Canon PowerShot A2100 IS Review

March 11, 2009 | Mark Goldstein | Rating star Rating star Rating star Rating star

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

The Canon PowerShot A2100 IS produced images of good quality during the review period. The A2100 IS dealt extremely well with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The pop-up flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate exposure. The night photograph was good, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds allowing you to capture enough light in most situations. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. Macro performance is amazing, allowing you to focus as close as 1 cm away from the subject (although it's difficult to get the lighting correct at such a close distance). The images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting if you don't like the default results. Noise is the biggest problem for the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS. The 12 megapixel sensor produces noise-free images at ISO 80 and 100, but some limited noise is already starting to appear at ISO 200. ISO 400 exhibits quite visible noise and loss of fine detail, and ISO 800 and 1600 are even noisier.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon Powershot A2100 IS. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:

ISO 80 (100% Crop)

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

   

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the My Colors menu option.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

   

Chromatic Aberrations

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot

100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Canon Powershot A2100 IS are Auto, Flash On, Slow Synchro, and Flash Off, with Red-eye Correction and Red-Eye Lamp settings available via the Flash Settings main menu option. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (36mm)

Auto Flash - Wide Angle (36mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64
   

Flash Off - Telephoto (216mm)

Auto Flash - Telephoto (216mm)

ISO 64 ISO 64

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On setting or the Red-Eye Correction option caused any red-eye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)
   

Red-eye Correction

Red-eye Correction (100% Crop)

Night Shot

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds in the Long Shutter mode, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 10 seconds at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 10 second setting the actual exposure takes 20 seconds.

Night Shot

Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length

Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)

Anti Shake On (100% Crop)

1/15th / 36mm
1/5th / 216mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

This is a sample movie at the quality setting of 640x480 at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 17 second movie is 30.9Mb in size.

Product Images

Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Front of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Isometric View

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Isometric View

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Rear of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Rear of the Camera / Function Menu

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

 

Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Top of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Bottom of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Side of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Side of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Front of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Front of the Camera

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Memory Card Slot

 
Canon Powershot A2100 IS

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Canon Powershot A2100 IS builds on the key strengths of the previous A2000 model by adding even more beginner-friendly features. The A2100 is a fairly compact camera that produces excellent images in good light, covers a large focal range thanks to the 6x zoom lens, and has a massive 3 inch LCD screen on the back that can be easily viewed from a wide angle. The wealth of different scene modes on offer are now accompanied by the ultimate point-and-shoot Smart Auto and Easy modes, which really do take the guesswork out of using the A2100 and make it suitable for all the family. Other beginner-friendly features include Face Select & Track, which is a great way of focusing on who really matters in your photos, and FaceSelf-Timer which easily allows you to take part in those all-important family group shots.

The move to more megapixels - up to 12.1 from the A2000's 10 - thankfully hasn't come at the cost of image quality, although the A2100 still suffers from less than stellar images in low-light due to obvious noise appearing at ISO 400 and faster. Other key disappointments include the continued lack of any hand-grip which makes it difficult to hold, and an even slower continuous shooting speed of 1.1fps - thankfully the annoyingly slow flash-recycle time of the A2000 has been slightly improved on this model. Disappointingly for UK buyers, the launch price has shot up from £199 to £249, although to be fair to Canon comparable price rises are happening across the industry as Sterling struggles against the Yen.

Overall the Canon Powershot A2100 IS adds a number of improvements to an already solid and easy-to-use design, making it even more ideally suited to its family target audience.

4 stars

Ratings (out of 5)
Design 4
Features 4
Ease-of-use 4.5
Image quality 4
Value for money 3.5

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS from around the web.

techradar.com »

The similarities between the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS and the Canon PowerShot A2100 IS far outweigh the differences. Both cameras feature a DIGIC4 processor, motion detection and, an almost identical set of controls and the layout of buttons, switches and dials is basically the same. There's almost nothing to choose between image quality either, both cameras delivering crisp, sharp and very naturally coloured pictures. However, considering the relatively minor increase in street price, there are a couple of things that make the A2100 IS more appealing.
Read the full review »

Specifications

IMAGE SENSOR
Type 1/2.3” CCD
Effective Pixels Approx 12.1M
Colour Filter Type Primary Colour
IMAGE PROCESSOR
Type DIGIC 4 with iSAPS technology
LENS
Focal Length 6.4 – 38.4 mm (35mm equivalent: 36 – 216mm)
Zoom Optical 6x. Digital approx. 4x ² (with Digital Tele-Converter approx. 1.5x or 2.0x and Safety Zoom ¹)². Combined approx. 24x
Maximum f/number f/3.2 – f/5.9
Construction 9 elements in 7 groups (including 1 double-sided aspherical element)
Image Stabilisation Yes (shift-type)
FOCUSING
Type TTL
AF System/ Points AiAF (Face Detection / 9-point), 1-point AF (fixed to centre or Face Select and Track)
AF Modes Single, Continuous¹
AF Point Selection Size (Normal, Small)
AF Lock On/Off Selectable
AF Assist Beam Yes
Closest Focusing Distance 1cm (W) from front of lens in macro
EXPOSURE CONTROL
Metering modes Evaluative (linked to Face Detection AF frame), Centre-weighted average, Spot (centre)
AE Lock Locked when shutter button is pressed half way
Exposure Compensation +/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments.
i-Contrast for automatic dynamic range correction
ISO sensitivity* AUTO , 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
SHUTTER
Speed 1/60 - 1/1600 sec (factory default)
15 - 1/1600 sec (total range - varies by shooting mode)
WHITE BALANCE
Type TTL
Settings Auto (including Face Detection WB), Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom
LCD MONITOR
Monitor 3.0” TFT, approx. 230,000 dots
Coverage 100%
Brightness Adjustable to one of five levels
FLASH
Modes Auto, Manual Flash On / Off
Slow Sync Speed Yes
Red-Eye Reduction Yes
Flash Exposure Compensation Face Detection FE
Flash Exposure Lock Yes
Built-in Flash Range 30cm-3.5m (W) / 2.0m (T)
External Flash Canon High Power Flash HF-DC1
SHOOTING
Modes Auto*, P, Easy*, Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Movie, Special Scene (Night Scene, Sunset, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Long Shutter, Aquarium, ISO 3200¹).
*with Scene Detection Technology and Motion Detection Technology
Photo Effects My Colors (My Colors Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Custom Color (limited))
Drive modes Single, Continuous, Self-Timer, FaceSelf-Timer
Continuous Shooting Approx. 1.1 shots/sec.¹ (until memory card becomes full)²
RECORDING PIXELS / COMPRESSION
Image Size (L) 4000 x 3000, (M1) 3264 x 2448, (M2) 2592 x 1944, (M3) 1600 x 1200, (S) 640 x 480, (W) 4000 x 2248. Resize in playback (M3, S, 320 x 240)
Compression Fine, Normal
Movies (L)640 x 480, 30fps/30fps(LP)
(M)320 x 240, 30fps
Movie Length Up to 4GB or 1 hour (L and M) ¹
FILE TYPES
Still Image Type JPEG compression, (Exif 2.2 [Exif Print] compliant) / Design rule for Camera File system, Digital Print Order Format [DPOF] Version 1.1 compliant
Movies AVI [Motion JPEG compression + WAVE (monaural)]
Sound Files WAVE (monaural)
DIRECT PRINT
Canon Printers Canon SELPHY Compact Photo Printers and Canon Inkjet Printers supporting PictBridge (ID Photo Print, Fixed Size Print and Movie Print supported on SELPHY CP & ES printers only)
PictBridge Yes
OTHER FEATURES
Red-Eye Correction Yes, during shooting and playback
My Category Image tagging feature
Intelligent Orientation Sensor Yes
Histogram Yes
Playback Zoom Approx. 2x – 10x
Self Timer Approx. 2 or 10 sec. or Custom
Menu Languages English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Chinese (traditional), Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, Ukrainian, Romanian, Farsi
INTERFACE
Computer Hi-Speed USB (MTP, PTP) dedicated connector (Mini-B compatible)
Other A/V output, dedicated connector (PAL/NTSC)
MEMORY CARD
Type SD, SDHC, MMC, MMCplus, HC MMCplus. 128MB memory card supplied
SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEM
PC & Macintosh Windows XP SP2-3 / Vista (including SP1)
Mac OS X v10.4 - 10.5
SOFTWARE
Browsing & Printing ZoomBrowser EX / ImageBrowser
Other PhotoStitch
POWER SOURCE
Batteries 2x Size-AA Alkaline or NiMH Batteries(NB4-300) (Alkalines supplied)
Battery life Approx. 160 shots ¹ (with supplied batteries)
Approx. 400 shots (with optional Canon NB-3AH batteries) ¹
Approx. 540 min. playback (with supplied batteries)
Approx. 660 min. playback (with Canon NB-3AH batteries)
A/C Power Supply Optional, AC Adapter Kit ACK800
ACCESSORIES
Cases / Straps Soft Case DCC-85
Flash High Power Flash HF-DC1
Power Supply & Battery Chargers Battery Charger Kit CBK4-300, Ni-MH Batteries NB4-300, AC adapter kit ACK800
PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Operating Environment 0 – 40 °C ¹, 10 – 90% humidity
Dimensions (WxHxD, excl. protrusions) 101.9 x 63.5 x 31.9 mm
Weight (body only) Approx. 185g
   
Zoom ¹ Depending on the image size selected.
² Digital zoom available for still image and standard movie modes only. Optical zoom may not be available during movie recording.
AF Modes ¹ Some settings limit availability
Modes ¹ Recording pixels fixed at 1600 x 1200.
Continuous Shooting ¹ Under conditions where the flash does not fire.
² Depending on memory card speed / capacity / compression setting.
Movie Length ¹ Depending on memory card speed / capacity / compression setting.
Battery life ¹ Using the batteries and memory card format supplied with the camera (where included), except where indicated.
Operating Environment ¹ 0 – 35 °C when NB-3AH is used
 
* Standard Output Sensitivity / Recommended Exposure Index.
According to ISO 12232:2006 (20th April 2006) which specifies the method for assigning and reporting ISO speed ratings for digital still cameras.
All data is based on Canon standard testing methods (according to CIPA Standards) except where indicated.
 

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