Canon PowerShot A430 review

Image Quality
The images were decent on the A430, but colours tend to run oversaturated and cool -- using the manual white balance yields the most neutral result. There's a fair amount of fringing, and noise is a nuisance on this camera, with speckles appearing in shots taken at sensitivities as low as ISO 200. The noise tends to be even enough to pass off as artsy film grain, but it's still irritating at higher ISO settings.

The Canon PowerShot A430 is a fine choice if you want just a simple, flexible snapshooter on the cheap. Its quick response time and useful features certainly give it an edge over other sub-£120 cameras. But disappointing image quality mars this otherwise solid budget shooter.

Shooting speed
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Fujifilm FinePix V10

2 

1.5 

0.5 

Canon PowerShot A530

2.8 

2.1 

0.5 

Canon PowerShot A430

1.8 

1.9 

0.7 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3

2.6 

2.9 

1 

Edited by Lori Grunin
Additional editing by Kate Macefield