The Canon Powershot A460 is suited to someone looking for a no frills digital camera with a low price tag. The camera is a good quality starter camera. It comes in a choice of colours and is available in silver, red and blue. The Powershot A460 has five megapixels and a 4x optical zoom lens.
Comparing the camera against other models at the cheaper end of the price spectrum you will find other cameras now offering a greater number of megapixels. There are many entry level models now with six or seven megapixels. Balancing this fact out somewhat the zoom lens is a little longer than the standard 3x zoom you find on other models. It may not sound a big difference, but in my view every little helps when it comes to zoom.
Looking at the design of the Powershot A460 it is larger than most compact cameras. It has an elongated body and is 40mm wide. This makes it too big to fit into a pocket. It weighs 165g. Although not too heavy it is heavier that most of its direct competitors. The body is made of plastic.
Other key differences include a 2 inch LCD screen. This is smaller than I am used to seeing. Even entry level cameras tend to have 2.4 inch or 2.5 inch LCD screens now. I feel this does make a difference when you are composing or reviewing shots. By way of compensation the Powershot A460 does have an optical viewfinder. It is one of the few compact digital cameras to have one. This comes into its own when taking photos on bright sunny days when the sunlight is falling directly onto the screen. This can make it difficult to see the scene.
When it comes to ease of use there are more straightforward digital cameras around. Even so it is not tremendously difficult to use and if you stick to the settings the camera has when you buy it you will find it as easy to use as any other camera. It is only if you need to dig into the menu system to change settings that the camera becomes more complex.
The fact that there is a control dial on the back of the camera is a plus point when it comes to ease of use. This helps to place a number of more key controls at your fingertips. It is used to place the camera in movie mode or to review photos you have already taken. You will also find buttons for standard controls such as zoom, flash and macro available.
AA batteries are used to power the camera. The advantage of AA batteries is that they are readily available. The downside is that buying new batteries can drive up running costs. Therefore a set of rechargeable AA batteries is worth considering.
Photos and movie clips are stored on either SD or SDHC memory cards. A 16mb card is supplied in the box with the camera. This soon becomes full and it is worth considering picking up a higher capacity card when you buy the Canon Powershot A460.
