Newly
released, the Canon PowerShot A20 is a 2.1 megapixel, 3X zoom compact
camera. Its body is made of plastic, grey in back and silver in front
with a dusty-rose coloured grip. The A20 fits comfortably in the palm
of the hand and has a substantial feel.
The two-tiered metallic finish lens barrel extends when the camera is
turned on, and the front element is protected by an automatic barrier
when the lens is retracted.
Only the shutter release resides on top of the camera; all the other controls
are fitted on the back of the A20. The upper right supports a zoom control
that also serves to magnify photos in Playback, or present thumbnails
of the images. A Mode Dial sits below, providing access to the four basic
modes of the A20:
Full
Auto mode.
Manual
mode.
Stitch
Assist mode.
Playback
mode.
From right
to left, the first button, On/Off, turns the camera on after being
pressed for a couple of seconds. Next is the Menu button which
allows further settings. Centred on the screen are two arrow buttons
used to navigate the menus and change the image displayed on Playback.
In the recording mode the arrows operate to select Macro or Landscape,
and Burst mode or Self timer. Last, the Flash button not only permits
the selection of the various flash modes, but also serves to confirm [SET]
a choice made in the menu.
The right side of the
screen provides 2 more buttons. The Display button turns on or
off the LCD screen, but also temporarily displays the current camera settings
on a black background when used to turn off the screen.
The button below [±/WB] is used to adjust exposure
compensation and white
balance. One first push calls up the exposure compensation scale which
is shown at the bottom of the screen. A second push calls the white balance
selection. In both cases the camera needs to be set to Manual mode
and the arrows below the screen are used to make the selection.
The A20 is intended
for a basically simple operation but does offer some photographic controls
to the user when used in Manual mode. The camera is reasonably compact,
without going to the extremely small size of the S110, and very easy to
handle.
