Canon PowerShot A510 and A520
2-in-1 Full Review
Brad Soo - August 11th, 2005

In this special 2-in-1 review, I'll be reviewing both the Canon PowerShot A510 and A520 at the same time. I will alternate between the views of these two cameras in the camera tour.

The Canon PowerShot A510 and A520 are two new 2005 cameras which replace the A75 and A85 respectively. Both the A510 and A520 have full manual controls and several new features in an all-new camera body. Those new features found on the A510 and A520 include:

  • More features in a more compact body
  • 4x optical zoom lens
  • Zooming built-in flash unit
  • Both run SD/MMC cards
  • Use of 4 AA batteries cut down to 2 AA batteries
  • External slave flash compatibility

Together with the A510/A520, you'll find the following in the box:

  • 16 MB MultiMedia Card
  • 2 AA alkaline batteries
  • Wrist strap
  • USB cable
  • A/V cable
  • CD-ROM
  • User's manual.

Getting a 256 MB SD or MMC card might not be a bad idea as 16 MB of memory is way too little. The A510/A520 do not take advantage of high-speed cards as they do not have the new DIGIC II processor found on the new Digital Ixus cameras like the Ixus 700.

The battery life of the A510/A520 is 300 shots (CIPA standard) with the LCD on and 800 shots (!!!) with the LCD off. I would recommend getting a pack of 4 or preferably 8 AA NiMH rechargeable batteries which are higher in capacity, value for money (Compared to one-use AA alkaline batteries) and more environment friendly.

Let's compare the A510/A520's size and weight to other cameras of its class:

90.7 x 64.0 x 38.4 mm (180 g) - Canon PowerShot A510/A520
109.3 x 52.8 x 36.6 mm (144 g) - HP Photosmart M407
85.0 x 60.0 x 35.0 mm (130 g) - Nikon Coolpix 4600
95.0 x 55.5 x 27.5 mm (115 g) - Olympus Stylus Verve
100.5 x 63.5 x 32.9 mm (178 g) - Panasonic Lumix LZ1
96.6 x 64.4 x 40.1 mm (202 g) - Sony Cyber-shot S90

The Canon PowerShot A510/A520 are of compact size and are much more compact than the A75/A85.

Accessories

The A510 and A520 are compatible with a ton of accessories, which include:

  • Conversion lens adapter
    Enables you to use the conversion lenses and filters
  • Wide-angle conversion lens
    Reduces focal length to 0.7x (About 24.5 - 98 mm)
  • Telephoto conversion lens
    Increases focal length by 1.75x (About 61 - 245 mm)
  • Close-up conversion lens
    Take close-up shots as close as 4 cm
  • External slave flash
    Boost the flash illumination range
  • Waterproof case
  • AC adapter

Here's a bonus camera view: The A510 with the external slave flash attached.

 

Camera Tour

Let's start the camera tour beginning from the front. The A510/A520 have 3 and 4 effective megapixels respectively on a 1/2.5 inch CCD paired with a 4x optical zoom lens. The A510/A520's F2.6 - F5.5 lens has a focal length of 35 - 140 mm (35 mm equivalent). This is 1x more than average. The lens, in digital terms, have a focal length of 5.8 - 23.2 mm.

The A510/A520's lens extends in under 2 seconds but takes slightly longer to startup. Moving to telephoto from wide-angle in 2 seconds, this lens is fast.

The built-in flash has a maximum range of 3.5 m at wide-angle and 2.2 m at telephoto which is quite good for a camera in this class. The flash zooms internally along with lens so the coverage is better at the telephoto end.

The optical viewfnder and AF-assist beam are placed next to each other, the small circle being the AF-assist beam. The AF-assist beam aids focusing in low-light and is also a self-timer light.

There are 4 microphone holes near the grip. Speaking of grips, Canon has made the grip on the A510/A520 more ergonomic and easier to hold on to.

The 1.8 inch LCD has 115,000 pixels and is sharp and fluid. It hasn't changed much since the A75/A85 and its visibility in low-light and outdoors is only so-so. Fortunately, there is an optical viewfinder, which is located above the LCD. Next to the viewfinder are two LEDs. The top one shows flash status (on/off) while the bottom one shows focusing status (Blinking yellow - Unable to focus, Solid yellow - Focus locked).

Like other Canon cameras, the Canon PowerShot A510 and A520 have Canon's AiAF (Artificial Intelligence Auto Focus) which uses one or more of 9 focus boxes superimposed on the LCD to focus on your subject(s).

The mode switch moves the A510/A520 around from playback and still photo shooting. Next is the 5 way controller. Two of those buttons have quick access functions:

  • Up - Flash setting
  • Down - Macro or manual focus

The FUNCtion button brings up/down a list of customizable options which allows you to set:

  • Exposure compensation (-2 till +2 in 1/3 increments)
  • White balance (Auto, preset, custom)
  • "Shift gears" (In my term) (Single, continuous, self-timer modes)
  • ISO speed (Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400)
  • Photo effects (Off, vivid, neutral, low sharpening, sepia, black-and-white)
  • Metering method (Average, center, spot)
  • Flash power
  • Quality (Superfine, fine, normal)
  • Resolution (5 MP, 3 MP, 2 MP, VGA)

The MENU and DISPlay buttons are self-explanatory.

The power button is located at the top along with a zoom lever wrapped around the shutter button. A small green LED near the mode dial lights up when the A510/A520 on. By holding down the shutter button after taking a photo (Except in continuous or self-timer mode), you can review the photo you've taken.

Here's what those letters and funny symbols (Not funny for the professional photographer) on the mode dial mean:

  • Manual - Full manual control.
  • Aperture priority - You choose an aperture and the camera will choose an appropriate shutter speed.
  • Shutter priority - You choose a shutter speed and the camera will choose an appropriate aperture.
  • Programmed auto - The camera chooses both aperture and shutter speed while you control other manual functions.
  • Automatic - You choose only image size and compression.
  • Portrait
  • Landscape
  • Night
  • Fast shutter
  • Slow shutter
  • Scene modes
  • Stitch assist
  • Movie

One side of the camera has USB, A/V and DC-IN ports while the other has a wrist strap mount. At the bottom of the A510/A520 is a tripod mount, battery and SD slots. The battery and SD slots are protected by fairly sturdy covers.

Camera Functions

The A510 and A520 both focus in 2 seconds, even in low-light. Continuous shooting was fast but rather limited due to the DIGIC processor. Compare that to unlimited and fast continuous shooting of 7 megapixel photos on the Canon Digital Ixus 700 which uses the new DIGIC II processor.

The A510 and A520 can take VGA movies up to 30 seconds at a turtle's pace of 10 FPS. Reducing the resolution to 320 x 240 or 160 x 120 doesn't help either - They're both limited to 3 minutes per video clip. Movies are recorded in AVI format. Neither optical or digital zoom can be used by the A510/A520 while recording.

 

In playback, the Canon PowerShot A510/A520 can playback stills and movies (With sound) as well as perform these functions: Protect image, print marking, direct printing (The A510 and A520 are both PictBridge enabled), slideshow, sound memo, rotate and simple movie editing. You can also zoom up to 10x into still photos taken and take a look around using the 4 arrow buttons. Choose to see no info, basic info or lots of info about your photos. Important information such as shutter speed, aperture value and a histogram are all shown during playback.

Camera Photo Tests

The Canon PowerShot A510 and A520 both produce sharp photos with very little difference to be seen between the two models. When it comes to noise, the difference can be seen and not surprisingly, the A520 had higher noise levels (Remember both cameras use CCDs of the same size and the A520 has 1 extra megapixel). Chromatic aberration (Color fringing) is not noticeable and you can tune it down a little thanks to full control over aperture value. There's lots of red-eye but like most other Canon cameras, barrel distortion is nothing to be concerned about. Movies are a little less sharp compared to still photos.

Conclusion

The Canon PowerShot A510 and A520 have both full manual controls and are very affordable. Despite a new 4x optical zoom lens and the ability to take overall great photos, the A510 and A520 both still lack something. If you read about the release of all 2005 Canon cameras, you'll know but anyway, here it is: The new DIGIC II processor. The usage of the "old" DIGIC processor make image processing rather slow for cameras in 2005 and horrible movie mode.

The A510 and A520 are both great cameras for the amateur and professional photographers alike (To professional photographers: You wouldn't want to be lugging along with a heavy dSLR all the time, would you?). As for the mediocre movie mode, you can't have everything on some very affordable cameras, right? The A510 and A520 respectively have RRPs of $199 and $299 (Though they're selling for much lower prices nowadays).

Pros:

  • New 4x zoom lens
  • Compact
  • Ergonomic grip
  • A full array of manual controls
  • Excellent battery life
  • Overall sharp photos
  • Conversion lens compatibility
  • Variety of scene modes
  • Very affordable price

Cons:

  • Mediocre movie mode
  • High noise levels
  • So-so LCD performance
  • Slow for 2005 cameras

Recommended accessories:

  • Set of 4 AA NiMH rechargeable batteries
  • 256 MB SD/MMC card
  • Camera case

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