magnificent surprise in a very small box

This wee camera produces images that have a beautiful filmic quality. The software it comes with processes RAW files from 3 colour layers, and magically restores bleached out skies and burnt white! The shadows open up and reveal extraordinary depth. As a seasoned pro photographer, I've never seen anything like it. The all-metal camera itself is a joy to hold and behold. Weighty, stark minimalism with very few features, just a wide angle lens and a big sensor. It demands respect and will reward you. I love it!

Excellent camera- except if you are E18'd

The Canon Powershot A85 is an excellent all-round camera. The autofocus feature is reliable, the picture quality is excellent, and there are a number of different modes for photography- a scenery mode, flash mode, firework mode, TV mode and more.

The camera is also very easy to carry around, being small enough to carry in a small case or even in trouser and coat pockets. You can also record up to 30 seconds of high quality movies.

So all in all, an excellent set of features for the price. However, the lens mechanism is very fragile, and there is a gap between the lens and the surrounding areas of the camera, allowing dust, sand etc. to penetrate into the camera's interior.

The lens mechanism is easily broken through abuse (dropping the camera, blocking the lens etc), and also through things like exposing the camera to dusty/sandy environments, big temperature changes, and also through internal malfunctions if any parts are faulty and/or wear out with time. In most cases, the camera will display"E18" and become unusable. This infamous"E18 Error" is as common on the A85 as most other Canon digital cameras.

You can reduce the chances of an E18 Error occurring by avoiding abusing the camera and avoiding taking photographs in dusty environments, but even so, the risk will always be there. On the other side of the coin, many people have owned Canon cameras for years without encountering the E18 error, and digital cameras made by at least some of the other brands commonly suffer from the same kind of lens problems. It's up to the prospective buyer as to whether the risk of getting an E18 error is worth taking.

olympus fe100

Having looked through lots of reviews and listened to advice from friends, I decided that the fe100 would be the ideal first digital camera for me. Having bought one I feel that I have made the right decision.
First of all it is so easy to use. A quick flick through the manual and off you go. It’s so straight forward.
The picture quality is very good and the installation disc is easy to follow. Overall an excellent choice.

Does everything!

The Sony DSC-S40 Cyber-shot Digital Camera is perfect, small, easy to use and great for movies too! By far the best digital camera I have used and seen. Highly recommended!

An average compact camera, but there are better options available...

I bought this camera almost 3 years ago and the other week the sensor broke in it. Throughout this time spent with the camera, it's been a bit of a love-hate affair. By today's standards this model is sub-par, and that's not in regards to the 4.1MP resolution, as the picture quality leaves much to be desired.

My main criticisms are that without the flash the pictures are very blurry, as well as with macro shots and low light (i.e. High ISO) photos also come out pretty poorly. The menu system could be better and if you ever make a video, the audio will go out of sync if it's longer than 2 mins or so.

I use a Nikon D40 DSLR camera for anything serious, but a compact is always useful for on-the-go shots and nights out. My friend purchased a Fuji E900 and returned it within a month for a lower priced Sony model due to purple fringing on her pictures and similarly low performance sans flash. As such, however popular a brand Fuji are and however many good reviews I hear about their superzooms (e.g. Fuji S5700), my experience with the brand has been fairly negative.

This was my first digital camera I purchased, and however well it has served me over the years, there are much better options out there.

To replace this, I intend to get a Canon A720 or a Nikon P60 (just announced, available March 2008), which friends of mine have and are both very happy with. Both of these cameras feature VR/IS (Vibration Reduction / Image Stabilisation) and easily overshadow my now obsolete paper-weight that is the Fuji A345.

Good, easy-to-use camera

I got this last year for my birthday(it is 1 year, and almost 3 months old at the time of writing this), and have been using it since. It does the job well, and is so easy to use. The quality of photos it produces are very good quality.

One of the downsides is that the camera can't seem to handle low-lighting conditions very well, so you'd probably get out-of-focus or blotchy pics. To solve this, you'd probably have to switch the flash off, or use the Adaptive Lighting technology. The zoom as well isn't that great, but it's still a great camera.

Since this has been discontinued and now considered 'old' by the technology experts nowadays, I guess no one would read this, but if you do, I'd probably go for the newer ones now, obviously.

Very reliable olympus mju 400

This is my 1st digital camera it is very easy to use - my elders who are over 60 can use it!. I’ve had this camera for 2 years now, taken about 3,500 pictures now and its never let me down. As a student i’m taking it with me on bar nights and not really taking that much care over it, but it is one tough camera, its been left out side over night many times, the battery life under heavy use i.e. plenty of flash and high quality photos will last about 150 snaps, i bought an extra battery which makes life easier . The digital zoom although looks poor on the screen is exceptional when downloaded. the software Camedia is useable but slow, i find microsoft office works well.
There are newer cameras out there, but the low price now looks to be amazing value for money and well worth taking up.

Excellent photos

Colours and sharpness of the images are excellent. A big plus is that you can fine tune almost everything by hand, which was nice for me as I switched only recently to fully automatic cameras and still do not trust the built in programs completely.
The only negative point I found is that it consumes batteries extremely fast. You should always carry some spare ones.

Good camera, great price!

This product is priced at £169 in my local Sony centre - I don’t know what Amazon do to get this price but it’s definitely worth it!

Some people are still worried about security, or what happens if it goes wrong when buying on the internet. Don’t be - from somewhere like Amazon it’s fine, you can even return the product if it’s in an ’as new’ condition for no reason.

As for the camera, well, so far I’ve taken 38 pictures in a wide range of conditions, and comparing it to my old camera (albeit a 3.1M Fuji) it’s definitely an improvement. But the real difference comes when taking shots in awkward conditions - where my old camera would struggle with the contrast etc this one works fine. The only reason i wouldn’t give it 5 stars is because its design is feels slightly cheap. But comparing it to other cameras in this price range you cannot complain. The video quality is brilliant too - much better and more refined than other cameras.

In my opinion, it’s the best in its class (which is why i bought it!) and for this price, an absolute bargain.

Quality Camera

I bought this camera as my second camera - I have a digtal SLR and needed a small pocket sized point and shoot. This camera fits the bill perfectly.

Excellent picture quality for the money - better than that of many more expensive cameras.
Simple to use - even my wife has shown an interest!

The only bad thing I have to say about the camera is that it is power hungry. The batteries that came with it didn't last very long. My advice is invest in rechargeables - lots available on Amazon.

One last thing - get a bigger memory card. All in all a great buy.

My first real digital camera...

... and it messes up in a few days. The light blinks red a bit, then turns off completely. To really rub in the salt the detail really isn't that great , there's no optical zoom, and there's even, to my astonishment, no SOUND while recording video, making the video option utterly pointless. Very disappointing. Had this been working it would have gotten three stars, it only receives two because it can take photos like it says, just not well.