A70 Owners: How many have problems?

[soupnazi]

I've seen all the reviews and the A70 is highly rated. I'm thinking of getting one, but I've read about some problems concerning this camera. (E18 error, horizontal lines on LCD & pictures)

I know it doesn't seem logical to ask how many have had problems on a help forum, but I just want to have an idea of how many A70's are and aren't defective.

Please list your problems/no-problems and how long you've owned the camera. Thanks!

[superman1496]

No problems other than the red eye issue. Its significantly worse than I would have imagined.

I know there are much more higher end camera, and I know that the closer the flash is to the lense the more red eye you will have (didnt know this until after I bought the camera). But I never would have thought that in a $300 camera the red eye would be so bad.

Tonight I bought a slave flash and a mounting bracket and will be doing some test shots to get a comparision with it. So far, after buying the flash and bracket, Ive taken about 50 shots, not for comparison, just regular stuff (kids) and out of those 50 I see only about 2 with any redeye at all, which is a pretty remarkable improvement over what I was getting. However, the shots I took were at the mall and in mostly pretty good lighting which by itself helps reduce redeye. Will do some real test shots at home (after batteries recharge)

Im a total novice to photography so mostly I shoot on auto and P with a few changes.

[soccerdad]

Hi. I just returned my second A70. The first one had the infamous E18 message right out of the box. The second one I was happy with until taking some action shots at my daughters soccer game. The lighting was bad and I could not use a flash(wouldn't have helped anyways). So I was using ISO400 to get a fast enough shutter speed at f2.8. When I came home and looked at the pics, I could not believe how noisey they were.
So I went out and bought an A80 to do a side by side low light high ISO comparison and I was blown away. The exact same shots were SO much cleaner on the A80.
The larger CCD does make a difference. But it is a very special shooting environment that others may not encounter, so this is just my experience.

[Don Schaeffer]

I am a very happy camera man since I bought my A70. It runs flawlessly. There is a great improvement over my Casio QV3-EX which I used for about 3 years. I love the feel of it and the long battery life. I bought the lens adapter and I now can use some old auxillary lenses I've had lying about for 25 years, plus close up lenses. I use the camera larger in the auto mode. Results are great. I think the review was bang on. This is a good value camera.

[soupnazi]

Thanks guys for the insight thus far. Keep 'em coming.

[flylow]

A lot of A70s were sold. Some are going to have problems as with any mass produced product. You hear more bad than good about things in help forums as people who have no problems are not very likely to ask for help.

[Heimdall]

I have had my A70 for about to months. No error messages or things like that. I have had some red eyes; it might be more than other cameras have - I dont know!
I take most of my pictures in manual mode, and have only taken a few, relatively, on Auto.
From what I have seen in different forums; I would say the A70 is a great camera because it has all theese extra features for that price. - BUT I dont think its the perfect point-and-shoot camera. So if its that what you want (piont-and-shoot only!) then the A70 is probably not the best camera for you. But if you want to test around with diff. lightning, exposure times, effects etc. then I recomend it.
Of course it is good for point and shoot also, but I have the feeling there is better cams for that.
I am very satisfied with my A70!

[stopbath]

There are limitations to the A70, but for general hobby use, it's a great little camera.

Small enough to cart around anywhere, and versatile enough to cover most situations. There are limitations to the camera, but you need to spend more money and get perhaps a larger camera to get around those limitations (hot shoe for external flash, more processing for more functions such as histogram, blinking washed out areas, larger CCD for less noise or more pixels, bigger lens for better optics...)

I don't see myself upgrading for quite a long time (perhaps only when this a70 finally dies from old age or from abuse (impact, water, sand...))

[Matzzzy]

I'm very happy with my A70, since I bought it in the middle of August.
I've had E-18 once, but after a change of batteries, it was as new again.
(Didn't buy that brand of batteries again)
I'd recommend this camera to anyone (and I do).

.:Matz:.

[billh101]

I've had my A70 for around 4 months. I had the E18 error once, but it went away and was fine once I put fresh batteries in it. Hasn't done it since then.

About a month after I got it, I noticed that I could hear it focusing more than I originally had. I've been told that it is a normal sound and it's never given me any problems.

Red eye? Of course you'll have red eye, it's a compact camera. Regardless of price, I expect some red eye from any small camera using a built in flash. I also have experimented with an external slave flash. While it did the job with no red eye, it was so inconvenient that I never bothered with it again anyway. Now I just fix the red eye on the PC when needed.

Under normal conditions, the A70 does a pretty good job. But I usually go back to my 35 MM SLR equipment when I want to do any serious shooting. And I'm sure I will continue to do so until I have at least $2,000 burning a hole in my pocket for a good DSLR. The A70 pretty much completely replaced my point-and-shoot. Now I leave my film (APS) point-and-shoot in my car so I always have a camera with me. I wouldn't want to leave the A70 in there to deal with varying temps and condensation. I wish I had more resolution and a few other features, but it's a pretty good little camera. I'll probably keep using mine until either it dies or I have the $$$ for a good DSLR system (hopefully within the next couple years).

Bill

[soupnazi]

Thanks for the help guys. Got an A70 yesterday and love it.

[hankey]

Hello guys,

i've a question regarding the A70 and i know that you discussed this problem several times but i have to ask because i'm not sure if i understood you correctly.
You said, that you can solve the E18 with new batteries. I told it to someone in a german forum (i'm german) but it didn't help. someone else aksed me, if you mean the 4 AA batteries (the eventually rechargeable ones, in german we call it "akkus") or the batt anywhere inside the cam wich is for the clock and so on. the one, you normally never replace.

I'm not sure if you were able to understand what i wanted to ask, but i hope so. :)

I just want you to tell me exactly what batt(s) must be replaced.

i thank you for your help in advance! :)

greetings, Hankey

(sorry for my mistakes with the english language...)

[pradeep1]

flylow wrote:
A lot of A70s were sold. Some are going to have problems as with any mass produced product. You hear more bad than good about things in help forums as people who have no problems are not very likely to ask for help.


He hits straight on the head. A70 is an excellent camera, buy one and stop worrying if it meets your needs.

[jinushaun]

No problems.

However, I do have a few gripes.
- Flash is way too STRONG. It's blinding. (A70)\
- Continuous mode is too slow (consumer)
- Focus too soft (A series)
- Far away objects--such as leaves on trees--are pixelated (A series)

That last one is my biggest gripe because it ruins my prints. My printer isn't able to blend the colours as well. I know it's not my printer because I can print photos from other sources just fine. My old A40 had the exact same problem.

[patul]

I am very happy with my A70 camera..

However here're some cons i found:
- Red eye reduction doesnt work quit well
- got very hard to shot bright red objects/violet objects/purple objects cos most of them gonna be flat.
- results are little bit soft
- not plug n play (like nikon does) ?? (or am i just stupid enough??)
- flash is blocked by extention lens

[wins]

A70.. overall good camera..haven't had any problems yet.. just take good care of it.. and it'll give u decent performance and relability.

[irish14500]

I have lines on the images as well as the printed images. However this has only occured on few images. I had no choice in the model as It was given as a present. Personally I would go with the powershot A80 or perhaps (if you have the money-a rebel)---IRISH