electronics Canon PowerShot A520 opinions and reviews

Canon PowerShot A520

A successor to the Powershot A85, this smaller and less weighty camera can be termed as its compacted edition.

It features a longer zoom lens and more scene modes. Also, PowerShot A520 operates on two AA batteries instead of four. Other variations evident are the AF assist lamp located on the opposite side of the optical viewfinder and the shifting of the microphone, if only just.

Diagonal LCD of A520 remains at 1.8 inches even as there are some modifications in the lens. You can take advantage of the enlarged f/2.6 to f/5.5, 35-mm equivalent 4X optical zoom lens which is very helpful for telephotos. The camera feature facilitates conversion lenses and filters.

There are some exceptional manual controls in A520 like the Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority etc. The general shooting modes include Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene among others and there are also the Stitch Assist and Movie mode.

While using the Movie mode, A520 can shoot videos at 640 x 480 resolution but a highly at a miserable 10 frames per second. A compromise can be made if you can be satisfied with 320 x 240 which will capture images at a slightly better 15 frames per second. The duration of VGA video clips cannot exceed half a minute while lower-resolution clips can be shot for a maximum duration of 3 minutes.

Though an improved A-series camera, there are still a few loopholes. The main shortcoming of A520 is the erratic functionality. Some of the controls are not receptive enough. At times you have to press the keys twice or thrice to get a function started. Bootup takes 4.1-seconds but the reprocessing time of 9 seconds between taking shots is not acceptable. The menu arrangement offers abundant choices for the users. Having said that, a few features like the scene mode would be better off having some helpful illustrations.

Photos captured in daylight conditions are fairly sharp and precise with colours looking bright enough for satisfaction. Too much disparity was not seen while using the flash. A common irritant in both shooting modes was the sound created white snapping which doesn’t sound pleasant.

The shutter lag of 0.3 seconds is tolerable. Battery life is likely to last for an average of 300 shots which isn’t disappointing.

Despite a few hiccups and the sluggish performance of the camera at times, it is still a reasonable successor to A85.