first impressions of my A700

[BillTchr]

Just bought an A700 to replace my A70. Have done very little besides try it out in the living room and go through the settings, but here are some early impressions:

Nice size and weight...very similar to the A70, though definitely lighter. Huge screen compared to the A70! Haven't used it outdoors or in strong light yet, so cannot speak to how that works. Viewfinder feels smaller, but that may be due to the comparitive dark room from outdoors? It is about comparable in accuracy...ie. frame your shot then zoom in slightly!

The ISO 800 is very noisy in low light, but the other ISO settings (even 400) do quite alright. Again, this is a quick impression, taking pictures without flash across a living room lit by a floor lamp.

Flash recharge time is not as fast as the A70, especially fully zoomed in (is that because the flash has fired stronger, and thus takes more to recharge?). However, if the screen is turned off, it recharges very quickly...maybe 2 or 3 seconds, even when fully zoomed in.

All in all it seems a very nice little camera, exactly fitting the target market...me, for one--I was waiting for a DIGIC II 2-AA camera before replacing the A70, and the A700 was just the ticket.

Can't do a whole lot of sample picture taking until the bigger SD cards I ordered from Amazon arrive Wednesday (c'mon Canon...16MB? Hardly worth it!), but if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

Bill:)

[lexstar]

Would the flash recycle time on an A700 be the same as one on the A540?

can you do some night tests on see how long it takes to recharge with lcd on and redeye option on.

Also since it has the same lens as the A540, looking at its night shot ability taking, could you post some night shot pics. like showing its potential

im looking at getting the A540 but just a bit worried about the above to things

cheers

[BowerR64]

I it that it takes longer to charge or its calculating other tasks? maybe its re focusing or compressing the last image? I dont understand why canon is using 16 meg cards because the A85 came with a 32 meg card. I would think as the MPs increase so should the size of the SD card. The camera should take about 30 pictures at the max resolution with the stock memory IMO. I mean they compair everything on digital cameras to 35mm film cameras and usualy film cameras shot about 20-30 pictures per roll right?

THere are settings in the menu that you can turn off so that it processes faster. One is the review time, you can turn the AIAF off ofcorse the LCD, red eye and put it in manual focus infinity.

I wonder if you use a higher ISO and turn the flash intensity down a flew click if it would need as much time to charge?

I know with my S2 if i set the camera to small picture size (640X480) it takes pictures hella fast. It has this little red light on the back near the LCD and it blinks when its writing to the memory card. WHen i take a shot in the large quality size it lights up for a while, at the small 640X480 it just blinks for a split second.

[bascom]

To me it seems like the big LCD's on the A540/A700 leave little room for gripping it. The LCD is too big or camera is too small, depending on how you look at it.

[dharper]

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To me it seems like the big LCD's on the A540/A700 leave little room for gripping it. The LCD is too big or camera is too small, depending on how you look at it.
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I just acquired the A540. I am a big guy with big hands and have had no problem gripping the camera and viewing the big screen. With two hands, I grip the camera from the sides with my fingers on the top and thumbs on the bottom, leaving the entire back of the camera completely exposed. If I hold the camera with just my right hand, my middle finger is on the shutter release button and my thumb is on the bottom of the camera, again leaving the entire back of the camera completely exposed.

[BowerR64]

Thats one thing i liked about the older A series cameras that used 4AA batteries. They have that big grip where the batteries are and you use your thumb in the back to flip threw the options and stabalize it. There is a little grip on the back thats where i rest my thumb.

When i used the A520 it just seem it had a sharper LCD then my S2 has for manual focus.