Canon A95. Is it the best in its price rang?

[fdnywangroup]

From all the reviews I've read it seems that the Canon A95 is a very good camera. Is this the best camera in its price range (around $310)?
Can anybody recommend a battery charger that gives full charges and doesn’t heat up the batteries during the charge?

Thank You

[Newbie]

The A95 is not best in its price range for the simple reason that it is not a perfect camera and will not suit everyone's needs. It sure is one of the best, but where it lacks, other cameras win, and where its best, other cameras don't compare, so its really a matter of suiting your needs.

As for the charger, well, all NiMH battery chargers heat the batteries a bit, if they wouldn't it would be bad for them. Some good chargers are the Maha C204W and the C401FS; as well as the Lightning Pack 4000N. Personally I own the C204W and am extremly pleased with it.

[fdnywangroup]

Thanks newbie,
I realy don't know how to take pictures. I would be taking pictures of my kids , family and vacation etc.. What I would like in a camera is nice clear pictures and ease of use. I might in the future start playing with the manual options.

[Newbie]

If you do not plan to use the manual controls, most of the assets of the A95 go away. If your kids are young and you need a responsive camera, then perhaps the W1 would be a best bet. It offers a little less manual controls, no white balance(which is IMHO the biggest flaw), but is faster to focus and focuses better in dim light, it has a better movie mode. It costs about the same as the A95, but the memory sticks cost more than the Compact Flash cards(for the A95), but then again, it comes with a charger and 2 NiMH batteries, so you may only need to buy 1 set of rechargeable batteries, so it compensates for the cost of memory(for the begining).

Besides that, there could also be some Panasonic cameras or Nikon... maybe even some Casios(never checked them but apparently they can be good).

[A95_sucka]

Using the A95 in Auto mode is OK if one wants to shoot without much thought but, personally, I hate it. I've found the real joy of this camera is using the manual controls - it's why I bought an A95 in the first place