Canon Powershot A800 Pro Reviews

Although the A800's list price is a touch optimistic - we're sure it will be hugely discounted soon - Canon's latest will be a welcome addition to the shortlist for those on a budget. An increasingly rare thing even in the budget market, this back-to-basics camera from a trusted brand eschews fancy tech in favour of core, even old-fashioned features; a reassuringly chunky build quality, AA batteries, and an interface that's as easy to use as any digital camera we've seen. The PowerShot A800 is about as versatile as you'd expect at this price - that is to say, not very - but its good value image quality is enough to convince us that this point-and-shooter for novices is a well-judged, well-made product that deserves to do well.

Considering its bargain price, you'll get excellent photos from the Canon PowerShot A800. Just don't expect anything more than that and you'll be fine.

With decent performance at a rock-bottom price, the A800 is several notches above most other similarly priced cameras

“Simplicity” and “affordability” are the buzzwords when it comes to the Canon PowerShot A800; its manufacturer can and could do much better, so it’s blindingly obvious this is a product engineered to hit a budget price point and plug a gap in the range. For the money results and feature set are fair, but we’d recommend stretching a little further and opting for a PowerShot A3200 IS that will provide slightly longer service and provide even the most naïve of beginners with a camera they can grow into.

Smart Auto mode makes it hard to take a bad picture, and there's a good choice of Scene Modes. While very much a point and click device, the PowerShot A800 offers a reasonable amount of manual adjustment and has a decent built-in flash. Battery life's been boosted too. Canon should make it easier for newcomers to figure out the icons and menu settings. The camera's dumpy, dated looks won't win you any cool points, and the lens can feel a bit restricted. You can't record movies in high definition, either.

This pocket camera comes with compromises, but a $90 price tag and dead-simple operation help balance the Canon PowerShot A800's lack of optical image stabilization and HD-video capture.

Features and performance are in line with the rock-bottom price, but it punches above its weight for image quality.

Apart from a few new shooting modes and a questionable cosmetic overhaul that actually makes the camera slightly more difficult to use, it's difficult to see just what Canon have added to the new Powershot A800 to justify its release. The biggest improvements are the doubling in battery life, now up to around 300 shots, and a significant reduction in price to well below the £100 / $100 point. The A800 doesn't have the dashing looks of some rivals and isn't quite as easy to use as its predecessor, but it does still deliver good image quality with better battery life for a much more wallet-friendly price. That just makes the Canon Powershot A800 worthy of our Recommended award.

Canon PowerShot A800 reviewThe Canon PowerShot A800 is a budget point and shoot compact that offers a range of consumer friendly features and provides some control over camera settings. The question on many people's lips, particularly owners of the A490 / A495 that it replaces may well be 'what's new?'. Canon has resisted the temptation to increase the megapixel count, or fit a larger, higher resolution screen, and the lens remains the same as before - in fact it's the same lens that was on the PowerShot A480 before that. The camera is also more or less the same size and weight as its predecessors: only the body styling has changed and even that not radically. One big improvement though is the battery life has doubled, and there are also some new scene modes including the Blur Reduction.

The performance of the Canon PowerShot A800 is acceptable for a camera of this price range but there are other cameras which perform better and cost slightly less, such as the Nikon Coolpix L23 which is now available for £59. The price of the A800 is bound to drop shortly which will make it much more competitive in the market. If you are not as limited by a budget then the Canon PowerShot A3300 IS is worth consideration as an alternative.