Canon PowerShot A540 6MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

This was purchased to replace our stolen A520. I shoot thousands of photos per month with a Canon DSLR system, and have used other super-compact Canon and Sony digital cameras for their small size, but the sweet spot in value and performance is the Canon A5xx series, even over the A6xx series. The A6xx series (or possibly the S2 or S3) would be my recommendation for someone who wants more manual controls and is not also carrying around a DLSR (like the Rebel or 20D/30D) and knows how to shoot more creatively. But for 90% of our needs, the A5xx series is ideal for 1) its outstanding performance in Auto mode -- rarely need any post editing, 2) its compact size but large LCD display that works fairly well in daylight, 3) good performance on two AA batteries, making it ideal for traveling overseas without needing proprietary battery chargers --- does particularly well with AA Lithium batteries, 4) SD cards in 1GB-2GB are fairly inexpensive now and you get enough storage to capture an entire vacation's worth of photos on one card, 5) flash works very well indoors to 15-20 feet for normal snapshots of groups without a lot of noise (smaller cameras like the Powershot 700 or other Casio/Sony super compacts tend to have weak flash that gets noisy photos when shooting beyond 10'.Additionally, the 4x zoom is nice and can give decent 'portrait shots' with background softening, macro is decent enought for most needs, and it has easy to learn controls.One downside over the older versions: the batteries share same compartment with SD card, so it's easy to forget, when getting the SD card out, that you can also drop the batteries which isn't good, especially for NIMH, if dropped onto pavement.I've probably sold 7 of these via recommendations in the past 6 months and every single person has called to thank me. They are thrilled with the images and ease of use and the price point. One person went with the A620 on sale, and it, too, has been a good camera thus far, although it has smaller LCD -- though it flips out, and has some nice features if it's your only camera and you want to be more creative in your photography. (I would probably skip the A6xx series though, and move to the S2/S3 Canon if I wanted more pro-features in a less expensive, less complicated camera and it's not all that much bigger than the A6xx series.)

It sounds like most people on here like their Canon A540s. I wish I did too, but I had to return it. I'm no photographer, but I can follow directions, point-and-shoot, and use the automatic functions. But this camera took poor photos--flash photos had no depth or contrast, and the appearance was grainy and washed out at all resolutions except the highest. And I had to replace the batteries after each 35-40 photos. A photographer friend looked at the photos I'd taken, and said "Your camera should be taking better photos than this." There was no way to take photos without using the flash. Without flash, the photos came out blurry, even in bright light. I might have been able to take better photos were I to learn what combos of f-stops and apertures would be best, but I needed good photos quickly. An old Sony Mavica I used, at 2MP, took better photos than this A540 did. I suspect there might be some quality issues that compromised a small percentage of these cameras, because so many people (and Consumer Reports) are overall satisfied with this model--I wish I were among them; yet, a small number of people on here are having the same problems that I did with their A540 camera. If you don't seem to be getting good photos out of your camera, or you are having battery-life issues, I wouldn't waste any time returning it.

My three year old digital (2 MP) camera's battery door broke (pretty cheap plastic) and the search was on for a more modern camera. My daughter recently got a very small slim Canon and I was impressed with the features and quality. However I wanted a camera that could use AA batteries and small size was not a top priority. I also wanted a good size LCD display and an optical viewfinder (yes, I know I'm old fashioned). This Powershot A540 seemed to have all the features I wanted. I have had it for a few weeks and have taken it on a trip where it worked flawlessly. The image quality has been very good. The movie feature is nice as long as you don't use the zoom. I recommend getting a 1GB SD card right away. The 16 MB one that comes with the camera is a joke.One of the most pleasing discoveries was that regular AA batteries lasted quite a long time. I typically don't use the LCD screen when I'm taking pictures so I'm sure that helps. I recommend taking the time to read the very detailed and complete manual as this little gem has a huge amount of features and capabilities to please any amateur/family photographer.Last but not least, Amazon offers this camera at a very attractive price not found on the street.Based on the pictures I've taken, I'd say that the quality is very good. Outside pictures are outstanding, and colors well balanced (you can always touch that up in Picasa or other).If you're looking for a versatile, low priced digital camera this one fits the bill.

Camera came in good quality + looks cute. I didn’t gaf about picture quality when I bought it + looks about what I wanted. DID NOT COME WITH A MEMORY CARD!!! did come with two rechargeable batteries though so thats a win? included photos of the zoom and not zoomed?? colors look fire, autofocus works too. overall good $100 well spent.MAKE SURE YPU GET A 2GB MEMORY CARD 💔💔💔