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A moderately priced four-megapixel digital camera that's perfect for beginners
The cameras in Canon's Powershot range are designed to simplify the process of taking pictures and the latest addition, the four-megapixel A85, is no exception.
Pretty much all the settings you'll need for a range of shots are easily accessible on the body of the camera, which means you can ignore the menu system most of the time and concentrate on snapping.
There are 13 preset scene modes that adjust the camera's settings to best suit your environment. Six special settings are available to bring out the colours in beach or snow scenes, among others.
Manual settings can be tinkered with as your confidence increases. Using the macro mode, you can take close-ups as near as 5cm from your subject. The 3x optical zoom lets you focus on far away objects too.
Picture quality was superb: colours were faithfully reproduced and images were uniformly sharp. Unfortunately, the four AA batteries that the camera needs add a lot of weight to the unit and don't provide much shooting time before you need to change them. A 32Mb memory card is included.
You can pick up cheaper four-megapixel cameras these days, but the A85's versatility, image quality and range of features make it worthy of consideration.
Contact: Canon 08705 143723
www.canon.co.uk
Our verdict
Packed with features and easy to use but let down by poor battery life
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Comments on A85
I've been using this camera for a couple of years now. When I want really top quality shots I go back to the Nikon film camera, but this is comparable and a lot easier to carry around! The one problem I've found is that It is often extremely difficult to get computers to recognize it. I have memory cards with videos on which I've never managed to upload, despite the amount of software which comes with the camera.
Posted by Dave Knibb, 23 Sep 2008