Canon Powershot A400- any good?

[Gillian76]

We have been deliberating over digital cameras for a while. Salesman in Jessops recommended this model. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about it?

Do you think there's much between the Ixus 30 and 40?

0.8 megapixels...

Sorry, that's the flippant answer. Looking at the specs, the megapixels are the only thing differentiating.

Well, I have the Ixus II which is also a 3.2 megapixel camera. I'd like a bit more megapixels (but wouldn't spend the money on replacing - it's more than adequate for my needs, if I replaced it would be for a 5 megapixel). For £60 difference... hmm... I'd be inclined to settle with the ixus 30, tbh, especially if your budget is tight.

Hang on have an idea... let me see if it works...

Never mind... didn't work as planned.

But you can see some of the pics I took on my ixus ii \link{http://www.fotothing.com/Pewari} (check in the photo information - some are on my G5, some are with the ixus II)....

try again

fairly recent one on the ixus

kiddy pic - likely use?

landscapy

using the macro function

i got an ixus 30 last month. i'm really pleased with it & definitely reccommend it. i got it specifically to keep in my handbag & it's certainly light enough for that. the pictures are perfectly decent quality, i've just had a whole load printed out as 5x7s & they're lovely. i bought it at jessops so think i paid over the odds (£179), & then spent another 20 quid on a bigger memory card (which you need to budget for too i think), but got instant gratification! the battery life is excellent too, i've only had to recharge it once and use it most days.

we've also got a minolta 5Mpixel digital SLR which undoubtedly takes better pictures but is way too heavy and bulky to carry around (that's dp's job).

i've had a kodak 4 Mpixel one in the past, which was fine, but again bulky. and you can't really see the difference in quality between the 3 & 4 mega pixels when printing normal sized pics.

Ahem, are you sure you're not a canon rep???

So, on ebuyer, it's £140 for the 30 and £190 for the 40. Will have to see how far the budget can stretch...

I wish I was, I might get heavy discounts on their cameras

Oh, great pictures, btw, Georgina. Thanks

Ebuyer had quite low reviews on pricerunner though, I think some people had a few problems with the store... I'd be inclined to budget for the next one up (digital camera company?) which has 4.5/5 rating, or print out the ebuyer price and see if you can haggle in store with jessops.

Definitely agree with the battery life - seems very good on the Canons (but to be fair, I haven't used another camera quite so extensively to compare). I get fairly heavy use out of my cameras and recharging is still fairly rare.

Gillian, thinking about it - go for the ixus 30 - spend the "stretch" money on a really decent sized memory card for it. Much better use of the money, imo.

Stupid question, maybe. Do you charge the battery or the camera?

Not sure if they changed it on the newer models, but on my ixus you pop open the battery/memory card component, remove the rechargeable battery and stick it in the supplied charger. There's a light on it when its done, slap it back in the camera and go. Only, don't do what I've done in the past... charged it up, gone out the door, dug my camera out only to find that I'd left the battery in the charger at home... DOH!

Right, am off to bed now ... will check the thread again tomorrow though so apologies for going quiet on you for a bit

Thanks so much Georgina. Going to bed too - need to sleep on my decision