Canon has replaced the PowerShot A470 with a new 10.0 Megapixel model which is called, with great imagination, the PowerShot A480. It is an improvement in that it is smaller — about 25% —  has a 10 megapixels and a 3.3 optical zoom.

By and large the press is writing about it with faint praise. The press is not interested in a point and shoot camera which works well, is backed by a big name and has enough zoom — 3.3x — to satisfy most amateur photographers.

They want something totally out of the ordinary onto which they can peg the story.

In this case they get nothing.

True this is a totally competent camera with all of the gubbins. Things like Face Detection Technology and Motion Detection Technology. But what it is basically about is ease of use.

It seems as if Canon brought in an ergonomic engineer to make sure that the dedicated buttons for zoom, mode and playback are in the right place. Which makes it just as easy to use as it is to carry around with you.

The PowerShot A480 is an ideal ‘take-anywhere’ camera. That does not make a grabber of a story but it does lead to very satisfied customers.

With the use of a 10.0 Megapixel sensor even framing the picture precisely right does not become a major problem. If you have to crop, say, 50% of the picture to get it to look right you still have what is in effect a 5.0 megapixel shot which will happily print up to A4.

This Canon does most of the work for you — it adjusts focus, exposure, flash settings and white balance. Just point and shoot.

In an amazing novel called The Shy Photographer a journalist is shot from a cannon in a circus — by mistake — and he has, yes, a Canon camera in his hand. He comes back with a set of amazing shots which make the cover of Life magazine. That was before your time.

This camera is ideal for such a situation although being shot from a cannon it is not to be recommended as a normal mode of operation.

A range of 15 preset shooting modes allows any user to instantly get the correct settings for common scenes. Normally you protest against this sort of gubbins being added but because it is so simple to use there can hardly been any complaints at: Kids & Pets, Sunset, and Indoor modes.

You CAN shoot video at 30fps which will work on YouTube but is really not what the camera is about. A good suggestion would be to forget the video and just concentrate on the straight shots. There is a  bright 2.5″ LCD screen which will work in most places except strong, direct sunlight.

Complaint has been made the it runs with AA batteries. Many people would see that as a major plus. You can carry rechargeable lithium AA batteries but if push comes to shove you can always, always, get AA batteries at the nearest convenience store.

So the PowerShot A470 bows off — watch for bargains at special prices — when the the Canon PowerShot A480 arrives next month. We are not told the price in the United States but it will probably be close to the European price which is US$188.

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Entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 2:31 am under Canon, Compact cameras, Digital Camera, Photography tips.

Read more entries by Gareth Powell.