Canon PowerShot A495 – improved A480 with new additions
Thumbs Up:
Reliable Smart Auto mode; good pictures as per its price tag.
Thumbs Down:
Slow shooting performance; low resolution LCD; average battery life.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The PowerShot A495 is a 10-megapixel digital camera that has 10,300,000 pixels CCD optical sensor. The effective sensor resolution is 10,000,000 pixels. Light sensitivity levels are ISO Auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, and ISO 80. The camera features DIGIC III image processor, 4x digital zoom, frame movie shooting mode, and face detection.
2.5 inches LCD display has 115,000 pixels resolution. Canon PowerShot A495 has inbuilt mono microphone and lens shield. Its built-in flash features AF illuminator and 1-10ft. flash range. The flash modes are red-eye reduction, Flash OFF mode, Slow Synchro, Fill-in mode, and Auto mode. The camera has memory card slot that accepts MultiMedia Card and SD cards.
Aspherical lens has focal length of 6.6-21.6mm with F/3.0-5.8 aperture that features 3.3x optical zoom. Minimum focus range is 2 inches, whereas macro is 1-50cm. Canon PowerShot A495 has TTL contrast detection auto focus and nine auto focus zones.
The PowerShot A495 supports JPEG still image format as well as MJPEG and AVI video formats. Video capture resolution options are AVI 320×240 and AVI 640×480.The image storage resolution selections are JPEG 3648×2048, JPEG 640×480, JPEG 1600×1200, JPEG 2272×1704, JPEG 2816×2112, JPEG 3648×2736, and Large 367.
Canon PowerShot A495 has three types of white-balance: Automatic, Presets and Custom. White-balance presets are Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Tungsten light, Daylight, and Cloudy. The shooting programs of the A495 are Night snapshot, Poster Effect, Portrait Mode, Slow Shutter, Super Vivid, Kids & Pets, Low Light, Landscape, Fireworks, Foliage, Indoor, Beach, and Snow. In addition, the special effect options include Custom, Black & White, Neutral, Vivid, and Sepia.
Minimum shutter speed is 15 seconds, whereas the maximum is 1/2000 second. Canon PowerShot A495 has three types of exposure metering: Center-weights, Evaluative and Spot. Exposure modes are Automatic and Programs. The exposure compensation of the digital camera is ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps.
Canon PowerShot A495 has self timer delay of 2 seconds and 10 seconds. The additional features are i-Contrast system, Camera orientation detection, Motion Detection Technology, Scene Detection Technology, Face Detection WB/FE/AE/AF, RGB primary filter, USB compatibility, Exif print support, In-camera red-eye fix, PictBridge support, Cropping and Resizing an image, Audio recording, Direct print, DPOF support and AE lock.
The connector set includes 1×composite audio/video output, and 1×USB. Software included inside the supplied disc are Canon ZoomBrowser EX, drivers & utilities, Canon Image Browser, and Canon PhotoStitch. Supported operating systems are Apple Mac OS X 10.4 – 10.6 and Microsoft Windows XP SP2/Vista/7.
Canon PowerShot A495 runs two AA batteries. Accessories included inside the box are A/V cable, drivers & software disc, USB cable, wrist strap, and user manual.
Razzle Dazzle:
Canon PowerShot A495 is 2.4 inches tall, 3.7 inches wide, and 1.2 inches deep and weighs 6.2 ounces. It is available in silver, blue, and red colors. The camera looks stylish due its rounded corners. Our test model had red color.
Inside Dope:
Canon has updated its PowerShot A480 (a 2009 model) by splitting it into two different models: A495 and A490. Canon PowerShot A495 has 9-point Face AiAF auto-focus system, two latest shooting modes: Poster Effect and Super Vivid; Face Self Timer, and uses 18 scenes for Smart Auto mode. On the contrary, the A490 has only 13 scene settings, 5-point AiAF system, and does not feature Face Self Timer. The PowerShot A495 costs $129.99 that is $20 more than that of the A490 for above mentioned advantages. Both above digital camera deliver excellent and similar picture quality irrespective of their differences. The major drawback is that they provide slow shooting performance due to their long shot-to-shot timings. If you need a basic digital camera in limited budget, then you can go for the PowerShot A490.
We appreciate the Canon to revamp the buttons so that they feel good instead of feeling cheap. In addition, the company has included straightforward controls and uncomplicated menu system. Shutter release and power buttons are located on the right side of display the back. You will find Menu button, shooting mode, four-way pad with center select button, playback button and zoom rocker on the top. Menu button will show two tabs for general settings, whereas select button displays shooting mode options.
The LCD display is bright and clear, still looks washed out in sunlight. We do not like that the lens is narrow with 37mm focal length equivalent to 35mm camera. Canon PowerShot A495 has average number of shooting options. Program mode allows the options for color effects, ISO, metering, focus, and white balance. There is a Canon Smart Auto mode that disables all the annoying settings and picks one scene mode out of available 18 options. You can manually select one of scene modes such as Kids&Pets, Foliage, Long Shutter, and Fireworks.
It is confusing that Canon has renamed the High ISO mode to “Low Light”. This option captures 2-megapixel shots from ISO 500 to ISO 3200. The newly added shooting options are Poster Effect and Super Vivid. In addition, Face Self Timer captures the shot on detecting additional face in picture frame. Noteworthy that Canon PowerShot A495 is the best to take close-up macro shots. It allows focusing closely up to 0.4 inch and its auto-focus is improved as compared to that of the A480. Movie mode records VGA-only videos without using optical zoom. The overall video quality is good for a pocket video camera and remains suitable for online sharing.
The time from turn on to capture first shot is 2 seconds. The shutter lag is 1 second in dim light and 0.6sec in bright lighting. The shot-to-shot time is 2.9-second and 6.7-second with flash. The continuous shooting speed is 0.6fps (frames per second). The shooting performance Casio Exilim EX-Z33, Nikon Coolpix S220, and Pentax Optio E70 is much better than the A495 with 1 second, 1.3 seconds and 1.2 seconds shutter lag in bright light.
The photo quality of Canon PowerShot A495 is better than other expensive digital cameras. It provides the best quality below ISO 200 and remains a lot of fine details. However, the noise and its suppression are fine up to ISO 800 and picture remains good for small prints and Web usage. As usual, the noise will be visible while viewing the photos at full screen. Unlike other digital cameras, you can use all the ISO levels to capture good photographs.
There is a bit barrel distortion at the widest lens position and does not have evident pin-cushioning distortion even at fully extended lens. The central sharpness is good, stll there is visible softness on the corners. Average purple fringe is noticeable while viewing the pictures at full size. Canon PowerShot A495 remains excellent colors except blues that looks lighter. The exposure is good, but clipped highlights looks awkward.
Canon PowerShot A495 runs on two AA-size alkaline batteries that have a life of 150 shots. We will recommend you to buy additional NiMH batteries for continuous shooting.
The PowerShot A495 delivers comparable photo quality and shooting performance to that of Canon PowerShot A3000 IS.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need basic point and shoot digital camera with AA batteries and can compromise slow shooting performance, then you can buy – Canon PowerShot A495. However, we will recommend you to go for $20 more priced Canon PowerShot A3000 IS that delivers better shooting performance and runs on rechargeable lithium ion batteries.
