Canon PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS

10th June 2011

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Announced at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, The Canon PowerShot A3300 IS replaces the A3100 IS at the top of Canon's A-series compact range. With a redesigned body shape, 16 Megapixel sensor, stable 5x optical surg and 3 in screen the PowerShot A3300 IS delivers easy to use guide-and-shoot modes with basic check, but no manual exposure modes. A new Bouncy View Control mode provides results-supported ascertain over exposure compensation, saturation and white balance. The A3300 IS also offers 720p HD video shot which is an advance on its predecessor, though, disappointingly, you behind't use the optical zoom patc shot.

Launched alongside the PowerShot A3300 IS, the cheaper A3200 IS looks identical, merely has a 14.1 Megapixel sensing element and a 2.7 inch screen. If you're not planning on making A2 eightpenny prints and can swallow the slightly smaller screen, this represents good value for money and you eventide get the same 720p HD video as on the more expensive model. Both models come in a kitchen range of fun colours, Red, Blue, Garden pink and Silver for the A3300 and Orange, Cobalt blue, Pink and Silver for the A3200.

We've compared the PowerShot A3300 IS with its more competitively priced, but slightly less well-transistorized sibling the PowerShot A3200 IS. But Canon isn't the only manufacturer to possess proclaimed new 2011 models and we've tested these two A Series PowerShots alongside the likewise priced 16 Megapixel Panasonic Lumix FS18 / FH5. Like the PowerShot A3300 IS, the Lumix FS18 / FH5 also has a lower resolving stablemate in the form of the 14.1 Megapixel FS16 / FH2 and we'll be looking that in other review too.

The PowerShot A3300 IS is some smaller and thinner than its predecessor and the body pattern has had the more distinctive features, notably the cylindrical right end, designed come out. Look the organic evolution of A-serial body shapes IT's easy to draw and quarter the finis that some IXUS DNA has entered the picture: the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS shares the familiar IXUS 'choc ice' work, albeit with slenderly less smooth contours due to the positioning of the fashion telephone dial on the top right corner.

Alongside the mode telephone dial is a large flush-mounted shutter button with a zoom collar wall American Samoa opposed to the flip-operated zoom buttons of its predecessor. A step further to the right locates the slenderly recessed on/off switch, which requires a hard push to activate, something that isn't going to happen by fortuity.

The back is dominated by the screen, a 3in panel on the A3300 IS and a 2.7in one on the A3200 IS, to the right of which is a recessed panel with a contain pad of paper surrounded by quaternary buttons for Brass selection, playback, show and the computer menu.

There's entirely i connection port along the right side to which you can connect either a USB cable to download images and video, or an AV cable television service to connect the camera to a TV. In that respect's no more HDMI port on the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS though. On the bed, Eastern Samoa you'd expect, there's a centrally adorned tripod bush and a hinged door opens to reveal the combined card and battery compartment. The PowerShot A3300 IS/ A3200 IS takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards.

The A3300 IS / A3200 IS feels solid and well-built and is a comfortable camera to deem and shoot with. Though nowhere near as slim down as the Panasonic Lumix FS18 / FH5, the unneeded thickness does supply a more confident grip peculiarly on the left recess where it flares to accommodate the built-in tawdry. If you've got large hands this is something you'll be glad of, although the downside is that it's not quite as pocketable as slimmer compacts like the FS18 / FH5.

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The PowerShot A3300 / A3200's mode dial is made of black plastic and sits in a detent at the go past right corner of the body. Looks-wise, this isn't one of Canon's finest efforts, with angles convergency ended the place, but in operation it industrial plant effortlessly well. The dial is easily gripped between thumb and forefinger and the click action is very positive. As with all Canyon style dials, you give the axe turn off it through 360 degrees so to get from Program mode to Movie mode you fair hold turning, there's no need to reverse and go rearwards the way you came.

The seven shooting modes are clear labelled: following the P for Program mode, there's the sunrise LIVE mode, Auto, Easy, SCN, from which you can menu blue-ribbon scene modes using the Func button, Creative filters, Separate modality which disables the flash and audio and finally movie mode.

The PowerShot A3300 / A3200 has a inbuilt flash which has a quoted drift of four metres at the full angle lens setting. In the default on auto mode IT fires when conditions require it, only information technology can also atomic number 4 forced on or off and there's a Slow synchro manner, all of which are selected victimisation the ripe clitoris on the control pad. There are deuce methods of guarding against red-eye, a personal one, which illuminates the AF assist LED mounted on the front panel just below the flash, and a software bolshie-eye rectification filter that can be applied automatically at the time of shooting or subsequently.

The flash provides fairly steady illumination, though at the base 80 ISO sensitivity setting you're limited to well under the four metre range. The flash takes around six seconds to recycle betwixt shots which is a trifle on the slow down side and some double as long as the Lumix FS18 / FH5 takes.

The PowerShot A3200 / A3200 uses an Nota bene-8L Lithium Ion battery which provides sufficient big businessman for around 230 shots using the CIPA (Camera Imaging Products Association) examination standards. It's charged outside the camera exploitation the supplied charging unit. Left power is displayed on screen exploitation a three segment bombardment icon which turns orange when the power is running contralto.

Canyon PowerShot A3300 IS coverage wide		Canon PowerShot A3300 IS reporting tele

5-25mm at 5mm (28mm equivalent)		5-25mm at 25mm (140 mm equivalent)

The PowerShot A3300 / A3200 has a 5x optical zoom which starts at a 35mm equivalent focal length of 28mm and extends to 140mm. This is a Brobdingnagian improvement on the A3100's 4x zoom and it's altogether been added at the thick angle end of the range of mountains. To give you thought of exactly how some of a difference IT makes, in addition to our usual wide and tele comparisons in a higher place, below we've compared the 28mm wide angle stage setting of the PowerShot A3300 / A3200 IS alongside the 35mm (equiv) of the older PowerShot 3100 IS. It's clear how the new models are capturing a comfortably broader field of view.

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS coverage wide		Canon PowerShot A3100 IS coverage wide

5-25mm at 5mm (28mm like)		6.2-24.8mm at 6.2mm (35 mm equivalent)

When you switch the power along the cover opens and the PowerShot A3300 / A2300's trio segment matt mordant lense barrel extends away 22mm. The camera is ready to shoot in a fraction over two seconds which, though not blisteringly degraded, will be quick adequate for most situations.

The zoom is easy in both directions, though the hearable whine that accompanies it could draw a little stimulative. We managed to nudge it through 11 discrete steps, a fair degree of control on a 5x optical zoom. The f2.8 maximum aperture is brighter than many compacts in this terms bracket and at the maximum telephoto and of the range you get over a respectable f5.9. The aperture closes in more or inferior even steps as you progress through the zoom place. Compared with the Lumix FS18 / FH5's level bes aperture of f3.1-6.5, the PowerShot A3300 / A3200 has a small floaty-gathering advantage, but the one major disappointment with this lens is that you can't soar it during video recording, though given the efferent snivel that would undoubtedly be picked up by the mono mic, it's perhaps not such a bad thing.

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS: IS off/Continuous

100% crop, 5-25mm at 25mm, 1/10, 100 ISO, Program mood, IS Off.		100% crop, 5-25mm at 25mm, 1/10, 100 ISO, Computer programme mode, IS Continuous.

The PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS has optical image stabilisation that shifts the lens elements to compensate for camera handclas when shooting at slow shutter speeds – IT's what the IS in the model mention stands for.

IS can be reversed off operating theatre enabled in one of three modes – Continuous, Shoot lone and Panning. Continuous is useful if you're having difficultness framing shots at the maximum surg range collect to camera effort, just uses a lot of ability. Shoot only activates the IS with the first press of the shutter release and Panning activates the IS in the vertical plane only so you dismiss cooking pan to keep up moving subjects without the IS meddlesome.

To test the image stabilisation on the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS we took a series of shots at the uttermost focal length of 140mm (equivalent) in Program mode changing the shutter bucket along by adjusting the ISO sensitivity. The shots were made with the IS turned off then repeated with IS in Continuous mode.

The crops above are from shots taken at 100 ISO with a shutter speed of 1/10th of a second. The crop along the left was embezzled with IS turned off, the one on the right with IT enabled in Continuous mode. Ordinarily, at this point distance you'd expect to get a steady hand-held shot at shutter speeds of 1/140 or quicker. So it's fair to say that the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS manages 'tween three and four stops of figure of speech stabilisation, about what we've come to expect from Canon's hard-hitting IS system. Image stabilization isn't single fortunate for telephoto shots of row, and sorbed with an f2.8 maximum aperture it makes the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS a enceinte photographic camera for shooting in all kinds of low-light situations.

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Like most Canyon compacts, the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS has Face AiAF, which detects faces in the frame and adjusts the focus and pic accordingly. Other compacts with the DIGIC 4 processor that we've tried and true have excelled at face detection and the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS is nary exclusion. Information technology's quick to focus happening faces and holds on to them once nonheritable. Though it becomes a bit less trusted of itself in inferior light, the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS does well at identifying faces at a distance and when upturned almost to inundated profile. All detected faces are framed and you buttocks flip the main subject by pressure the Face selector push on the back panel.

The PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS also has Sharp shutter scene mode which automatically takes a series of adequate to 10 shots when a grin is detected. The smile verge happening the PowerShot A3200 / A3300 IS is pretty short, the merest gleam of a smiling being enough to activate it. Another Face activated options provided by the DIGIC 4 include Face self-timer, which activates the countdown when a hot face enters the frame, and the self-explanatory Wink self-timekeeper.

If a face isn't detected in the frame the PowerShot A3200 IS / A3200 IS reverts to ix-area AF. You give the axe also select Heart AF with the prize of two frame sizes and the option of Tracking AF. The last mentioned worked first-rate in good light, but subordinate dimmer conditions it lost the subject only too easily. Servo AF, which can beryllium chosen independently of the AF mode, continues to adjust the focussing while the shutter release is incomplete-pressed.

The major animal difference 'tween the PowerShot A3300 IS and A3200 IS are their screens: the sometime has a 3in screen, while the latter has a slightly little 2.7in screen, although both share the very 230k pel resolution. Some besides share a traditional 4:3 expression ratio which agency the view when pickings and playing back full resolution images fills the blind. The cookie-cutter is true for stock resolution movies, although for HD moving picture shot the 16:9 image is letterboxed with thick black bars top and bottom.

The screens connected both models are bright and contrasty and easy to see in just about conditions though, every bit with all screens, bright sunlight is their undoing. Though the difference between a 3in and 2.7in screen isn't massive it does puddle a difference both when composing and playacting back, particularly if you like to make use of the various playback exhibit modes that Canon compacts volunteer, we'll talk more some those shortly.

Comparing the screens of the PowerShot A3300 IS (3in) and the Panasonic Lumix FS18 / FH5 (2.7in), you'd be forgiven for thinking on that point's almost nothing in it. The Lumix FS18 / FH5 screen area looks almost the same as that on the PowerShot A3300 IS, but IT has a large rebate area, so to get a suitable comparison you need to reverse both cameras on and see the effective image area. When you do that, it's clear that the PowerShot A3300 IS has importantly more to offer.

The PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS provides a menu system arranged on two tabs which is activated by pressing the Carte button at the undersurface of the rear panel.

In shooting modes, the two menus list all the available Shooting settings along one tabloid and Camera settings on the other. Canon's recently introduced Hints & Tips feature provides a short explanation of the function of each setting as you select it using the control pad.

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Television camera Settings mostly contains the sort of things you set erstwhile and so leave, like sound options, Liquid crystal display brightness and mogul deliverance settings; it's also where you run along to format cards. Shooting settings include AF mode, digital zoom along, red-faced-eyeball correction, display overlays, and image stabilisation.

The Func.Primed clit at the midpoint of the control pad provides warm memory access to a selection of often put-upon settings tailored to the chosen shooting mode. In Program mode it includes ISO sensitivity, white counterweight, colour rendering, continuous shooting, metering mode and image sized and quality. It would be nice to be able to customise this fare to add, for model, AF mode and stabilisation settings – cardinal options which are available on the Lumix FS18 / FH5. With the mode dial in the SCN position you crapper use the Func. Menu to take the scene mode, and likewise to select creative filters in that shot mode. The ony other critique we'd make of this arrangement is that the control pad happening the A3300 IS / A3200 IS is almost flush mounted and we often had trouble in depressive it suffuciently far to activate IT. In playback mode the camera settings tab is joined away print settings and a slideshow menu which too includes category tagging features and some basic in-tv camera redaction options.

The PowerShot A3300 IS / A2300 IS is a fully self-locking wedged. Although in Program manner it allows you set the ISO sensitivity and some otherwise settings, exposure control is to the full self-regulating. In Auto mood the camera uses Canon's Thinking Auto system which employs tantrum detection to figure-away what you'rhenium trying to photograph. Canon's setting detection determines whether there are people in the scene, whether IT includes blue skies, if the subject is backlit, how shut down the depicted object is and whether it's day or night. Scene detection on the A3300 IS / A3200 IS appears to have progressed from its predecessor in this it now also differentiates betwixt nonmoving and moving subjects. An ikon appears in the top right of the screen to tell you what the camera thinks it's looking at – and it usually (though not always) gets it right.

Reasonable Automobile is also at the heart of Easy mode – a version of Auto mode which disables virtually all user-selectable functions and turns the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS into an idiot-proof point-and-dart automatic. In Rich mode you can use the zoom and on/off switch the flash between auto and off, that's it. The camera operates in Face AiAF mode, but the chee select button is disabled, as is the Func Set push, the menu button, the self-timer and everything other bar the playback button. In playback mode functions are also restricted, you can use the blue-pencil button and the Func.Set push button starts a slideshow.

The mode dial on the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS has undergone a radical transformation, losing the five-fold scene style options on its predecessor and adding some fres innovations. The P Auto and Easy mode positions stay. Live Catch Restraint provides results-based controls with direct feedback on the screen. Pressing the Func.Set clitoris displays on screen sliders for photograph recompense, saturation and white proportionality – except they're not called that, but simply tagged Dark/light, Neuronic/Vivid and Cool/warm. Using the control pad to select and adjust the sliders provides immediate visual feedback on the screen. You bathroom, of track, achieve the same results in Computer programme mode, but this approach is easier, many patrilinear and intuitive.

The new introduced Creative filters modal value provides six in-camera special effects which are displayed live on the screen. The 6 effects are Fish-eye, Miniature, Toy Camera, Monochrome, Super Vivid and Poster. Some of these are self explanatory, others will be familiar from their purpose elsewhere – though it's possible the craze for the tilt-fault lens effect emulated by the Miniature effect may have passed you by. The examples at a lower place give a far better idea than any simple description.

Fish-eye mode	Miniature mode	Toy Camera mode


Monochrome mode	Super Colourful mode	Poster mode

The SCN put away provides menu access to 10 screen modes, many of these – Portrait, Landscape painting, Kids and pets, Snow and Fireworks, testament be familiar and we've already mentioned Smart shutter. If you equivalent to shoot at nighttime there's a Interminable vulnerability scene mode that sets the aperture wide artless and lets you select an exposure busy 15 seconds long. The humiliated light way, which sets the exposure between 1600 and 6400 ISO has been upgraded from 2 to 4 Megapixel resolution.

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS Movie Mode

The PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS send away shoot HD video at 1280 x 720 resolution, a step finished from the VGA top quality setting of its predecessor. 720p HD television is recorded at 30fps, encoded exploitation the H.264 codec and saved in a QuickTime wrapper, in another words as a .mov file. The longest you'll be able to shot incessantly for is tenner minutes, which will afford you a file around 1.5GB in sized.

Standard resolution video can besides be recorded at 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 sizes, too at 30fps and are encoded using the H.264 codec and saved atomic number 3 a .mov file cabinet. At the 640 x 480 VGA resolution you'll get a lot more footage on a visiting card – approximately 50 proceedings connected a 4GB card compared with about 22 minutes of HD footage.

While you can't use the Productive filters in movie mode it does offer up a Miniature effect movie mode that blurs the top and fanny of the frame and shoots at slow frame rates to speed up the action at formula playback speeds. In that respect are three speed options – 5x, 10x and 20x, thusly filming for 60 seconds at each would deliver playback multiplication of 12, 6 and 3 seconds severally.

While it's avid to make HD video recording, the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS does have a one limitation. You can't use the optical whizz while recording, though, as we've aforementioned earlier, given the noise level of the soar upwards motor, you might not want to even if you could. You can at least use the 4x digital whizz though, albeit with the loss in quality that entails, and that's more you can set with the Panasonic Lumix FS18 / FH5.

Canyon PowerShot A3300 IS sample video 1: outdoors, sunny, handheld panning with digital zoom

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Whole HD video quality from the PowerShot A3300 IS is good and handheld stabilisation is a plus, but the member zoom is no ersatz for optical zooming.

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS sample video 2: outdoors, sunny, tripod panning with digital zoom

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In this tripod-decorated panning shot, the PowerShot A3300 IS runs into trouble when pointed directly into the sun as is the case with all bundle off that use CCD sensors.

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS try out video 3: indoors, low-light, handheld panning

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The PowerShot A3300 IS finished-compensates a little for the alfresco light in this interior low-light panning shot.

Canon PowerShot A3300 IS Continuous shooting and sensing element

The PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS has a quoted around-the-clock shooting speed of 0.8 frames per second. In our tests it performed marginally slower at 0.7fps, but at speeds slower than a cast a seconds that margin is pretty irrelevant. It was at the least rational and will germinate continuously at that rank until the card fills up. Continuous shooting is uncomparable area in which the Panasonic Lumix FS18 / FH5 has the edge over the PowerShot A3300 IS / A3200 IS. The FS18 / FH5 Squealing speed burst mode claims 6fps, albeit at reduced resolutions. Though in our tests information technology failed to hand over the quoted speeds it nonetheless has a good deal more to offer than the A3300 IS.

The sensor result is the second difference 'tween the PowerShot A3300 IS and A3200 IS, at 16 and 14 Megapixels respectively. Files are saved as JPEGs using one of deuce condensation settings, Fine and Normal. Uttermost resolution Pulverised image file sizes are around 3.5MB. Shutter speeds range from 15 to 1/1600 (1 to 1/1600 in Program style) and the ISO sensitivity vagabon runs from 80 to 1600 ISO with a Low light vista mode extending the range from 1600 to 6400 ISO at lower resolutions.

To assure how the quality of the Canyon PowerShot A3300 IS and A3200 IS measure-up in practice, get a load at our real-life resolution and soaring ISO randomness results pages, browse the sample images veranda, or skip to the chamfer and head straight for our verdict.