Canon PowerShot A2000

The PowerShot A2000 is more of a beginner’s camera than some of its predecessors. It lacks the manual shooting modes many PowerShot units are known for, but it still offers solid image quality and a decent array of features. It's a fairly attractive entry-level product.

Sporting a 10-megapixel sensor and a 6x optical zoom lens, the A2000 competes nicely with other similarly priced units. We found its pictures to be fairly impressive and they should be more than adequate for novice users.

The low levels of chromatic aberration were particularly impressive. There was some minor haloing on highlights but purple fringing was kept to a minimum outdoors and there was little in the way of softening towards the edges of the frame.

By default pictures were perhaps a touch soft but they’re still fine for most magnifications and there wasn’t much in the way of over-sharpening to be found. The pictures were still better than those produced by many other 10-megapixel models.

Colour balance was excellent as usual, with a tendency to strong saturation but nothing too over the top. Blues were almost spot-on, but reds and yellows were extremely bright and vivid.

The one area this unit struggled was when it came to image noise. It was well controlled at ISO 80 and 100 but even ISO 200 began to show signs of speckling. By ISO 400 it was a little more prominent, and beyond this setting things got a little out of control. This means the A2000 might not be suitable if you do a lot of night photography. The camera does have optical image stabilisation which is quite effective at minimising the effect of hand-shake.

In terms of speed the A2000 is a good performer. It started in 1.9 seconds, which is extremely speedy. Likewise the shot-to-shot time was impressive at 1.8 seconds and the shutter lag was a solid 0.09 seconds. The burst mode was decent, too, capturing two frames per second.

Aside from not having the manual features of some of its more advanced brothers, the A2000 has a pretty solid feature set. Manual and preset white balance modes are on offer, along with face detection and red-eye correction. Image stabilisation means you can shoot pictures while using the 6x zoom lens by hand and not worry too much about blurring.

The standout feature of the unit’s design is its large 3in screen, which will be a big selling point for some users. The overall design has changed quite a bit from past models. The boxy build with a jutting right hand grip has been replaced by a smoother, wedge shaped design. It is definitely more attractive this way but still doesn’t compete in fashion terms with some of the stylish new IXUS units.