Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Powershot A400 Silver Digital Camera [3MP, 2x Optical Zoom]

Great performance for what amounts to a £100 camera. Good quality images, saturation and color balance and a comprehensive range of options for exposure and image control. Easy to use and good software bundle. My kids worked out how to use it without using the manual.

On the downside - picture processing performance can be dramatically improved by using a high-speed SD card and the standard AA batteries last almost no time at all - use 2300mAh rechargeables instead. This camera provides a good compromise between cost, performance and features.

See 'Steves Digicams' for a comprehensive review: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/a400.html

I bought this for my seven year old nephew who takes a camera everywhere, is as digitally savvy as they come and got himself acquainted with the more intricate workings of the camera before his mum even knew where to load the batteries.

It's a touch plasticky, but the picture quality is fine.

I bought this camera when it first came out and I have been both thrilled and disappointed by its performance. This camera can produce stunning outdoor pictures with high levels of detail (for the money). However, the autofocus is extremely slow (especially in low light by not exclusively) and changing modes is also painfully slow; I have missed several good pictures due to this. The flash recharge rate is also very slower (slower even than my Kodak CX6200) and the screen blanks during the recharge so you cannot recompose in that time. Overall,very good for those shots you plan but not very good for the spontaneous ones.

I have had this camera for about a year and a half now and so have had time to get used to its good and bad sides. The pictures it takes I have to say are of a really nice quality, especially for the price, but the focussing is slow, which means it's very hard to get quick snaps that actually capture the moment you want, and it also does take a bit long to recharge inbetween pictures. The AA batteries that came with it lasted less than a day, but the rechargeable ones I now use are much better and last a long time. The wrist strap became frayed very quickly and I no longer use it but i do like the little tripod it came with, which is very handy for photos where you dont want shaking hands to affect the picture quality. I'd advise you to get a 64MB card at least with this or you will run out of room far too quickly on the 16MB card that comes with it. There is a handy little slot in the case for an extra card to go so you can maximise the number of photos you can take. The videos it takes are also good for the price, and with sound, which always makes them so much more enjoyable! On the whole this is a very nice camera which I have never regretted buying and it is perfect for anyone who is not an expert on cameras but still wants something which takes good pictures.