Canon PowerShot A30

Having read rave reviews about the A40, I set about looking at it's little brother the A30. The difference between the two cameras is small, the A40's resolution weights in at 2.3 megapixels, and records movies with sound, whereas the A30's resolution is just 1.3 megapixels and records movies without sound.

The price difference, well depending on where you shop, on the internet it can be as little as £10, but on the High Street it can be as great as £50.

But having shopped around and managing to talk a Jessops Camera shop into doing me a deal which beat the cheapest internet website, I purchased the A30, which gave me more money with which to buy a 128mb Memory Card and rechargable batteries (all of which are a must to any first time D.C. buyer)

When I got the camera home, I found that the build quality was excellent for a 'plastic' bodied camera. The software was top notch and I had no problems connecting the camera to my Dell PC running Win 2k. Included with the camera is a USB cable and a video out cable with which you can display your pictures straight to a TV screen.

Setting up the camera was easy and within 5 minutes I was shooting top notch indoor and outdoor photos using the Automatic mode. For the more serious photographers, you can set Whitelight levels, ISO settings and much more. Every picture was in focus, and the colours were both vivid and life like.

The LCD screen whilst small is adequate, although when you view the scene prior to taking the shot, the picture can look a little noisy. Even with this criticism, when reviewing the photos on the camera the picture sharpness is considerable better.

When I printed out some photos taken in high resolution, whilst not 'still photo' perfect, they are sharp and crisp with good colour representation. These photos were printed in both in 7x5 and 6x4 sizes on 'glossy photo' paper, and whilst I would be happy to place these in a family album, the true test will be when I take them down to Boots to get them developed!