English manual please !!

[springheal]

Last week, I purchased a Canon A540 camera in Beijing and although I have read some negative threads, I am very happy with it to date. BUT, I do not read Chinese !! Help, I need to obtain an English manual or perhaps something on line. Any advise and help will be much appreciated, thank you.

Phil

[Mr. Bone88]

Hi Phil,

Here's a link to download the basic and advanced user guide for your camera. After you click on this link click on "Product / Software Manuals" and scroll down to the download links. :)

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=DownloadDetailAct&fcategoryid=320&modelid=12942

Hope this helps you.

Take care,
-Mr. Bone88

[springheal]

Wow, I am impressed. Thank you very much for the valuable advise. I had a quick look and I could not ask for better. A huge " THANK YOU "

Phil:) :D

[Mr. Bone88]

Hi Phil,

You're very welcome and I'm glad I was able to help you. :) Enjoy your camera and happy shooting!

Take care,
-Mr. Bone88

[BowerR64]

The A540 isnt a bad camera, the big screen looks nice but its only a 85,000 pixel LCD so the size is kinda deceptive.

Everything else on the camera is pretty good though, i like the lens. It actualy gets pretty close in macro mode, i was kinda shocked how close i could get with it and still get it to auto focus.

I found this cheap 37mm 2X sunpack telephoto lens on e-bay for it that works good on this camera and its really small. Increased the zoom to 8X :D

[springheal]

For me to change from a 1.5 LCD to a 2.5 LCD, was a welcome upgrade in size for me as my sight is not as good as it used to be.
I did try macro on automatic and like yourself, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Thanks for info regarding tele photo lens.
The negative reports I have read are mainly with regard to the shutter seizing which at times is cured with a gentle blow with compressed air. Another is the slow recovery after using flash, but I found it to be reasonable compared to some claims of 20 to 30 seconds to recover !!!
Overall, I find this camera to be excellent especially in this price range.

Thanks BowerR64 and Mr. Bone88, I have much reading to do especially with the advanced manual.

[BowerR64]

Yeah it is kinda whacky at times with its refresh times. If you turn the flash off however it is alot faster. For some reason the screen goes blank and the LEDs blink while its refreshing wich is a dumb thing to do IMO.

Why not show a review of the last shot while its charging? The fact that it just goes blank is a stupid thing.

[springheal]

I am only a novice camera user, hower, I believe the refresh rate would be even longer if the LCD was showing the last image. Hence the reason the screen is blank, to conserve energy and not to make the refresh rate even slower. Would you agree as that is a logical reason from my point of view ? The LCD is the biggest drain on the batteries and too much to expect recharging while showing an image at the same time.

[springheal]

The A540 isnt a bad camera, the big screen looks nice but its only a 85,000 pixel LCD so the size is kinda deceptive.

Everything else on the camera is pretty good though, i like the lens. It actualy gets pretty close in macro mode, i was kinda shocked how close i could get with it and still get it to auto focus.

I found this cheap 37mm 2X sunpack telephoto lens on e-bay for it that works good on this camera and its really small. Increased the zoom to 8X :D

I did search ebay as you suggested for the " 37mm 2X sunpack telephoto lens " however I could not find the exact description. I did find a store ( 24-7 Electronics ) that has the 37mm lens suitable for canon at $15usd. They told me they did not have the lens suitable for A540 camera and that I would also need an adapter. Is this correct? If you have been able to obtain the lens to increase your optical lens, please can you give me more details as to where and how you purchased this for your A540, thanks.
Phil