Canon PowerShot A3200 IS Pro Reviews

The A3200 is another example of how Canon’s accumulated expertise has trickled down to their budget models. The A3200 is easy-to-use, looks good and delivers pretty good image quality for the money. In fact, compared to many other cheap (and even some mid-range) compacts, the A3200 is more than able to hold its own, delivering punchy, colourful images. Of course, it’s by no means perfect and it’s also frustratingly slow to use at times, but if you’re looking for a cheap compact that can punch above its weight, then this is a good starting point as any.

The great looks, tough build quality, crisp lens, reliable metering and intelligent image processor. The PowerShot A3200 IS comes with some genuinely useful extras too, such as quality 720p HD video recording and some useful scene modes/in-camera lens effects. While this camera takes great pictures from the box, it's not immediately obvious how to switch between the various scene modes. The autofocus tends to hunt around in lower light conditions and it's the HD video maxes out at 720p rather than 1080.

It's not a bad little camera. It looks nice enough and all the features that you need are at hand on the buttons or the command dial on top of the camera. The command dial could maybe have been put on the back of the camera or removed completely but it's not a bad thing. If you're in the market for a decent compact with some fun features, take a look at the Canon Powershot A3200 IS.

With the compact camera market static in terms of growth and lower range models being picked off by mobile phones with built-in cameras, the Canon PowerShot A3200 IS seeks to buck that trend with a fair price, a solid construction and design that stops just short of upstaging the IXUS range. It sports just enough features to stop you from getting bored, and few enough for the camera to remain easy to use. Thus we don’t get 3D shooting nor automatically stitched Sweep Panorama modes now a staple of cameras £200 and above, but these functions are arguably inessential for day-to-day use. The A3200 IS comes across therefore as the digital camera equivalent of a bacon butty: it may not be fancy but it certainly fills a gap. If your budget is low(ish), the S3200 IS comes recommended as one of the best of its current class.

The 14-megapixel resolution is annoying but otherwise this is a likeable, dependable camera at a great price.

Although not packed with features, the PowerShot 3200 IS takes excellent pictures for an extremely reasonable price. The mode dial makes using the camera even easier than most compact cameras and the filters make it really easy to add that extra bit of creativity to your images. The Canon PowerShot A3200 IS comes recommended by ePHOTOzine.