advertisement

Ask CNET Asia

Find Products

  • Brand
  • Price
  • Camera type
  • Resolution
  • Zoom range
  • Storage type(s)
  • Unique features
  • Filter »

Buying Advice

Editors' Top 5s

CNET Features

 

Canon PowerShot A1000 IS

 Print    Email     Bookmark     Share

By Leonard Goh
Sep 29, 2008

Canon's A-series of cameras are often seen as the company's entry-level lineup, and it doesn't help that previous iterations of these shooters were encased in cheap plastic and looked bulky. Well, Canon seems set on changing that mindset by revamping its A-series' design, and wants to show that affordable cameras can look good, too.

Although it belongs to the lower-tier family, useful features such as optical image stabilizer and optical viewfinder (OVF) are present in this shooter. Most importantly, this point-and-shoot didn't disappoint in terms of image quality.

Design

The chassis of the new PowerShot camera has been reworked on to give it a slimmer, more stylish look that deviates from the usual thick and bulky appearance of the previous generation. A Canon representative even commented that the shooter looks a little bit like the IXUS now.

While we agree that the A1000 IS does look more fashionable, it still retains the cheap plastic feel. This can probably be attributed to the material used for its body construction.

Buttons are nicely placed to facilitate one-handed operation, though we found it weird that the speaker for audio playback was situated at the thumbrest, which, on more than one occasion, was covered when we were reviewing clips.

In terms of design, the Canon is much chunkier and amateurish-looking when compared to Olympus' FE-320. However, this could probably be attributed to its choice of power, AA batteries.

The A1000 IS is available in four shades--purple, brown, grey and blue. However, color availability may vary in different regions so do check with your local retailers.



Tags: Speaker, Camera, positioning, Olympus Corp., battery
 
Features »