Canon Powershot A2100 IS Review

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS is a 12 megapixel digital camera with a 6x optical zoom lens. Other features include image stabilisation, a 3 inch LCD screen and a macro mode that allows you to focus from 1cm. The Powershot A2100 IS also offers red eye correction.

The Powershot A2100 IS takes a good picture in most circumstances. It also has a slightly longer lens than more basic, entry level models.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
I am immediately impressed by the way this photo looks. The contrasting blues, greens and white look good and the lighting is spot on. Cameras I tested at the same time had issues with the glare of the sun, but the Powershot A2100 IS copes well and produces a sharp photo with plenty of detail.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
Compared to a lot of other digital cameras this is a good effort when it come to sharpness. If you blow the photo up to fall size you may notice a small amount of purple fringing and also some noise in the more distant parts of the shot. Neither of these problems is noticeable with more standard sized prints.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
As with other Canon digital cameras sharpness levels are above average. I also like the colours in the shot, especially the greens in the foliage. As in the previous shot there is just a hint of purple fringing with super sized prints.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
This photo confirms that the Powershot A2100 IS is capable of taking plenty of sharply focused photos. There is a good, crisp feel to this photo.

Outdoor Portrait
The Powershot A2100 IS has no problem with this type of photo. Moving in close has no impact on sharpness and this is another highly focused photo.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
Flash lights the photo very well. The lighting is also evenly distributed. Focusing is sharp and colour is retained well too.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
The colours in this shot may have a more natural look to them than the one with flash, but noise starts to creep in. This takes the edge off the definition. You will need to use flash whenever possible once the available light starts to fall.

Colours
Overall I like the colours this camera produces. They give the photos a vibrant feel and the balance is about right too.

Macro
The Powershot A2100 IS is a good choice if you are looking for a more basic digital camera that is able to take a good close up shot. The level of detail showing in my macro shot is impressive. The only problem is if you get very close in you can find the lens reflects back from the subject.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
Noise levels in my shots are inline with what I would expect them to be. If you need to take photos without flash when the light is not perfect your photos are likely to have noise showing here and there.

Overall
The Powershot A2100 IS performed well in my tests and there are few problems with the camera.

Shutter lag times without flash are standard at 0.35 seconds for single shot and 9.82 seconds for five photos. Flash slows the Powershot A2100 IS down. A single shot timed 1.05 seconds with five taking 24.59 seconds.

To turn the camera on and take a photo took 2.2 seconds. This is a fast time.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The lens takes up a lot of room on the front of the camera. It has fairly plain looks and is relatively compact without being pocket sized.

101.9 x 63.5 x 31.9 mm

185g

2 AA batteries. Canon estimates a standard set of AA batteries should capture around 160 shots.

Canon provides a 128MB SD card with the Powershot A2100 IS. The card can hold around 45 shots. It is also compatible with SDHC cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Good. Compared to other brands Canon seems to add a few extra menu and setup items for you to fine tune your camera. It can take a little more time to gat to know them all.

Picture quality - start up time

Shutter delay with flash

Canon produce an almost identical camera to this one. It is the Canon Powershot A1100 IS. The main difference is that model has a viewfinder, a smaller LCD screen and 4x optical zoom.

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS is a functional digital camera. It is unlikely to win any awards for looks, but it takes a good picture. You might find the modest increase in zoom useful too.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Canon Powershot A2100 IS