Within it's fairly narrow limits it gives good image quality, although some smudging of details can be seen even at low ISO settings.

The small bulge on the right for the two AA batteries makes a decent handhold for people like me who have big hands.

Small and light, as all compacts are.

Movie quality is surprisingly good, with clips limited at 1GB in file size. This takes 8 minutes at the maximum standard definition (640X480) setting. Lots of people complain about how "short" these clips are, but that's only the length per single clip, you can record multiple shorter clips all days as long as there's enough batteries and memory. Long lengths per clip really only matters if you're trying to record a concert or presentation, in which case you'll likely be using a real camcorder.

A waterproof case is available for about $170, and is the main reason I hold onto this camera. Sounds are muffled or absent (obviously), but being able to record in pouring rain/snow/underwater without fear of damaging the camera is a real change from the ordinary.

A base ring can be removed to mount an adapter tube and accessory wide angle/telephoto lenses. They work, but at this point it'd be cheaper to just buy an ultrazoom.

Controls are fairly easy to figure out for novice users.

It has a rangefinder style viewfinder for situations (like low batteries) where you don't want to use the LCD display.

No need for a lens cap, it's built in.

As with all compacts it has poor high ISO noise performance. 200 shows it, and 400 is about it for a useful photo. If you've shot film, treat it as a film camera with 200 ASA speed film and you'll be happy.

And as with all Nimh batteries they don't hold their charges for very long in storage, so always charging up a fresh set right before you go is best. Even still, they may just run short on you, and the shelf life is not very long, about 1-3 years. I personally hate Nimh batteries, although other people like the convenience of just buying them at the store. I'd take a lithium-ion any day.

It does not have image stabilization, but considering the low usable ISO it really only matters for movie clips. Movies shot with a stabilizer are much less jerky.

Only a 4X zoom, but you knew that, didn't you?

Lots of extra "features" like color swapping or movie clip trimming that you can do on your PC and seem mostly like just gimmicks.

An anemic flash that takes a few seconds to charge.

Plastic tripod and accessory mount.

Amongst a sea of "little silver box" compact cameras the a540 neither excels nor bombs out, and is still useful for snapshots and situations where a photo is better than none. Having a decent movie mode is a major plus. What is lacks against newer cameras is largely added features, but to be honest I haven't seen the picture quality in compacts improving the way it has for DSLR cameras.

Customer Service

Haven't used it.

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Canon S3

Great pictures. Lightweight. Easy to use.

Canon service.

Great little camera that took great pictures. Ours worked 2 mos.

Customer Service

After 2 months with camera in mint condition, suddently the lens cover wouldn't open; it only opened part way. Sent to Canon for warranty repair and they wanted to charge $93 to fix, saying the lens ring was dented and wasn't covered under warranty. It wasn't dented when it was sent in (wrapped extremely carefully). Amazingly, when I asked Canon to return it unrepaired, it came back to me with a very visible dent in the lens ring. No scratches, dings or dents anywhere else on the camera.

Don't trust Canon. I guess that's how they get out of doing warranty repairs.

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Olympus and Polaroid digitals with never any problems.

I bought this camera a little while back, ive used the heck out of it, my last camera the motor for the lens wore out, this one ive taken well into 50K pictures and im seeing little to no signs of wear anywhere. Although its not an SLR if your one of them manual mode people its pretty good and with an ios of 800 its pretty good.

The pictures are of a very high quality, and the 4x zoom helps you get that long distance shot. Also, you can attatch other lenses on it with a cheap adapter, including Canon telephoto, wide angle and macro lenses, as well any other 52mm lense. There are many shooting modes, ranging from the all important manual arpeture and exposure settings to a special settings, like "fireworks," or "foliage."

If you're looking for an SLR quality camera this is not for you. While it is a very good point and shoot, it is still a point and shoot. The battery life using normal AAs isn't very good, although this is true for most cameras. NiMH rechargeables help this greatly. The 4x zoom may not be enough for everyone, even with telephoto lenses.

This is a 6.0 megapixel, 4x optical zoom point and shoot digital camera. It's my second digital camera. My next camera will probably be an SLR, because honestly I don't know what features I'd want in a point and shoot that I don't find in this camera.

Similar Products Used:

None

Start-up Speed, fast response when taking a photo , batteries, viewfinder.

Manual is very poorly written and hard to understand.

I like this camera. Most important, it takes the picture immediately when you press the "shutter release" It also has very fast start-up in letting you take the first picture. I like the optical viewfinder-- I can crop the photo the way I want after its in my computer. I like the use of AA batteries. And the camera is easily pocketable.

On the negative side, the manual is very poorly written and very unclear. And why does the camera need a ready light? When its "time" is up it retracts the lens and turns off. So what does the ready light do??