Product Reviews

In the five years PC Pro has been published, few technologies have advanced with the same speed as digital cameras. We reviewed our first digital camera in issue 13, when Kodak proudly introduced its bulky 756 x 504 resolution beast for £895. Now, £499 buys you Canon's PowerShot A50 with a resolution of 1,280 x 960 pixels, a 28-70mm wide-angle zoom lens (35mm equivalent), and all in a package the size of a large box of matches.

In fact, the PowerShot A50 is almost indistinguishable from its 35mm counterparts, and it's only the 2in TFT LCD preview panel and the A50's substantial weight of around 300g that give the game away. In terms of image quality, Canon has already proved it can clash swords with traditional cameras; the £899 PowerShot Pro 70 (reviewed issue 54, p172) currently takes pride of place in our A List. However, quality at the top end of a manufacturer's range doesn't guarantee it throughout its products, and the PowerShot A50 has a more basic lens and a smaller pixel count than its more expensive counterpart.

This lower specification certainly doesn't get in the way of the A50's ability to capture colour accurately - a strength we've come to expect from Canon digital cameras. I used the camera's Macro mode to photograph a yellow flower, and this produced vibrant colours down to the slightest variation at the petals' edges.

When objects were further away, the A50 found things more challenging. In terms of capturing detail and overall focus, the PowerShot Pro 70 is far superior. And although the A50 fares better when compared to similarly priced cameras, it's by no means the best we've seen - for instance, the £591 Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-55E (reviewed issue 58, p167) has a sharper focus and picks up the subtlety of shading far better.

There's some stiff competition in the sub-£500 range in the form of Minolta's DimÅge Ex Zoom 1500 (reviewed issue 53, p177). Considering this had an original price of £851, its current street price of £429 makes it a bargain. In terms of image quality the Minolta even rivals the PowerShot Pro 70. If you don't need fine detail, though, the JPEG compression used by the A50 is above-average

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and, as long as you don't intend to enlarge photos, the results are pleasing.

One feature the Minolta can't match is the PowerShot A50's tiny dimensions and sleek aesthetics. All of its buttons are recessed, and the lens retracts neatly into the body of the machine when switched off. This makes it incredibly easy to slip the Canon, with its optical zoom and macro mode, into your pocket.

Inevitably, the miniaturisation of the camera's body has meant the control buttons are small and slightly fiddly. This problem hasn't been helped by an equally fiddly interface when altering on-screen settings such as image quality.

In its default picture-taking mode, when photos are automatically compressed as JPEG files to save space, the A50 has four settings to determine picture size and quality: Large/ Fine (1,280 x 960), using approximately 320Kb per picture; Large/Normal at 170Kb; Small/Fine (640 x 480) at 120Kb; and Small/Normal at 65Kb. Choosing the Program mode gives you even more options, including taking raw and uncompressed photos, although the 8Mb CompactFlash card will only hold four. This mode also offers basic control over white balance, shutter speed and exposure settings.

If you want to capture a panoramic vista, the Stitch Assist mode helps you to 'stitch' together a string of photos. This uses the TFT screen to full effect, keeping the photos you've already taken on screen so you can overlap images correctly. There's also a Vertical Panoramic option for photographing subjects like tall buildings, and a Matrix mode for stitching together four photos into a rectangle.

This fancy tool is all very well, but transferring photos from the camera is the usual arduous process thanks to Canon's decision to use the serial port. It's a huge shame that manufacturers aren't following Kodak's example of connecting via USB, as this can manage up to 12Mbits/sec, compared to the serial port's 115.2Kbits/sec.

The TWAIN driver Canon supplies works well, allowing you to capture images directly from your image-editing program. Fortunately, you won't have to go out and buy such a program, because Canon supplies the commendable PhotoImpact 4.2. Although it can't compete with Photoshop at professional levels, it's still an advanced image editor, with a range of spectacular effects that shames Adobe PhotoDeluxe - the most regular software inclusion with digital cameras.

All of this adds to the Canon PowerShot A50's appeal, and few owners will be disappointed with their purchase. However, there's one thing that prevents the A50 from getting a full PC Pro recommendation - the Minolta DimÅge Ex Zoom 1500. Not only is the Minolta's image quality significantly better, it's also available for £70 less.