Canon Powershot A800 review

Canon Powershot A800: A bargain buy for the photographer on a budget

One of Canon’s most inexpensive compacts, the PowerShot A800 has an RRP of a fantastic £79. At such at reasonable price, we had to put it to the test to see if it could uphold the manufacturer’s great reputation for quality.

The A800 is powered by two AA batteries, making it chunkier than sleeker compact models that rely on li-ion batteries. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes the camera more family and user-friendly as you no longer have to worry about losing its charger or cables, and with the capacity to shoot up to 300 frames on new or fully charged AAs, you won’t miss out on any of the action. Thanks to the battery compartment, the bulkier right-hand side does in fact make the camera feel more secure and is a useful handgrip when using the compact on location.

Our model was matte black in design with an attractive silver lens ring, but the A800 is also available in three different colours: powdered blue, vibrant red, and silver.

During our test shoot the camera proved very easy to use. The bright 2.5-inch LCD screen started up quickly when the camera was turned on and the button layout was easy to navigate, with handy illustrations guiding us on our selections.

The Canon 3.3x optical zoom lens is capable of achieving 13x magnification when combined with the added 4x digital zoom, and responds well when using the dedicated zoom buttons located on the back of the camera. However, we found that the camera’s focusing could be a little temperamental as it struggles to focus quickly, with little assistance from the shutter release as you press halfway down. Users will need to be light-fingered when looking to focus their shots before capture.

Offering a good 10 megapixels, the camera performs well, and for its retail price produces good quality images with well-saturated and often vibrant colours. However, when zooming in, images do tend to lack a little detail in the edges, although this is not overly noticeable unless you’re intending to enlarge them for bigger prints. The A800 also struggles in bright daylight, with colours sometimes appearing washed out, and you’ll often notice it picking up some lens flare. But, on the whole, in even light the contrast levels appear good with well-defined images.

Featuring the popular Smart Auto mode, the camera will automatically select the correct scene mode for your shot, leaving you to just compose, point and shoot. There are 13 scene modes available for users who want to get a little more creative with their captures, all of which can be selected manually within the menu interface. The A800 also has a useful movie mode with a resolution of 640 x 480 – it’s not HD, but it’s perfect for uploading to the web and sharing with friends and family.

Performing well in low light with good ISO capabilities and a dedicated low-light scene mode, the A800 also has a blur reduction mode, which ensures images remain sharp when shooting without flash in limited light. On review of our captures, noise only became prominent in images shot at higher ISOs, with some notable loss of detail.

Overall, the camera’s simple design and user-friendly features will appeal to those looking for a point-and-shoot compact camera on a budget, and for only £79 it’s a great bargain buy.