Canon PowerShot A85 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

I have given the A85 4 stars although I would have given it 4.5 stars if possible and A80 5 stars. There are 2 basic reasons why I like A80 more than A85, but you may decide otherwise:

1)Bigger CCD Sensor 1/1.8" on A80 vs. 1/2.7" on A85 which means 5 million pixels compared to 4 million leading to better image quality.

2)Flip out LCD screen (1.5" on A80 vs 1.8" fixed LCD on A85)The flip out screen is very useful when taking certain shots. I typically used the flip out screen most when taking

-shots of crowds down the center and of tall buildings by holding the camera above my head,

-in tight spot situations on hikes/treks where I could not shift much by twisting the screen sideways,

-of children/smaller objects on the ground without having to kneel on a sidewalk etc.

And NOW the A80 is cheaper too at Officedepot.com. At Amazon it is selling for much higher than the price of A85 which alone proves its popularity.

What A85 offers over A80:

1) SCN modes (beach, fireworks etc.)which may not be useful for people who like using more mnual controls as they have many presets for ISO etc. which may not give the best shot. The A80 offered an extra customizable setting in place of the SCN modes which can be useful too.

2) A85 also offers 3 resolution settings for video including 640X480 (VGA max 30 sec)while in the A80 the highest setting is 320X240 (max. 3 mins). However, the 30 sec video seems a bit short to me. I usually use this feature to capture special moments of children when my video camera is not handy.

3) Print share button: The A85 has a print share button which enables direct printing of images /downloads for marked images. This feature is not very useful for most people especially if you have Windows XP which enables slection/rotation of images and direct download as soon as the USB cable is connected to your computer even without using any Canon software.

What all AXX series cameras offer which makes this series Canon's most successful consumer series so you won't go wrong buying any camera in the series:

--Complete Manual functions available shutter priority, Aperture priority, White balancing, Manual focusing etc.

--Photostitch For stitching together panoramic views. I have shot countless seascapes, 'bridge'scapes, landscapes etc using this function. It is really easy too!

-Tone settings (Tungsten, Sunlight, Cloudy etc.),

--Special effects (B/W, Sepia, Vivid, Nuetral etc.) I have used sepia a lot when taking potraits giving them an 'old world' feel. Vivid has been helpful in special situations like a red kite against a blue sky to bring out the colors.

--Free Canon software, which works well and allows you to edit images, stitch images, make fun photos, maintain an album, change camera settings, edit videos, upload images back to camera to transfer to another computer etc.

--Use AA batteries which are available anywhere in the world. A Sony Super Quick Charger (5hours) with 4 rechargeable NiMH batteries is available for under $23 on Amazon! Charge these batteries upto 1000 times. I keep the LCD on for all my shots and usually I get 270-360 shots from each charge from the A80 including the battery power used to download these images to my computer with the USB cable and playing back these images for friends! That is quite a feat by Canon.

--Macro mode Great for close ups of children or product shots

--Many other useful features in the latest models (including A80)like being able to edit the movies in the camera, being able to see multiple images on the LCD, auto rotation of images, ability to add voice notes to pictures, evaluative graphs on the LCD, and much much more. After thousands of shots I still keep discovering new features I haven't used or better ways to use existing features.

If you are considering the A95, it is a great camera and a upgraded version of A80, however at a hundred bucks less than the A95 (amazon price) the A80 (Officedepot price) is a great camera with almost the same features except a few differences.

-A95 offers 5 MP, and the extra MP may not be useful for you if you don't want to go over 8X10 prints

-a slightly larger flip out LCD screen which is great but it will also use up the battery faster

-SCN modes (see above)

-Print share button (see above)and

-Flexizone (you can set the focus in any one of 9 zones) which is a nice feature if you like being creative with your compositions.

Overall you have to decide whether you want to pay a hundred bucks more for these differences or any one feature may be the deal breaker for you.

In a nutshell, if you are thinking of buying the A85 consider the A80 too!

This is my first digital camera having used film cameras for a very long time and I must say that I have no buyer's remorse over my purchase of the Canon Powershot A85. I agonized over a month comparing this camera to many others like the Powershot A80 and the A95 but it finally came down to pricing and what I needed the camera to do, which made the A85 more than enough camera for me. I didn't need a 5 MP camera to start out with and so I figured this was a good starter. It's a solid camera that produces great pictures and videos. The camera is well balanced for someone like me who wants to experiment with camera settings and someone like my wife who wants a simple point and shoot. 2 sets of rechargeable Nimh batteries are a must. I've had a little bit of difficulty shooting pictures of people at night without getting a lot of red eye. Fortunately I think this is something that will require more practice to perfect. If not the software, ZoomBrowser EX, that comes with the camera totally corrects the red eye for me. It is an easy camera to use and navigate. Over the past month I've tried to take a variety of pictures ranging from portrait shots to landscapes and I have been very pleased with the pictures. Once again I highly recommend this camera for someone who is just starting out and wants a reasonably priced quality digital camera.

Buy Canon PowerShot A85 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Now

Eh, I don't really agree with the review saying that the zoom is very breakable. Yes there are quite a few items that will come up if you do a search on google, but considering how many millions of cameras are out there, the percentages are pretty low. I have a Canon A-series digital camera from last year that I took everywhere with me. I just threw the thing in my pocket without a cover or anything, and it never gave me any problems. I recently took this new one out to sea on a boat where it was very windy and nothing happened to it. I also read a comment in a review that battery life is so-so. Well, you have to realize that batteries come in all flavors, from cheap alkalines to NiMH and lithiums. The kind of battery used by the review was not specified. I recommend using rechargeable NiMH batteries at 2100 mAH and up. That'll be way more than enough to fill up a 256 mb card. Well, with that said, I'm going to rate this product based on performace instead of bad luck, and in terms of what it can do, it is really very good, even compared to cameras in a higher class. Picture quality is very good and there are more manual controls than any other camera in this price range. This really is the most bang you can get for your buck. It gives great results and is easy even for the beginner to use. I really do like Canon products, even at the "budget" level the A400 blows away the competition, and you really do get more than you pay for. I'm not saying that I'll only buy Canon stuff, but you gotta admit that they are pretty good. Oh by the way, if you're looking for a sealed up camera, the Olympus Stylus 310/410 has waterproof seals, but is locked in fully automatic mode. If you don't like the way your pictures are coming out, too bad. Some of the 4 meg Kodaks offer pretty good competition, with a nice amount of manual features and 4x zoom, but the trade-off is that you get a noticeable decrease in picture quality compared to the Canons, especially with shots taken at night.

Read Best Reviews of Canon PowerShot A85 4MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Here

The A75 and A85 are Excellent follow-ups of the A70, and offer some very nice improvements. The most noticeable is the larger LCD, scene modes for those who don't like to tinker with the settings, "C" dial position to save your custom settings, and the print/share button to make things easier. For those who don't know, scene modes are easy-to-access presets of a combination of manual adjustments, optimized for shooting in different situations such as when you are indoors, at the beach, taking shots of kids, shooting at night, or shooting fireworks, etc. The camera features full manual controls over shutter speed and aperture, manual focus, saturation, exposure compensation, custom white balance, ISO, metering, and a histogram in playback mode. I know most people think they won't ever use some of these, but when you have an important shot that just isn't coming out, you'll be really glad you have it (or wish you did). For those who don't know, control over shutter speed means you can use a fast shutter speed to capture fast action or you can use a slow shutter to avoid using a flash or for taking shots of night scenery.

The areas where the Canon A75, A85, and A95 really excel at are:

Being fairly small(small price tag too!) for a camera with this many features and having picture quality this good.

Creative shooting: this is a great camera for those who want to do creative shooting but can't afford to plop down $600+ for a Canon G6 or more for a Digital SLR. It's got all of the most important controls, and with your memory card, you can do all the creative shooting and experimenting you want virtually free compared to using film. It's even expandable with telephoto, wide angle, or close up conversion lenses and there's also the waterproof casing.

All Canon cameras also come with an excellent software package that lets you stitch panoramic photos, retouch photos or rescue those that came out wrong, add special effect, and view thumbnails of pictures so you don't have to open them up to see what the picture looks like (good for those who are using an older version of windows, I know there are still a lot of you out there). The best part is that it's free! It does more than Kodak's software(which is pretty decent), you have to pay $20 to get the better version of Olympus's software, and Sony's editing software is pretty much non-existent. Those who already have Photoshop won't be excited.

For those of you who are concerned that the camera doesn't come with rechargeable batteries, don't worry, it's really not a big deal. Good rechargeable AA's, type NiMH are super cheap at around $10-$15 for 4, compared to $50 for Lithium Ion battery packs, and at that price, everyone can afford a spare set, which is really important to have. I've seen people who bought much crappier cameras at the same price, just because they came with rechargeable batteries not a smart choice in my opinion.

Yes, there is the problem with purple fringing, but it's not a very common problem and most people either don't know what it is or don't even know think it's much of a problem when they see it. Some people think it looks cool. With full control over aperture, you have the ability to get rid of it or at least reduce it. Compared to the problems that other manufacturers have with their cameras, I'd take a bit of purple fringing over noise, soft/fuzzy images, and over-sharpening any day!

If you want 5 megapixels of resolution, a very useful rotating LCD screen, and Flexi-Zone (lets you choose an area that is off-center to focus on), then look at the A95.

Please note: my review of the A75 is the same as the A85 because they are pretty much the same camera with the 1 megapixel different. There are some differerences between my review of the A95 and this one.

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Absolutely amazing camera.

First a little backhistory. I owned Canon products for the most of my life. My first digital camera was an HP however.

After my HP broke about 2 years after purchase (hardware failure, nonspecific, 150 bucks to fix at HP) i went with this camera. The difference is amazing.

Canon products have always been a favorite choice of mine due to ease of use. Its settings dial makes it fast and simple to change from mode to mode for various uses.

Say for example your filming your son at the soccer field. you want a nice portrait of him with the field faded in the background. use the portrait mode. Then you can use the same camera to get a fast shutter shot of him playing on the field simply by turning the dial.

you can even shoot a 3 minute movie of him playing on the field using the same camera! All it takes is the turn of the dial.

In addition to the different settings modes, there are 'creative' modes that you can enjoy by changing the shutter speed and the amount of light the lens lets through (arpeture? value)

this can be used to create some amazing effects of sparkling and flowing streams and waterfalls, or of glowing fountains or fireworks... or even "Light trail" photos.

The creative zones are great when you've got plenty of time to play around, and the preset modes are top notch.

Its hard to take a bad picture with this camera.

The "auto" mode is so powerful that you can literally open the box and start taking photos immediately. After a quick read through the manual you'll know how to take photos like a pro, and with just a little bit of learning and experimenting you'll be taking some real artsy shots too ;)

The battery life is amazing, especially with the optional canon NIMH batteries. The batters that came with it are not rechargable, but i was able to shoot over 100 shots + film 5 or 6 highest resolution movies (30 seconds a shot) before the batteries were dead. My NIMH batteries fully charged have taken over 100 shots and are still hot.

Now, about memory. Flash memory is some of the least expensive and better quality memory for digital cameras. The fact that they've gone with flash memory cards here is ideal. It ships with a 32 meg memory card (retail of about ten dollars as of this writing) and getting 256 meg and up is generally under 50 dollars.

Finally we talk about printing features. The canon camera has easy printing and easy sharing with any canon printer with a camera dock. This is largely most Canon printers. You absolutely will love any canon printer you buy, i believe them to be the best printers you can purchase. Canon has entry level printers for well under 100 bucks, some under 50 bucks in some cases (as of this writing, the IP1500 sits on my desktop) and they're the best in their price range, across all price ranges.

I honestly think it would be difficult to make a mistake purchasing this camera.

My only suggestion is to consider the Canon a95 camera, which is 1 megapixel higher, and has a swivel LCD screen. I had no use for the swivel screen and the larger picture depth wasnt worth the extra cash at the time of my purchase, but its something to consider if you're reading this review.