Labs

Canon's cheapest digital camera has a fixed-focal length lens and a modest 2-megapixel CCD. But don't be fooled by its bargain-basement specs: you get plenty for your money. From the front, it looks cheap and tacky; round the back you discover a first-rate LCD and photographic options you wouldn't expect at the price.

Image quality

The Canon struggles a little with fine, textured detail such as distant vegetation, and you might need to add crispness by running the 'Unsharp Mask' filter in your image editor over your images (as you will with its rivals). Allowing for that, the A200 really does

ADVERTISEMENT

the business with bright colours, accurate exposure and accurate auto-focus. You can't get much better point-and-shoot reliability.

Features

The A200 comes with a great software bundle including ZoomBrowser EX for editing and organising your images, PhotoRecord for albums and printing, and PhotoStitch for creating panoramic shots (the A200 has a panoramic shooting mode to go with it). Add three-point auto-focus, exposure compensation, white balance control, picture effects and a two frames per second rapid shooting mode, and you have a great-value package.

Design

The A200 might look plasticky, but it isn't. On the upside, it won't fall to bits in a fortnight; on the downside, it's pretty weighty for a budget digital camera. Its controls are a revelation in a camera at this price - both for what they can do, and for the quality of LCD, the menu layout and the switching buttons.

Overall

The A200 is no oil painting, and you have to use it to understand just how much it's capable of. If it were just a bit cheaper, or came with a zoom lens, the A200 would easily romp away with our Best Buy award. As it is, it comes a close (very close) second. Recommended.