removing them, greatly exceed the durability in the long period of use.
-Plastic tripod thread, less durable compared to metal ones.

Despite all the listed cons, this is a very modern camera with superior image quality and outstanding set of features and controls. I am very pleased with PowerShot A60 so far and would not hesitate to recommend it to many photo enthusiasts.

Used this camera for 8 happy months and would echo many of the positive comments listed here. But then, the dreaded E18 error, where the lens gets stuck and the camera won't operate. Try an internet search for "Canon" and "E18" and see the dozens and dozens of comments that pop up.

If this doesn't happen to you, then you'll probably be very happy with this camera. If it does, then don't expect them to honor the warranty. In my case, they wanted to charge me $105.00 to fix it, claiming there was "impact damage" to the camera (there was no impact). What's really annoying is that, even in this day and age, the only way to contact the service facility is to phone, wait on hold for 15 minutes, then have to leave a voice mail that they promise to "promptly" return. I left 3, they returned one (2 business days later) and left me a voice mail. My letter to company headquarters has been totally ignored for over a month. Apparently, they're just going to keep my camera unless we send them money. Can you believe that you can't even e-mail a tech company like Canon?

I have owned Canon cameras for over 30 years and thought their workmanship was superb. I will never buy one again due to this shabby, shabby customer service. Good luck.

After asking around about what essential specs to get on a camera, I came down to a list of the following:

- Minimum of 2 million pixels,
- At least 3 * optical zoom,
- Perferably made by one of the long-time camera makers (For better lens quality).

To that, I added a few requirements of my own:

- Should look good, (Hey. I'm a sucker for appearance when it comes to technology)
- Some settings I can play around with, (I want to be able to influence diaphragma settings, flash usage, shutter times, etc)
- It should have the feel of a regular camera (I want to FEEL I'm using a camera, rather than some light-weight plastic box)
- It should be afordable.

After all of these, and reading some reviews and recommendations from friends, I decided I wanted a Canon. While looking at a number of cameras, I finally decided on the A60.

I figured 2 million pixels would be enough, considering I don't intend on enhancing the pictures at all. Just regular size pictures would do perfectly fine for me. The camera also allows me to control the technical settings like the diaphragm, shutter time, etc. And it actually fellt like a real camera.

All in all, the camera filled all the criteria I mentioned above, so it seemed like an obvious choice.

The camera works like a charm. The quality of the pictures is absolutely brilliant, and the usb-cable supplied with it enables you to quickly download the pictures from the memory card onto your computer. I haven't tested the software to alter pictures yet, but I'm convinced it will do whatever it promises.

The only disadvantages I could find was that the 16 MB CF card is too limited for storage. And the accessories are expensive as hell. But, that does not affect the working of the camera, so I have no reason to complain really.

All in all, argueable the best camera for your money in it's price range.