Insurance Replacement for A95

[JuSlaughter]

As previously posted yesterday, my A95 was stolen from my house along with some other stuff. Fortunately my 5D, 350D and all my lenses were left untouched.

My insurance company have sent a replacement for the A95 and wondered whether anyone out there could tell me if I got a good deal or not.

Plus, any useful info or tips, etc on the model would be greatly appreciated as I am not up to date with p&s.

They send me a Powershot A590is.

Oh, one thing does annoy me about this new camera is the fact that it takes SD/MMC instead of CF so now I have to get a decent sized card if I want to use it as the 32mb one that comes with it only holds 3 images at full quality.

Cheers

[Jon]

The strict successor to the A95 would be an A640 or A650 which also have the fold out screen and use 4 AA cells. It might be worth raising how important that feature and the better battery performance of 4 vs. 2 AA cells was to you and see if they'll move you to one of those two. I suspect they just looked at list price and compared that to your declared (street) value.

[msowsun]

I think your insurance company is ripping you off. Point out to them the sensor size of the A590IS is only 1/2.5" and that you need to have a 1/1.8" sensor like your A95 had. (1/1.8" is bigger)

Also mention the fold out screen and the fact it will shoot 2 fps. Don't forget that the A95 was top of the line when it was released and you should have a similar replacement. At the very least they should provide you with a suitably sized SD card.

In 1989 my insurance company replaced my Canon AE-1 with a fancy EOS 630. They said that was the only available Canon camera that had all the features of the AE-1. I'm not sure if they were right, but I didn't complain.

Here is a side by side comparison of some similar cameras:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_a95%2Ccanon_a590is%2Ccanon_a640%2Cca non_a650is&show=all

[Canon Guy]

You're entitled to what's known as "like kind and quality" in the industry. Basically if what you had is no longer available, then it is something that is as similar to it as possible currently available.

A top of the line item from several years ago does not mean you get current model top of the line camera back. With most tech related items, today's new exclusive features usually end up being tomorrow's mid-range features. For a camera, as long as you're getting a similar (not exact, as it's not always possible) feature set, then I'd consider it fair.

I'd consider the flip out screen to be a pretty important function to have. When the A80/A95 first came out, it was pretty much the difference between those and the A70/75. Logically you'd look for a Powershot with the same type of LCD. However, all that being said, bear in mind that with something like the A650 you are also getting a host of things (like IS, increased zoom factor, increased MP count, bigger LCD etc) that the A95 didn't have. So there are some trade-offs there to think of when considering what is "like kind and quality".

As a camera guy and former insurance adjuster I can see it from both perspectives. I can't really say who is right, because there are strong arguments for both sides. Howver, I do hope that what I said will help you in deciding whether or not you got what you are entitled to.