Canon PowerShot A560 Digital Camera

As well as having my Kodak Z650 which has a high zoom I really wanted a camera which was less bulky and able to take on nights out with me. A family friend had a Canon Powershot camera and they recommended it to me a lot, I took a few pictures on it and actually quite liked it and the picture quality. It wasn't too big and apparently an ok price too so, off I went to Amazon's website to see their best offers. I looked up their range of Canon Powershot's and I swayed between the A550 and the model up the A560. After much consideration I opted for the A560 as it was a bit more expensive but offered that bit more.

So, on the Amazon website I noticed that the price of the camera is $134.95 and is currently in stock. Unlike my more professional camera this has a more average 4x zoom which for what I need the camera for, going out and having fun no more than 4x zoom is necessary. The camera has 7.1 mega pixels though which is actually really good and beats my other camera so this is what also swayed me to buying it.

I ordered my camera and it came relatively quickly. The box came with the usual USB for loading the photos up and it has a strap on it so that it is easy to hold. It also has an instruction manual and it comes with a memory card. I was quite happy to see I had a memory card so I tested it out to see how much space I got but it only gives you room for 16 photos and since I already have a 2GB memory card I decided just to not bother using this as the amount of photos it gives you isn't worth the hassle.

This camera is a bit awkward when it comes to opening the compartment where the batteries are placed. You have to push a little bit to the side and then try and pull the plastic lid up. It's an accident waiting to happen as one day I can see myself breaking the lid off. Anyway in this bit you insert 2x AA batteries like most camera's and also you insert the memory card here. On the side of the camera is a rubber door after minutes of trying to pick this up without worrying I was breaking it, it popped open and this is where you insert the USB cable to upload your photos.

Now, for the actual appearance: it measures at 9.1cm x 4.3cm x 6.4cm which is small enough, just about average really. To put the camera on it has a power on button on the top. It also has the button you push to take pictures which gets it into focus, and around this button is a lever which you push gently to get the camera to zoom in and out. On the back is an LCD screen so that you can see all of the photos or videos you are taking. It's your choice whether you have the LCD on just press the display button at the back and it will make the screen active and press it again to switch it off.

With this camera, I do prefer having the LCD display on as it saves me from squinting my eyes and I can see if the camera is in focus or not yet. This is especially useful when recording videos as you can see the video on the back as the timer is showing and everything. The screen also shows if you choose to zoom in while recording. The camera seems to focus quite well but at times when zooming into the maximum of 16x it just won't focus very well but for a camera like this I don't really expect it not to go a bit grainy and fuzzy this close in.

The zoom is generally alright and for pictures about 8x zoomed in you can still get a relatively clear but close up photos. One of my only negatives about this camera is that after you take a picture it takes about ten seconds sometimes to get back to the LCD display again to get the next photo taken and this has made me sometimes miss out on some great photo opportunities. However, sometimes it comes on right away ready to take the next photo; it just depends on the conditions I think as well.

With this camera you can set it up so that it has a 10 second timer and if you want to take a nice picture and get in it yourself just set this option run quickly and you can get it taken. Also you can do a 2 second timer or you can set up a custom timer. This could be anything from 1-10 seconds and you can choose if you want it to take more than 1 photo. An example would be if you wanted to take some photo's at a race and knew that a 5 second delay would get great pictures then you'd set it up to take maybe 5 pictures and every 5 seconds it would take those 5 pictures and you'd get a nice sequence. It isn't an option I don't use very often I tend to just stick to the 10 second timer and it usually works well. You can also set up the flash to be on, off or automatic and you can set the date and time so you know when the pictures were taken.

The buttons on the back of the camera are review so that you can look over all of your taken photos; menu takes you to the titles of all of the options like, timer, date/time, and red eye on or off. Also this camera on start up has a little intro of a blue screen with white Canon text and it makes a little noise not too annoying or long. Another thing I really like about this camera is the photo quality, it has really good colour that is just accurate and like the eye can see, whereas some camera's I've had with a flash can make people look awfully pale and insipid.

The features on the turning wheel at the top are manual, auto which I usually keep it on, portrait for face shots, landscape probably more ideal for holiday photos, night for darker photos but I always find you have to keep a really still hand with this option or it blurs too easily, although it does brighten the colour up. Kids and pets are another feature, Indoor, night scene, and video for making good quality videos which are not too fuzzy but very sharp. You can also set in advance copies you want printed so the memory card is ready.

The camera is good value for money and has given me some great photo memories already. The photo's come out really nice and I am happy with the features for what I paid. As said above this can be purchased on Amazon.