Easy to use, but lots of image noise

I bought this camera as an 'always with me' camera, buying down to a size rather than up to a specification. As such, this little camera works well.

It's fast and easy to use, has some really nice built in features including multiple shots on the self-timer, configuration of which settings are saved when you turn the camera off, and the ability to program a couple of buttons to control your favorite option.

The main downer is there is an awful lot of noise in the dark areas of the image. I can't really comment on whether the noise is typical of cameras of this size, but it is a definite problem if you want good images in overcast or low light indoor conditions. I recommend using a free program such a Noiseware to clean up the images.

In conclusion it's a nice little camera, but for good image quality get something a bit bigger.

Very Disappointed

I bought a Canon PowerShot A430 because i thought Canon was a reliable brand. I liked it very much, it was simple and easy to use, and i took meticulous care of it. It came with a year warranty, but 4 months after the warranty expired the camera stopped working. When i rang Canon i was told their standard repair rate is actually the same price i paid for the camera, which i'd bought new on Amazon! Needless to say i was very disappointed, and my camera has now joined the accumulating mountains of throw-away electronic rubbish. I will certainly never buy a Canon product again, and i would discourage anyone from buying this camera or any other Canon product given my experience with quality.

Well designed and practical camera

Like many others I spent ages deciding on which digital camera to buy. In the end I settled on the z3 mainly due its stylish design and superb zoom range. I have not been disappointed. The camera is capable of taking some fantasic photographs, particularly in macro mode, and the movie function is none to shabby either (although very memory hungry - I recommend a 512mb card minimum, ideally a 1gb which gives around 15 minutes shooting at top quality and over an hour in standard mode.

I was reluctant to buy the camera as I had heard that the picture quality is often quite fuzzy. This may be the case is a very few awkward situations, but using the highest quality picture mode and increasing the sharpness setting eliminates any issues of clarity 99% of the time.

The only reason why I am giving it four stars is it can be made even better! Shooting in low light conditions can sometimes be troublesome and the LCD is a little on the small size (the latter has been rectified on the more recent z5 and z6 models).

Other than that, this is a great little camera at a great price. You wont find many models which offer this many features (I couldn’t) - good zoom range, fast focusing, good battery life (AA batteries as well - no horrible expensive lithium ion cell).

An excellent high resolution camera

This camera is an excellent digital alternative to a normal SLR. It is not a point and shoot camera in the sense required by the average holiday-maker although it has an excellent auto capability. It has a considerable number of special facilities including manual focus, aperture and shutter speed.If you focus it properly the resolution is as you would expect from 4 megapixels. Any part of the picture can be chosen as the focal area. A4 documents can be photographed and read with ease. At maximum resolution and highest quality compression, using flash as required, the battery lasts about 50 shots. This is just over the capacity of a 128mb compact flash card.

SAMSUNG DIGIMAX V4

Pure quality camera. Having scoured the magazines for the best sub £400 cameras, seemed the Digimax V4 was consistently one of the best. In terms of quality it blows my brothers Fujifilm Finepix 410 away. So many features and nice touches and all the while user friendly, recommended!!! U wont be disappointed!!

Don't think about it, do it!

I was a Canon EOS 1n HS user for many years and very happy with the camera too however, I am getting older and the 1n HS is a heavy brute to cart about plus I needed a big Billingham bag for the lenses and flash etc. Then one day in May this year I decided to go digital, not just try it out but go completely digital, so being a Canon fan I exchanged my EOS stuff for a G2, and an A40 for the missus (got to keep them happy haven't you) an Epson 895 printer and some other stuff that you need. Why did I wait so long to do it, it's great, the G2 is superb, it took a wee while to get used to using a compact camera again but once I did there's no going back. If like me your thinking of"going digital" get yourself a G2 and enjoy the experience, you won't regret it, and like me you'll wonder why you waited, don't, just do it!

Very good value, but complex!

My first foray into digital photography, I bought the F200 largely because of previous excellent experience of Minolta cameras. The Amazon price for the blue model was also very competitive. After a few months of use, I'm very pleased with the results but be warned, this can be a complex camera to use if you choose to explore all its many options. This is both a plus and a minus - it has lots of features to please photographers who want to experiment but the menus are rather daunting. The quality of the pictures is the main concern and on this count I would rate the camera very highly - clean and sharp with very little noise.

Quite Happy

This isn't an expensive camera - I wouldn't advise anybody to use it as their only camera unless they are very very poor. I wanted a device that I could carry around with me all of the time in case I spotted something interesting, but also it gives you a device for watching movies, and an MP3 player. It does these tasks quite well, and is a bargain for £50 I think. The low light performance is a bit dissapointing but it's rare to get everthing you want - especially at this price. it does have some other great advantages. You are buying from a manufacturere that is a known quantity. the video resolution is 640 by 480 (VGA and similar to a telly and DVDs), it uses an NP60 Li-ion battery, and SD cards, good and easy and cheap to source. Mine seems to work with cards larger than the 512mb quoted in the spec as well. It isn't too hard to learn to use. Focus is less than brilliant - especially in the distance. Two things that would be a big bonus are improved low light performance and better focus, which is adequate, but that's all.

brilliant

the features on this camera are brilliant , every thing from the zoom to the picture quality and i really love the vda movie mode. another thing i liked was that once a picture was taken you can put the camera on play back mode and skip through the photo's and by using the zoom buttons you can zoom in on the picture you have taken so if there's any detail you want to explore it's brilliant. but you do need a big memory card or two.

Flash not great.

Not a bad camera, but when using the flash pictures don't come out as well as one would expect.

Excellent compact camera

This camera is perfect if you want a good camera for landscapes and holiday pictures, and the Macro function is also brilliant, and I have taken many good insect photographs. For the price it is as good as any of the top makes - if not better. It takes recharghable AA batterys and it has a nice grip.
It is well worth the money, and it is easy to use as well as portable and light. Definetly one the best Digital compact cameras on the market!