The ultimate portable camera
Written: Jul 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Size, Features, MRC, APS, etc...
Cons: more zoom!
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| Skyleth's Full Review: Canon Elph2 APS Film Camera |
I've had my share of cameras; 3 bad experiences and one good great camera. Amazingly enough my one good one is about 15 years old! I can't really complain about the other three, because I really got what I paid for, they were your regular automatic run of the mill 35mm automatics. But when I decided to get a new camera, I sat my self down and shopped like I would for a computer. Picked one that I liked the best and then looked at it's competitors.
Why I picked it
First, I wanted an APS camera, it's just so easy to load (I screw up all the time with my favorite 15yr old Canon manual camera) and I'm a fan of the fact that you can take panoramic (mind you that it's not TRUE panoramic) and the Group Shots (strangely enough they call it HDTV). Secondly I wanted something small, I like my technology small, powerful, and portable.
So the first place I looked was at the Cannon ELPH, the best known small portable cameras, then while I was looking at the ELPHs I saw the ELPH LT, ELPH JR, and the ELPH2, and also that Kodak and Olympus make something similar.
When you compare the Cannon ELPH 2 to other ELPHs or other cameras similar Kodak (some model number too cryptic to remember) and Olympus (also some model number too cryptic to remember) you'll notice right off that the ELPH 2 has an all-metal case. This is good, because this means no cheap plastic to crack and break on you. When you pick it up, you will find that it is well weighted and feels even sturdier than it looks.
A very small detail that you will notice if you compare how to load the film on the ELPH 2 to other small cameras is that the ELPH 2 has an incredibly sturdy door. The film is really in there! It takes a good second or two of holding the release trigger for the camera to prepare the film for it's re-entry into the real world. This is good because on all other tiny APS cameras, all it is is this dinky plastic cover that seems as if it'll pop off if you drop the camera or hit it the wrong way.
Also, w/ the exception of the all weather olympus competitor, the ELPH 2 is the only small APS camera that has any type of zoom. It has a 2x zoom (35mm to 70mm) which is really nice for framing of your picture.
And one definite benefit is the Mid Roll Change. This I know is not available in any of the other cameras of the same size (or at least I wasn't able to a. activate it, and b. even find a mention of it in the manual) what the Mid Roll Change (MRC) allows you to do is as you are in the middle of a roll you can wind it back up, pop the film out, drop in another film, use that other one until you feel that you're done, drop the first cartridge back in, and it'll automatically wind itself back to where you left off... catch all of that?
Another great feature is that straight from the camera you can choose how many prints of each picture you want (up to 9) so if you are taking a group shot of you and your friends in Paris you can automatically set it to print 4 copies (one for you, your friend, and those 2 french girls you picked up) ALSO (yes! there's more!) you have convenient time/date stamping as well as some pre-set messages, like CONGRATULATIONS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! etc...
This ELPH also comes with other features that are expected in any expensive automatic camera. Flash, timer, slow shutter, red eye reduction, no flash. Amazingly enough, on my trip to Spain, my camera was the only camera that the "TURN FLASH OFF" feature actually worked! You can imagine how mad the museum security got at my friends for popping the flash then trying to hide the camera. As if security won't notice the large group of kids smiling with scared looks on their faces and trying to hide a camera the size of a 17" CRT in the palm of their hand. Score one for my camera!
Functionality
The ease of use of this camera is amazing. It's completely intuitive. All buttons are clearly labeled, and everything is in a convenient position, so almost nothing is a pain to do. The Panoramic and GroupShot modes of the APS format is great, I was able to take stunning photographs of the beaches, mountains, ocean, and my goofy American tourist group! "
"MIRA! TOURISTAS!" Now I said earlier that it wasn't true Panoramic. Well this is just how APS works. Whenever you take a picture no matter what it's being exposed onto the film as the GroupShot size. Now, when you selected Classic, "HDTV", or panoramic it digitally encodes a little "message" on the film telling the printer what size to print it at. So if I reprinted my ocean view in a GroupShot size, I'll see the same amount of picture horizontally. (understand? It's kind of hard to get, but once you get the index print back you'll see what I mean) What's also nice is that the ViewFinder is not so far away from the actual lens that when you get your pictures back they actually look like what you want. And for those close up conditions, where unless you're using a reflex camera What You See is NOT What You Get the view finder has some markings set to help you aim correctly.
Last Thoughts
Overall, this is a great camera, easy to use, full of features that aren't available in it's competitors. And it's a SOLID piece of equipment! The days of cheap flimsy stuff is over! Also, don't worry about buying APS, it's all over Europe and Asia, they refer to it as IX200, so if you are abroad look for the IX200 film and you're all set. Actually the ELPH2 has a second name if you check out the non-English portion of the manual it's called the IXUS II. This thing is so small, while I was in Spain (I love the country, this was my one bad experience!) I almost had a pickpocket steal it out of my pocket. But the ever so slick world traveler yours truly was able to get it back and prevent certain ruining of my trip :) I was able to last 2 trips to Europe, one trip to California and numerous picture-taking moments at home (this was all over... 4 months) before I had to change the battery. The darn things cost an arm and a leg; it's a CR2 battery FYI. Sorry for all the line breaks in the "Why I Picked It" section, that section was just too long for it's own good.
Alternative to the ELPH2: If you don't want to spend so much on a good APS small camera, get the Olympus version, it's called the i2000 or something (these long number letter cryptic combinations for model numbers are annoying!)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Skyleth
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Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Technology developer at a small dot com.
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