A40 takes better pictures than A420?!?

[Speed13]

Hi Guys,

Hope you can help me out here.

I've just purchased a reconditioned Canon A420 from Canon's UK eBay Outlet, it's for my sisters Christmas present. So I thought I'd better test it out to make sure it was working, especially with it being reconditioned, although I didn't really expect any problems.

So I take a few basic pictures on Auto to see what they are like and I was amazed at how poor quality they were. They are pretty grainy, even with resolution on the highest and compression on super fine. So I set up a quick experiment up with a tripod and took pictures of the same setting with both my now quite old A40 and the new A420, both on full auto and the A40 just surpasses the A420 completely. Which is strange, considering the age of the A40 and the difference in MegaPixels.

So my question, is the A420 faulty or is it just a poor point and shoot camera?

Sample pictures can be seen here:

http://www.mark-lewis.me.uk/images/A40.jpg
http://www.mark-lewis.me.uk/images/A420.jpg

While the A40 image is far from brilliant you can certainly see the difference in quality.

I have e-mailed Canon support but Christmas is fast approaching, so any help you guys can provide would be great. I have considered just getting a new A430 from Amazon.co.uk, but if the A420 isn't faulty and it's down to the quality of the camera then I could be wasting my time.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Mark

[Jon]

Well, you've got more noise in the A420, but that's due, in part, to the higher ISO the A420 uses (the A40 only uses ISO from 50-150 in the full auto modes; the A420 will use all the way from ISO 50 to 400). It's axiomatic that higher ISO values mean more noise. Try manually setting both to the same shutter speed, ISO and aperture and comparing shots that way. ALso try shootign outdoors rather than inside; inside you'll get more underexposed areas, especially with a light source in the picture like you have, so more noise.

[Pixel9ine]

I agree with Jon.. when taking comparison shots, you need to control all the variables you can, such as:

-ISO
-Shutter Speed
-Aperture
-White Balance
-Saturation or "color" controls

Judging from your EXiF data, both cameras were used on "Full Auto" shooting mode.. try using Manual (or, at least Av) and set both cameras identically. I'd love to see the result of round two...

[mishnogram]

I have had very luck with our A40 and my wife much prefers the output of it vs the A520 that we own as well. That being said, i do agree with the two other people in that you can't do comparisons until you've controlled the variables. Then again, if you are going to be giving it to someone who is going to be setting it on auto mode and shoot away, maybe it is a fair comparison. I don't know whether the A420 has it or not but our A520 has a bunch of scene modes which my wife uses on our S2 and she gets very good results with that. Maybe if the scene modes are available, pass that information on to your sister.

[Speed13]

Right, thanks for the replies guys. I've gone ahead and ordered the A430, it's such a good price that I couldn't not order it. That being said I still have the A420 and I am still trying to test it. I have to decide on this coming Monday whether or not to return it for a refund.

Firstly, Jon, you have a point there, I wasn't aware that the A40 only used ISO 50-150 in Auto, it has access to 50-400 in the manual mode, which is pretty much the same range as the A420, which is 64-400. What I don't understand, is if the A420 has access to a bigger range of ISO numbers, why doesn't it correctly control the use automatically like the A40 manages to do? With regards to shooting outside, the camera will mostly be used inside, so I think it's a good test, also I can control the light levels inside a whole lot better than outside, the weather is rather changeable at the moment, so it would be hard to compare two shots.

Croesus, Indeed I agree with you, the big problem with trying to directly compare them is that A420 doesn't allow you to manually control shutter speed, even in the full manual mode. I've removed the light source by turning the lamp off and I've just taken a few pictures again. I did one with the A420 and A40 again, both on full auto, no flash with the rooms lights except for the lamp on full. The A40 picture is better than the A420's again, but there's less noise this time with the A420, likely due to the lack of the lamp being on. I then tried to compare manual shots with different ISO numbers, but as I mentioned earlier, with no shutter speed control on the A420, this is impossible. The A40 obviously shows a huge change in the light levels throughout the ISO range while the A420 only changes in the amount of noise, increasing the shutter speed as the ISO number gets bigger to compensate. So it really is very hard to compare. Something I did see however is the picture from the A420 with the lowest ISO number (64) is actually as good as the A40's auto shots. But as a point and shoot, don't worry about settings camera, that I need, it doesn't appear to be anywhere near as good as the A40. Which to be honest, is a shame, the camera itself is very nice, easy controls, fast start-up and so on.

mishnogram, the A40 is a very nice camera and it's lasted me well. The A420 does indeed have those scene modes, I've just tried the indoor one out with flash off and on and to be honest it's not great. The flash off one has about the same amount of noise as the picture I posted a link to in the opening post. As you’ve mentioned the S2, how does that compare with the A40 on picture quality and such. Thinking of replacing it soon as that’s one of the models that caught my eye, does it beat the A40 in all regards?