Traditionally, even the cheapest digital camera offerings from Canon provided consistent quality, ease of use, performance and good design. And with the prices getting ever lower and the resolution and screen sizes going up, the choices are only getting better. The new 8-Megapixel Canon PowerShot A580 is one of the examples of this relentless technology improvement. It is a camera with a 4x optical zoom that uses two AA batteries and features a 2.5-inch LCD screen, optical viewfinder - a successor to the popular Canon A560 cameras, but with higher resolution and even better performance at a price lower than what the A560 was selling for when introduced a year ago.
What is Canon PowerShot A580?
The new Canon PowerShot A580 is a 8-Megapixel compact digital camera with a 4x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD screen (115,000 pixels), zooming optical viewfinder, new Canon Digic 3 (DiG!C III) Image Processor, face detection, auto focus, multiple shooting modes including Full Auto, Program and Manual Mode, Scene modes. It stores pictures on SD (Secure Digital) or MultiMedia memory cards (32 MB card supplied) and features USB 2.0 high-speed connection to PC and Mac computers.
The A580 supports direct printing (without computer) with PictBridge compatible printers. The camera is powered by 2 AA batteries (alkaline batteries included, rechargeable NiMH recommended). It features a tripod mount and a convenient mechanical mode wheel. The camera comes with AV and USB cables, software, batteries, 32MB MMC card and wrist strap. The camera is very similar to A560, with the exception of slightly higher resolution and newly-added face detection.
Features
The camera features sharp 4x optical zoom (35-140 mm in 35mm equivalent) with maximum apertures f/2.6-f/5.5 and minimum aperture of f/8.0 at both wide angle and telephoto.
The PowerShot A580 has a low-light focus assist illuminator that helps it focus in low light. The orientation sensor detects if the camera is held horizontally or vertically and saves the pictures appropriately, allowing them to auto-rotate when opened in some software.
The A580 also features selectable Evaluative, Center-Weighted and Spot metering modes. The camera has a shutter speed range of 15-1/2,000 sec and selectable ISO of 80-1,600, in addition to ISO Auto setting.
The camera also has a Macro mode where it can focus as close as 2 inches (5 cm) at wide angle or 11.8 inches (30 cm) at telephoto. The movie mode records movies with sound at 640x480 20 fps or 320x240 30 fps up to 4 GB or 60 minutes or 160x120 15 fps (up to 3 minutes).
The camera uses two AA batteries as its power source. Canon claims that rechargeable NiMH batteries can provide 500 shots on one charge (220 shots with disposable alkaline batteries). I have used my rechargeable NiMH batteries.
Usage
Upon getting the camera, I inserted my charged 2300-mAh NiMH batteries and my SD card (the provided 32 MB MMC card is too small in capacity) and was ready to shoot.
Similarly to the other cameras of the Canon A-series, this model has a nice looking and durable metal/polycarbonate body that is compact and convenient to hold. The camera has a retractable lens that extends and has a lens cover that opens when the camera is powered on. When the camera is powered off, the lens retracts and the lens cover closes. The camera has an on/off button on the top deck as well as a zoom rocker, large shutter release button and a large rotating mode dial. The mode dial can be set to Auto mode, Program mode, one of the multiple available scene modes or Manual mode.
The bottom of the camera has a threaded tripod mount and a memory card/battery compartment lid. The rear houses a 2.5-inch LCD monitor, an optical zooming viewfinder, a review/shoot switch and control buttons. The side has a cover, underneath which you can find a USB 2.0 jack, A/V jack and a DC power jack.
The A580 can be used in full auto mode (mode dial in
Auto position), where it is extremely easy to use. In this mode the camera sets all parameters automatically and you only have to point and shoot.
You press the shutter release button halfway to make camera focus and the camera shows you (on the LCD screen) where it focused by displaying one or more green rectangles. Then you take the picture by pressing the shutter release button all the way.
You can go one step further and select an appropriate scene mode (e.g. Portrait, Landscape, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Kids & Pets, etc.) to let camera know what effect you want. For example, in the Portrait mode the camera will try to keep the subject sharp while keeping the background blurry, but will try to keep both foreground and background sharp in the Landscape mode. In most modes you can use Exposure Compensation to make pictures the camera takes brighter or darker.
Performance
The camera takes less than two seconds to power up and can capture images at less than two-second intervals without flash (using
Kingston Elite Pro SD memory card) or 6-10 seconds with flash (depending on the subject distance and battery charge). The focusing takes less than a second and the shutter lag, when pre-focused, is almost instantaneous.
The zooming from wide angle to telephoto (or back) takes about two seconds and is smooth and responsive. The burst mode lets you take photos at about 1.5 per seconds.
According to Canon, the camera can take about 500 pictures on one charge of high-capacity NiMH batteries, which is a significant improvement on the previous models. I was able to take more than 140 photos using my 2300 mAh batteries and the low battery warning has not appeared yet.
Obviously, using disposable alkaline batteries is bad for the environment and for your pocket, but if you run out of juice, you can use alkaline AA batteries, easily-obtainable anywhere. The camera should take about 220 photos using them (according to Canon).
The flash has an effective red-eye reduction mode and is sufficient at up to 10-12 feet away. It has a recycle time of about 6-10 seconds (depending on the subject distance and battery charge). If you need faster flash recycling, you might need to upgrade to a 4-AA battery model like Canon’s own
A650 IS or
A640. Flash recycling time is the Achilles’ heel of the 2-AA battery cameras of many manufacturers, Canon included. But Panasonic cameras are much better in this regard.
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The camera features good build quality. It is also convenient to hold and its compact size lets you put it in a jacket pocket or a purse easily. The major controls are within easy reach and the tactile response is good.
LCD and Viewfinder
The camera has a 2.5-inch non-articulated (fixed) LCD screen and an optical zooming viewfinder. The LCD coverage as about 100% - you can see exactly what will be recorded. The viewfinder, however, cover only about 80% of what will be recorded. The LCD is fluid but its resolution is only 115,000 pixels - good but not excellent for its size.
Focusing
The new feature of this model (comparing with the previous model) is its face detection, which focuses on people’s faces. You can also let camera focus using its auto focusing system and the camera will show you green rectangles over the areas where it focused so that you can confirm the focus. You can also switch to the 1-point focusing.
Macro
The A560 can take good macro pictures. The Macro mode is available at a push of a button as well and is very versatile in terms of minimum focus distance. It can capture (with no flash) a minimum area of about 2x1.5-inch and features a sharp image with only slight blurring in corners of the frame. A very good macro performance, considering the size and price of the camera.
Keep in mind that you need light to illuminate the shooting area and/or a tripod, however: the flash when engaged at such a close distance can overexpose the upper left portion of the image. This has been a typical issue with the cameras of the A5xx series and is not unique to Canon or this particular model line.
Computer Connectivity
The camera uses USB 2.0 high-speed connection to transfer pictures to a computer. You can also remove the SD memory card and use a memory card reader (if you have one), which I do. Since I have not tried the USB transfer of this camera, I cannot comment on the photo transfer speeds.
White Balance
The camera's automatic white balance usually works well, especially outdoors. Just as is the case most of the time with any camera, Incandescent light warrants the use of manual white balance or incandescent white balance setting.
Picture Quality
I usually take photos that contain all primary colors at different focal lengths, apertures and compression ratios. Some photos are taken outdoors, some indoors with and without flash.
Oftentimes, I take a bunch of photos from my balcony. Those photos features all colors: blue sky, green foliage, red curbs, yellow fire hydrant and cars of different colors.
Taking photos at different focal lengths and apertures reveals the camera's optical quality: corner sharpness, chromatic aberrations, overall sharpness.
Taking photos at different ISO settings shows how well a given camera can keep noise levels low in dim light. I mostly evaluate the image quality using my computer monitor, but I also print some photos at different sizes using either my printer or online services, mostly Snapfish. I also use Costco occasionally (where they have Fuji Digital Frontier or Noritsu minilabs).
The A580 produces excellent photos that are well-exposed, sharp, contrasty and richly-colored. The colors are very pleasing. The skin colors are true to life and pleasing. Unlike some other cameras (including Canon SD Digital Elph series) that have noticeably softer edges of the frame, the photos taken with this camera are sharp at the edges of the frame as well as at the center.
The lens of this camera is very good, despite its compact dimensions and the 4x optical zoom. It exhibits slight barrel distortion at wide angle (straight lines bow out at the edges of the frame) that is virtually unnoticeable and can only be detected if you take pictures of buildings and really pay attention.
The camera features virtually no chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in the areas of high contrast. The image noise is absent at ISO 80, appears (slightly) at the ISO 100 in the shadows, gets more pronounced at ISO 200, gets worse at ISO 400 and gets pretty bad at ISO 800-1600. Still, if you are printing 6x4 or 5x7 pictures, the noise should not be visible up to (and including) ISO 200 and barely visible at ISO 400-1600.
Taking into account that the camera has 8-megapixel resolution, you can print your photos at up to 11x14 inches or even 13x19 with good detail (ISO up to 200). Heavy cropping with smaller print sizes will work too. I do not use ISO 400-1600 unless I
really have to. Most of the time, there is no need to increase ISO so much.
Bottom Line
In case you need a compact, inexpensive, easy to use yet capable camera that produces excellent photos with print sizes of up 13x19 inches, has 4x optical zoom and uses two AA batteries, I highly recommend the Canon PowerShot A580. But if you want fast flash recycle times, more manual control or articulated LCD, the 4-AA battery-equipped Canon A650 IS may be a better choice, albeit for more money.
