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DPInterface Canon PowerShot A430 Review
Brad Soo - June 16th, 2006
Another entry-level camera of interest is the Canon PowerShot A430 which has 4 megapixels, 4x optical zoom, a 1.8 inch LCD and simple operation. Ready for more about this entry-level camera which has more zoom power than anyone else? Very well, let's go.
Canon A-series comparison
Canon has released 3 simple entry-level cameras over the past year so here's a little chart highlighting their differences:
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*As of June 16th, 2006
Size and Weight
There are not many entry-level cameras so it should be easy to compare the A430:
(195.0) 103.0 x 51.8 x 40.2 mm (160 g) - Canon PowerShot A430
(177.2) 90.0 x 60.0 x 27.2 mm (136 g) - Casio Exilim Z110
(180.5) 93.0 x 60.0 x 27.5 mm (140 g) - Fujifilm FinePix A500
(188.0) 95.0 x 62.0 x 31.0 mm (139 g) - HP Photosmart M425
(190.1) 92.2 x 65.7 x 32.2 mm (145 g) - Kodak EasyShare C643
(177.5) 91.0 x 60.5 x 26.0 mm (120 g) - Nikon Coolpix L3
(185.0) 96.0 x 63.0 x 26.0 mm (130 g) - Olympus FE130
(194.9) 110.5 x 53.5 x 30.9 mm (138 g) - Panasonic Lumix LS2
(190.0) 91.0 x 61.0 x 38.0 mm (150 g) - Pentax Optio 60
(188.7) 99.9 x 52.0 x 36.8 mm (133 g) - Sony Cyber-shot S600
(169.0) 89.0 x 57.0 x 23.0 mm (127 g) - Sony Cyber-shot W30
As usual, I've included the "DPI measurement unit" (As opposed to volume) on the left for a more accurate impression of a camera's size.
The Canon PowerShot A430 is the biggest camera in its class. If you want something small, other cameras like the Canon PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH offers more in a MUCH smaller body.
Open up the Box
The Canon PowerShot A430 has an average bundle of goodies in the box:
- 16 MB MultiMedia Card
- 2 AA alkaline batteries
- Wrist strap
- USB cable
- A/V cable
- CD-ROM
Storage and Power
Canon gives you 16 MB of space to begin with - so getting at least a 256 MB SD card might not be a bad idea. The camera takes advantage of high-speed cards and the performance increase is fairly significant.
360 shots - Canon PowerShot A430
180 shots - Casio Exilim Z110
350 shots - Fujifilm FinePix A500
N/A - HP Photosmart M425
N/A - Kodak EasyShare C643
330 shots - Nikon Coolpix L3
N/A - Olympus FE130
390 shots - Panasonic Lumix LS2
270 shots - Pentax Optio 60
460 shots - Sony Cyber-shot S600
400 shots - Sony Cyber-shot W30
The Canon PowerShot A430 has about average battery life which is 360 shots (CIPA Standard). Non-rechargeable batteries are included with the Canon A430 so you'll have to go out and buy a set of 4 AA NiMH rechargeable batteries (I'd recommend 2300 mAh or better) plus a quick 15 minute charger for yourself.
Extras
I can't think of any accessories available for the Canon PowerShot A430 except maybe an AC adapter.
Camera Tour
The Canon PowerShot A430 is an entry-level camera which has great build quality except for the plastic tripod mount. Available in 4 colors, the Canon A430 comes in your choice of gray, red, blue or gold. In this review, I was sent the red Canon A430:
The Canon PowerShot A430 has a 4x optical zoom lens over its 1/3 inch CCD. This lens has a focal range of 5.4 - 21.6 mm which is equivalent to 39 - 156 mm. While this lens has more telephoto power than other entry-level cameras, it isn't as wide. The Panasonic LS2 has a 35 - 105 mm lens while the Sony S600 has a wider, but less telephoto, 31 - 93 mm.
Of course the big lens comes at a cost - The aperture range is f2.8 - f5.8 which is very slow at the telephoto end. Above the lens is the optical viewfinder window and microphone. And further to the left is an AF-assist/self-timer lamp as well as a big flash with tiny range. The flash has a range of 47 cm to 3 m at wide-angle and 47 cm to 2 m at telephoto which is below average because some cameras just do much better.
The left side of the Canon A430 bulges out a little to act as a grip.
The Canon PowerShot A430 has a small 1.8 inch LCD on the back with a low 77,000 pixels. The LCD has excellent visibility in low-light and just average outdoor visibility. LCD viewing angle was not brilliant but is okay for up to 3 people to view.
Above the LCD, there's a tiny optical viewfinder with 2 status lights beside it. It was useful when I couldn't see the LCD image in bright light.
Beside the LCD are two buttons and a mode dial. The DISPlay button toggles the amount of information displayed when shooting or playing back and can turn the LCD off while shooting so you can use the viewfinder while the function of the MENU button is obvious.
The horizontally placed buttons include the FUNCtion/SET button and the direct print button. The print button lights up when the camera is connected to the printer and you use the menu and do the rest.
The FUNCtion button brings up a menu with all the settings that you probably change frequently, including:
- Sub-mode (Manual, super macro, color accent, color swap and stitch assist)
- Exposure compensation (±2 in 1/3 increments)
- ISO sensitivity (ISO Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400)
- White balance (Auto, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, custom)
- Drive (Single shot, continuous, self-timer 2 or 10 seconds, custom timer)
- My Colors (Off, vivid, neutral, sepia, positive film, lighter or darker skin tone, custom color)
- Still image size and compression
Finally, there's the 4-way controller - and since this camera is aimed at beginners, the zoom control has been mashed in here to reduce button clutter:
- Up - Zoom in/playback magnify
- Down - Zoom out/delete photo
- Left - Focus setting (Normal, macro, infinity)
- Right - Flash setting (Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, flash on with red-eye reduction, flash on, slow-sync, off)
The center divot in the 4-way controller serves as a place to rest your thumb.
On the top of the Canon PowerShot A430, there's a speaker, shutter button and power button - nothing else.
On one side of the camera, there's a battery/memory card compartment. The cover over those compartments is sturdy but there's no latch or lock over the batteries so they might fall out when swapping cards. Also, you can change batteries or memory cards while the camera is on a tripod for since their compartments are on the side.
There's a USB port and DC-IN port as well.
Over here, there's an A/V Out port and a tray for your average watch battery. This little battery ensures that the A430 "remembers" the date and time, even when the camera hasn't been used for a while or with no AA batteries inside.
The only thing you'll see here is the A430's plastic tripod mount which ends our camera tour of the Canon PowerShot A430.
Shooting
Let's start with the A430's shooting screen which is simplistic and shows absolutely no exposure info other than a camera shake warning icon. The camera's AF system is on par with the other Canon PowerShot cameras - having 9 AF points.
You can select one of the Canon PowerShot A430's many image resolutions which include 6 megapixels (with a widescreen 16:9 option), 2 megapixels (with a 3:2 option), 1 megapixel and VGA plus three compression options - Superfine, Fine and Normal. I find that most users (not only me) normally use full resolution with Fine for everyday shooting and SuperFine only for very important shots.
Since the Canon PowerShot A430 is an entry-level camera, it's fully point-and-shoot... meaning no manual controls. Instead, it has an automatic mode and some scene modes. And the 8 scene modes on the A430 include portrait, foliage, snow, beach, fireworks, indoor, kids & pets and night snapshot. You can also change metering modes around evaluative, center-weighted average and spot, though I don't think the average beginner will.
The shutter speed range of the A430 is 1 second to 1/2000 sec. Shutter speeds from 1/6 second to 1 second operate with noise reduction. The Canon PowerShot A430 has a super-macro mode which allows you to go as close as 1 cm to your subject and get even closer with the 3.6x digital zoom available.
Recording
The Canon PowerShot A430 has a fairly poor movie mode compared to other cameras of its price. It takes VGA movies with sound at a choppy 10 FPS up to 1 GB or 1 hour, whichever comes first. A 256 MB Secure Digital card holds about 7 minutes of movie.
A 320 x 240 option records at a smooth 30 FPS up to the same limit while a 160 x 120 "e-mail" option records tiny movies at 15 FPS up to 3 minutes. Exposure is automatically adjusted but focus is fixed. Digital zoom can be used while recording.
The Canon A430's video and audio quality in movie mode were both good.
Performance
The Canon PowerShot A430's startup time is very quick - taking only 1.1 seconds to extend its lens, turn on the LCD and prepare for shooting. When it comes to focusing, expect around 1/3 to 2/3 second for the A430 to lock focus.
Shutter lag is a little obvious at telephoto in low-light conditions but is otherwise not noticeable. Shot-to-shot speed was a blazing (for an entry-level camera) 1 shot every 1.3 seconds, longer if the flash is used. Flash recharge time using a fully charged battery took 10 seconds. The camera zooms from wide-angle to telephoto in 2 seconds.
In continuous shooting, the Canon PowerShot A430 can shoot indefinitely at 2.2 FPS till the memory card is full - provided you have a high-speed card. The A430 turns off in 2 seconds.
Image Quality
Time to take a look to see how the Canon PowerShot A430 fares in image quality:
ISO 64 (f4.0, 1/100 sec)
ISO 100 (f4.0, 1/160 sec)
ISO 200 (f4.0, 1/320 sec)
ISO 400 (f4.0, 1/640 sec)
The Canon PowerShot A430 produces very smooth photos with no noise at ISO 64 and yet again at ISO 100 though noise then is slightly noticeable. Things are acceptable at ISO 200 even with more noise. At ISO 400, the image quality is unacceptable unless you do a bit of cleaning up. Kudos to Canon - there's no chromatic aberration (color fringing) in any of those shots and very little in other real world shots.
Both barrel and pincushion distortion are not noticeable. Color accuracy was accurate and I did not find any issues. The only image quality problem with the A430 is red-eye.
That said, the Canon PowerShot A430 has very good image quality.
Photo gallery
Be sure to visit the Canon PowerShot A430 photo gallery.
Playback
In playback, the Canon PowerShot A430 can playback stills and movies (With sound) as well as do all this: Protect image, transfer order, sound memo, auto play AKA slideshow, rotate and simple movie editing. You can also magnify still photos by 10x and take a look around using the 4 arrow buttons.
While the A430 has Canon's 2006 menu system, it probably has Canon's 2003/2004 playback interface - featuring an un-fancy display of very simple information and no histogram.
Appeal to the crowds
Who's the $169 Canon PowerShot A430 for? Check out the target audience rating:
Penny pinchers - Currently retailing around $120, the A430 is a bang for your buck, featuring a 4x zoom lens, fast unlimited continuous shooting and very good image quality.
Digital camera newbies/beginners - The Canon PowerShot A430's simplistic operation and easy to access scene modes make it appealing to beginners.
Everyday shooters - While the A430 is simple and easy to use, it may be too "big" for snap shooters who want an ultra-compact camera for everyday use.
Advanced amateurs/enthusiasts - A down right no-no.
Professional photographers - Nope.
Upgraders - There is nothing to upgrade from to this entry-level camera.
Users jumping ship - No one jumps from one entry-level camera to another.
Conclusion
The affordable Canon PowerShot A430 is the successor to last year's A410. Featuring 4 megapixels, a bigger 4x zoom lens, 1.8 inch LCD and great performance, this camera is a competitive one.
The Canon A430 has a 4X lens which is best suited for long zoom shots as it's not very wide-angled but has a big telephoto reach. The camera has a small and low resolution 1.8 inch LCD which is still visible in low-light and outdoors.
Three other "good" things about the Canon PowerShot A430: About average battery life, very fast performance (especially the unlimited continuous shooting feature) and the 1 cm macro mode.
Image quality was most impressive - low levels of color fringing and noise were the main things. Noise was impressive till ISO 200 and still good at ISO 400 with some cleaning up. I think the A430 could've pushed till ISO 800 but Canon chose to omit that.
Finally, no camera comes without disappointments and the Canon A430 has a few. The flash is weak and there's red-eye and the movie mode practically stinks, even if compared with other entry-level cameras.
I'd recommend this camera the same way I did with the Panasonic LS2 and Sony S600. The Canon A430 has a big zoom lens, nice macro mode and unlimited continuous shooting. The Panasonic LS2 (Optical image stabilizer, advanced white balance and quick AF) and Sony S600 (High ISO performance and wide-angle lens) have their pros and cons as well so do consider them. Take what you want and go with the camera which has them.
If you're confused or want something better, for a mere $40 more, you get more resolution, full manual controls (the spotlight feature) and more with the Canon PowerShot A530.
Camera rating upon 10 (more about this): [Category: Entry-level]
- 8.0 - Body/Exterior
- 6.5 - Bundle, batteries and memory
- 7.0 - Lens
- 5.5 - Feature set
- 7.0 - Controls and operation
- 8.0 - Performance
- 8.5 - Image quality
- 7.2 - Overall rating
What's hot:
- 4x zoom lens; more telephoto power
- Good battery life
- Good LCD visibility
- Unlimited, fast continuous shooting
- Fast performance
- Great 1 cm macro mode with optional digital zoom
- Very good image quality with low noise until ISO 200; extremely little color fringing
What's not:
- Small, low resolution LCD
- Weaker flash; red-eye
- Autofocus could be faster; AF is lagging behind competition
- "Lame" movie mode in 2006; VGA at a choppy 10 FPS, limited to 1 GB
Recommended Accessories
- 256 MB Secure Digital card
- A set of 4 rechargeable AA NiMH batteries with a fast 15 minute charger
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