Overview
The Canon Powershot A85 is a straightforward, no fuss digital camera. It is aimed at anyone who is looking for a digital camera that is easy to use. It has all the features that someone who enjoys taking holiday photos, pictures at get togethers and shots of their family will need.
It is a four megapixel model and comes with a 3x optical zoom lens. Canon offers two other very similar Powershot models the A75 and the A95. The main difference between the three models are the number of megapixels they each have, the A75 having three megapixels and is cheaper whilst the A95 has five megapixels and is more expensive. Therefore the Powershot A85 sits right in the middle of the range.
Image Quality
In my opinion the Powershot A85 scores very highly for its reproduction of colours. Blues in particular have plenty of depth. Overall each camera in this range outperforms the majority of their competitors in the same price range when it comes to colour. Images are perfectly sharp too. This is down to the quality of the Canon lens.
Using the camera outdoors it is hard to go wrong. The exposures produced are just about spot on in almost all conditions. One area where this model shows a clear improvement on its predecessor (Canon Powershot A70) is there is a reduction in the shutter lag and auto focus time. In a nutshell this means the time it takes to capture an image is reduced and makes it easier to capture the image exactly as you want to.
Indoors a lot of digital cameras struggle. As you can see the sample indoor image is on the dark side, but its focusing in poor light is ahead of many other cameras.
Macro shots were perfectly adequate without being outstanding.
Features
One of the most noticeable features of the Powershot A85 is the number of pre programmed scene modes that it has. The modes are Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Fast Shutter, Slow Shutter and Stitch Assist. Fast shutter can be used for taking shots where there is movement in the scene and you would like to freeze the action. For example if you are taking a picture of a bike race or of flowing water. Slow shutter is for taking pictures of similar activities, but where you would like the motion to appear blurred in your picture. Stitch assist enables you to "stitch" images together to create a single panoramic photo. All of these modes are controlled through a dial on the top of the camera.
Through the menu system you can also access further scene modes for taking pictures of Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Underwater and Indoors.
To back up the optical zoom lens there is a digital zoom function with a further 3.6 times magnification. For close up photography there is a macro mode that can get you in as close as five centimeters from the subject.
The 1.8" LCD screen is used for composing and reviewing images as well as giving you access to the camera's menus. The LCD screen operates well in dark conditions, far better in fact than the majority of digital cameras. There is also an optical viewfinder for composing pictures.
The built in flash unit has a range of just over four meters. This is reduced when the optical zoom lens is in use. You can let the camera choose when to fire the flash or you can decide yourself whether or not flash is required for each shot.
To help you recall the details of any picture you take up to a minute of commentary can be added to each photo. When you would like to appear in the picture yourself there is a self timer mechanism. This can be set to a two or ten second delay.
Following recent advances in technology the camera is PictBridge compatible. This means that you can connect the Powershot A85 to a printer that is also PictBridge compatible and produce prints without the need to upload your images to a computer first.
It is easy to shoot short movies too. Movies can vary in length up to three minutes. There is a maximum resolution of 640x480. Be aware that when shooting at this resolution the maximum recording times is thirty seconds.
All the necessary cables are supplied by Canon to allow you to connect the Powershot A85 to a television set and a computer. Software to control the upload process is also provided.
For more advanced photographers there are a number of features that will catch the eye. These include a fully manual mode as well as shutter and aperture priority settings. You also have access to white balance, exposure compensation and ISO equivalent controls. You can choose between three types of metering, Evaluative, Centre-weighted average and Spot.
Ease of Use
It shouldn't take long to get up and running with the Powershot A85. To start with you can place the camera in automatic mode and start shooting. In this mode all the key decisions relating to what shutter speed to use and which aperture setting is best will be taken by the camera itself. This leaves you free to concentrate on taking the picture.
There is a dial on the top of the camera that controls the shooting mode you are using. For example it is very easy to switch from automatic mode to shooting a movie, using the pre programmed scene modes or trying out the camera's manual controls.
There are buttons on the Powershot A85 that let you select the flash setting, place the camera in macro mode and to control printing. There is also switch that lets you either take or review pictures.
One big plus point is the way that the LCD screen works when the light is poor. At the point where many of its competitors will show a black LCD screen and viewfinder I could still see the picture I was composing with the Powershot A85.
The area I think the camera could be improved is its menu system. You use the menu system for controlling camera functions such as the self timer and picture resolution. With practice you can get to grips with the menus, but overall I believe that this is an area that Fuji in particular is ahead of Canon.
Cost
You can pick up the Canon Powershot A85 for around £170 - £175.
Style
The Powershot A85 looks like a standard compact film camera. There is a useful grip on the front that helps you steady the camera as you are taking a shot.
With dimensions of 101.0 x 64.0 x 31.5mm and weighing in at 200g it is leans towards the larger and heavier end of compact digital cameras. It is a bit on the large size for it to slip comfortably into a pocket or purse. There can be advantages to its size though. Anyone with larger hands will find the Powershot A85 that bit easier to handle. Being able to hold the camera steadier can lead to better shots. Don't get me wrong on the size either. It is not as is you will be carrying around a house brick with you!
Batteries / Memory Cards
Power is supplied to the Powershot A85 by four AA batteries. Canon supplies a set of alkaline batteries with the camera. Despite an improvement in battery life as with all digital cameras you will find yourself better off in the long term if you use a set of rechargeable batteries.
Images are stored on CompactFlash cards. Again although Canon supply a 32 megabyte card with the Powershot A85 you will find that you soon fill the card up with four megapixel images and short movies. Buying a second, large capacity card is well worth considering.
Conclusion
The Canon Powershot A85 is likely to prove to be a very popular digital camera. In terms of picture quality, features and ease of use it certainly upholds the tradition of earlier models in the range. I particularly like the colours it produces and for those who would like to experiment with their photography the manual controls available are an added bonus.
The one obvious downside that springs to mind is the movie mode. Using the highest resolution the maximum time you can shoot a movie for is just thirty seconds.
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