Canon PowerShot A20000 IS Camera Review

This is a review of the Canon PowerShot A20000 IS in comparison with the older model Canon PowerShot A610. Discussed will be the differences in features between the two cameras and a technical explanation to work around connection problems to an older computer. The Canon PowerShot A series is the simplest camera to use but also has some features that more expensive high-end cameras have.

I have had Canon digital cameras before as written in my article, Canon PowerShot A610 vs A75. Canon digital cameras are so much fun because able to do so much more than simply point and shoot. I loved my older Canon PowerShots and would have never bought another one except that I ruined my A6120 with salt water damage. I highly recommend that if you plan to go to the shore break and take pictures of the ocean waves to invest in a high-end waterproof camera case. There is no Canon brand waterproof housing for the PowerShot A20000 but other manufacturers do make them for the A2000. Do not buy the cheap $30 generic bag housing, the lens fogs up and unable to push the buttons through the thick plastic. The low-end $30 generic bag housing ruined my A610 because it interfered with the lens movement.

The huge display screen of the PowerShot A20000 is almost twice as big as the A610. Unfortunately, the larger display screen is not flippable. Having a display that flips out at all angles makes taking pictures from unusual angles much easier. The metal tripod mount is an improvement over the A610 plastic tripod mount. The PowerShot A20000 is much lighter with only two 'AA' batteries instead of four. The A20000, cannot put a telephoto lens on it with an adopter like the A610 or A75.

I was anxious not to find the manual button on the mode selector. How am I going to be able to take 15 second exposure shots where I am able to choose f-stops and shutter speed? To take long 15 second exposure shots on the Canon PowerShot A20000 need to select 'Long Shutter mode'. To do this as described in the camera's manual on page 88, first select P on the mode dial and then press the FUNC/SET button. Select ±0 and then press DISP button. To change the shutter speed use the left/right arrow buttons to the change the shutter speed and press FUNC/SET button again. Not only does it seem more complicated, what is worse is there are only 1 second increments on the A2000, The old A610 had finer graduations of exposure times.

On the A20000, whenever there is low light and the flash is turned off, the orange light blinks, telling you to use either a tripod or flash. The image stabilization and has three modes, continuous, shoot only and panning. Canon recommends you shut off the IS mode whenever you mount the camera on a tripod or film speed ISO 3200.

The big improvement of the PowerShot A20000 over the A610 is the IS0 3200 film speed which enables to shoot pictures at night without flash or blur. Select the mode dial to SCN and press the FUNC/SET button choose and use the left/right arrows to ISO3200. It is hard to find because must arrow over past 'night scene' in order for ISO3200 to be displayed. At this ultra high speed, the image is recorded in size M3, 1600 x1200 size only. A tripod is not needed at this high sensitivity.

Zoom on the Canon PowerShot A20000 IS is different because it does not allow you to go to maximum digital zoom all in one action unless your recording pixels is set to S, 640 x 480 pixels. If recording still images at 640 x 480 then there is no image deterioration all the way up to 24x zoom. Safety zoom stops at the point of image deterioration, then must release and re-push again to zoom all the way to maximum zoom in larger pixel sizes.

The biggest improvement is the face detect as explained on page 80 of the user's manual, "A white frame appears on the face the cameras judges to be the main subject, and gray frames (max 2) will appear on the other faces." While in Face Detect mode, and pressing the shutter half way, the manual on page 82 states, "The face that the camera determined as the main subject is displayed enlarged." This magnification allows the ability to see people's faces more clearer.

The one thing lacking in the new Canon PowerShot A20000 IS is there is no in-camera video editing as in the older A610 was capable of. It is disappointing that the A20000 has no in-camera movie editing capability.

The last thing is hooking the Canon PowerShot A20000 to your computer which needs Windows XP SP2 or above because there are no drivers for this camera, it transfers information through USB Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP), Windows Image Acquisition, a security issue for Windows XP because it runs as a LocalSystem. In Vista, PTP operates in the LocalService that closes this security loophole.

The work around for older systems such as Windows 2000 is simply to get a USB card reader. Instead of directly connecting the camera to your computer, take the memory card out and insert into a plug and play USB card reader. Card readers can be had for less than a dollar online where the shipping costs are more than the product.

In-camera red-eye correction photo editing can be done on the Canon PowerShot A20000 IS. It would be much easier to edit on the computer with Paint Shop Pro for photo editing. To edit videos, I recommend Video Edit Magic as described in "Video Editing How to Tutorial", a simple full featured video editor.

The Digital Camera solution disk for the Canon PowerShot A20000 will not install on a Windows 2000 which contains Zoom Browser and Photo Stitch for panoramic photography.