HEAD TO HEAD REVIEW: Canon Powershot A1200 & Sony Cybershot W510

Each year, camera manufacturers release a slew of relatively inexpensive point and shoot (P & S) digital cameras. Because of that, the consumer market for P&S cameras is now flooded with every conceivable option for the user – from the simple to the absurd.

Canon and Sony spear head the march and 2011 is no exception. At the beginning of the year, both Canon and Sony announced that they will release several new camera models to the market. March 2011 saw the release of the Canon Powershot A1200 while Sony released its Cybershot W510 to the market this month (May). This is my quick and dirty review of these two cameras.

Both cameras fall into the “entry level” category as a no thrill, no frill P&S camera targeted for the casual user who doesn’t want to fidget with a maze of settings and just wants to take pictures. I think both Canon and Sony target first time camera owners as the market for these two models – first time owners who don’t want to spend a lot of money yet want camera that produces good images and is easy to use. As far as price goes, these to cameras are relatively inexpensive. The Canon Powershot A1200 retails for about US$ 106 – 115 while the Sony Cybershot W510 retails for about US$ 95 – 110. If I compare these cameras to a basic Swiss army knife, it does what it is supposed to do – cut and a few other tricks but not much else.

Build

Canon Powershot A1200

The Canon feels like a plastic toy without the batteries. Insert the batteries, the A1200 feels like a “proper camera” i.e. small with a solid feel but light enough to carry around. The matte silver finish expounds the plasticky feel and look of the camera. I think that in terms of look, the A1200 would have been much better if Canon did a brushed metal finish instead of matte silver. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the A1200 is ugly because it’s not. It would just look much better if the finish was different.

The buttons (for adjusting settings) are placed at the back of the camera. I find the arrangement of the buttons kind of cramped and could be a challenge for users who have large hands/fingers. The triangle-shaped on/off button as well as the shutter button are placed on top of the camera. The buttons don’t bulge out but are easy enough to depress. The camera has no grip. The battery compartment at the right side of the camera makes for the grip and does a good job at it. With the grip and the nice placement of the shutter button, one hand shooting should be easy. There as one time I had the camera on for more than 10 minutes when I noticed that the “grip” was getting warm. I thought it was a defect but Canon said that it is not and that this “behavior” is normal.

Sony Cybershot W510

The Sony is sleek and is in matte black (although there are several colors available). This finish sort of gives a visual illusion that the camera is not made from plastic. Unlike the A1200, the W510 relatively feels the same – in spite of its size, the camera has a surprisingly good solid feel. The W510 is narrower and thinner compared to the A1200 so putting the camera inside the breast or pants pocket won’t produce much of a bulge. I think the ladies would like the size of this camera is it can fit inside a small purse. Like the Canon A1200, the buttons are found at the back. Placement of the buttons are quite evenly spaced although the small sizes of each button is a bit of a downer as it kind of makes the buttons difficult to press. The on/off button and shutter button are flush on top of the camera. Easy enough to access and to press but could be a bit if a challenge for users with big fingers.

The camera has no resemblance of a grip so holding it with one hand while shooting would be quite difficult as the shutter button is placed near the top-right side corner. I tried several times but the camera had a tendency to slip from my hands. As I have said, I have small hands so I could just imagine the experience for users who have big hands or long fingers. The camera is definitely for a two-handed operation.

Features

Canon Powershot A1200

One thing that caught my immediate attention when I was unpacking the Canon was that it has a Mode button. With the mode button, users can easily switch from the eight modes (Program, Live, Auto, Easy, Scene, Effects, Discreet and Movie Mode) available with just a turn of a dial – no deep menus to fiddle with. With practice, one can switch from one mode to another without taking his/her eyes away from the LCD screen. Not is all fun and games though. I found out that the mode dial produced a very audible “click” sound every time I turn the dial and is louder than the click sound I get from the mode dial of my DSLR. It’s nearly as loud as me snapping my fingers. Frankly, it’s kind of annoying.

Startup time was pretty quick. Less than 2 seconds. Additionally, configuring the system parameters of the camera didn’t take long as it took me less than 2 minutes before I had everything set to go.

If you’re into effects, then this camera might make you happy. You can choose from six effects available: Fish Eye, Miniature, Toy Camera, Monochrome, Super Vivid and Poster. What I liked best was the Miniature effect what I liked least and found totally useless was the fish eye effect. The fish eye effect mimics the images you can get if you used fish eye lenses but in my opinion, the A1200 doesn’t do a good of a job with it. The inclusion of the Monochrome effect is kind a of a puzzle for me as I got the same “effect” when I chose the B & W setting under the My Colors mode.

When I was testing out the metering modes, I was pleasantly surprised that this relatively inexpensive camera has Metering mode. Among the metering modes available (Evaluative, CWA and Spot), Spot metering is the most accurate.

The A1200 has a mode called “Easy Mode”. It’s the “true blue point and shoot mode” for this camera. Except for the capability to turn the flash on or off, the user practically has to sit back, relax, do a half-press and let the camera do the work – kind of similar to Auto (green) mode. The difference between the Easy mode and the Auto Mode is that, in Auto Mode, AF tracking can be turned on or off while there is no AF tracking in easy mode.

The Canon A1200 has an optical viewfinder and I wish they hadn’t put it in because the viewfinder is kind of useless. It’s just a small hole on top of the camera and doesn’t display any info like aperture or shutter speed. It offers the user 90-95% of the scene but the image, if viewed from the viewfinder, is kind of distorted and has a “fish eye” feel to it. Those being said, however, I have to give props to Canon for adding a small peephole to this camera.

One neat feature of the Canon A1200 is subject tracking. Available only in Auto mode, the camera will “intelligently track” possible subjects from the scene then adjust the AF depending on the location of the subject. Quite useful for shooting mobile subjects like pets or kids. The tracking system can, at times, be fooled. For example, I was tracking my dog while it was circling around my feet. When it came close to my feet, the camera started to track my left foot instead of my dog.

Portrait photography enthusiasts would love this camera because the A1200 has a “Face Select mode”. If turned on (Face Detect), this mode will immediately track if there is a face or faces on the scene and will adjust AF to where the face is positioned on the scene.

The LCD display on the Canon A1200 is about 2.7” and offers crisp, sharp and vivid detail. Depending in the shooting mode chosen, the scene info like aperture and shutter speed will be shown on screen. What isn’t shown on screen is the amount of juice left in the batteries. The only time it showed information about battery life is when my batter was running low on power. Additionally, the LCD doesn’t do well if used under direct sunlight as the display tends to be washed out.

Distortion Test using ISO 12233 chart

The camera doesn’t use proprietary batteries. Instead, it uses 2x AA batteries – alkaline, Ni-Mh or Li-On.  Canon says that the camera can squeeze about 450 shots before juice runs out. When I tested the camera, I used it in a way “ordinary” users would use the camera e.g. intermittently turn power on/off, switch modes, view the image after ever take, etc. And because of this, I only managed to squeeze out 428 shots out of the batteries. Pretty decent number, if you ask me. There is a built-in flash on this camera. The flash is quite small but fairly powerful for its size. Effective range is about 2 meters. Storage media used is a Secure Digital (SD) card. The A1200 also has burst mode (while in P mode) and performs a decent 3.5fps.

Self-portrait fans would like the A1200 because this camera has smile detection and a Smile shutter. Set from the Scene mode, the camera will trip the shutter (provided that the smile shutter is turned on) if smile is detected. For Smile detection to be effective, the user has to compose the scene then turn on the smile shutter. Otherwise, the camera will just snap away when it detects a smile. Not all bad though as the resulting images will turn out to be candid ones.

Let me get back to the buttons. As I said, I tried to simulate what ordinary users would do – and that involved pressing a lot of buttons. I found out that when I press many buttons in quick succession, the camera hangs. Now, I don’t know if that is product defect or not but it is an annoying glitch as I had to remove the batteries a couple times just to reboot the camera

Sony Cybershot W510

When I was unpacking the camera, I was silently wishing it had Carl Zeiss optics but unfortunately, it did not. Come to think about it, expecting a Carl Zeiss lens on a US$ 90 camera is unrealistic.

The W510 generally has three shooting modes: still, movie and panoramic assist. Now, the panoramic assist is interesting as it will automatically stitch scenes taken in one sweeping motion into a panorama photo – pretty neat. Landscape photo buffs would surely enjoy this feature. It’s also great for that group shot when a group is just too big to fit in one frame.

For still shoots, available modes are Intelligent, Program, Scene and Steady Shot. The iMode (Intelligent) is interesting as it adjusts the camera settings depending on how the camera interprets the scene. For example, if the camera interprets the scene as more of a close-up shot, then it will adjust shutter and aperture to Macro mode. If the camera interprets the scene as primarily backlit, then it will adjust exposure settings accordingly. So, the camera kind of does the thinking for you. However, the iMode system can be fooled. For example, you’re shooting in a predominantly backlit scene but by chance moved a bit closer to your subject than you intended to. With this example, the iMode automatically switches to Macro mode and the resulting image would be more of a silhouette.

One interesting feature of this camera is its Soft Snap mode. Found under the Scene menu, soft snap imitates bokeh i.e. sharp subject, blurred background. Does the W510 do a good job about it? Well, not really I think (bokeh is not that blurred and creamy) but users who want that “sharp foreground, blurred background” look will appreciate this feature. Another interesting feature I found under Scene menu is the Gourmet mode. Foodies who like to take photos of food for their blog will find this feature useful as the W510 will adjust exposure, color and sharpness so that the resulting image will look tempting enough to eat. A bit of warning though – when in Gourmet mode, the flash fires full blast and tends to make the scene overly bright

Like the Canon A1200, the W510 offers an “Easy mode” for users who just want to shoot photos without tinkering with too many settings. It’s no frills, no thrills shooting – just point the camera then shoot. Unfortunately, the system is not without kinks and I found all the images that I shot without flash to be blurred. With the A1200, the image quality taken with Easy mode was better.

Sharpness test

When I was tinkering with the Scene mode, I found out that the W510 has two modes for twilight and three modes for Fluorescent WB. The first twilight mode is for Twilight Portrait shots while the other is for plain Twilight. Now, I don’t really get the difference between the two for two reasons: 1.) both will require the use of a tripod or some other device to keep the camera steady for the user to make a decent shot and 2.) In terms of overall image quality, there is was no real difference. Well, there is if do an A3-A4 print of the image taken using Twilight Portrait because the face(s) on the portrait will appear a bit sharper than a similar scene taken using plain Twilight. Otherwise, there is not much of a noticeable difference between the two.

Like the A1200, the W50 also has Smile detection and a smile shutter. Compared to the A1200 however, the W510 offers three smile settings: big smile, normal smile and slight smile. Now depending on the smile modes chosen, the camera will trip the shutter (provided that the smile shutter is turned on) if a big, normal or slight smile is detected. For Smile detection to be effective, the user has to compose the scene then turn on the smile shutter. Otherwise, the camera will just snap away when it detects a smile. Not all bad though as the resulting images will turn out to be candid ones.

The W510 inherited something from its DSLR siblings – a Dynamic Range Optimizer (DRO). Actually, I was quite surprised that this little thing has DRO. What DRO does is that it automatically adjusts the contrast of images to avoid details in bright or dark highlights. DRO is particularly effective when shooting backlit portraits or any scene with a dramatic contrast between background and foreground lighting. By default, DRO is turned off.

Compared to the Canon A1200, the W510 does not shoot HD movies but in spite of it, the quality of video is fairly decent – good enough for a YouTube post. The W510 has a tiny flash that is a bit underpowered compared to the A1200. Effective range is about 1.5 to 2 meters but at 2 meters, it is stretching it a bit. The unit has a tiny speaker placed at the bottom of the camera and the quality of audio is fairly decent for its size.

Image Quality

Canon Powershot A1200

Image quality of the A1200 is not stellar but it is pretty impressive for a camera in its class. Each shot I took was crisp and clear, with the colors to near accurate. Canon digital cameras have the reputation of producing vibrant colors and the A1200 is no exception. Colors were well balanced most of the time and the level of brightness is up there with most of its competitors in its class.

Sharpness is a bit of an issue as most of the images were a bit soft – especially at the edges. This is a non-issue if one prints no larger than 4R but printing in A4 or larger; the softness becomes visible but not overly annoying. While I saw no visible vignetting on the images, distortion is visible for all images taken at the shortest focal length (approx. 28mm) but the distortion tapers off starting at about 58mm and is not visible at the longest focal length (approx. 112mm).

For portraits, the images taken outdoors were quite good. The resulting photos had that boost of brightness that gave the images some sort of extra lift and quality. Focusing is on the money. Not all is good, though, as I found the cheeks of my subjects were too pink on the heavy side. Indoors with flash, the colors were a bit off the mark and the flash was centered smack on the face and is accentuated by colors being washed out from the shot. Without flash, the level of detail was quite impressive. Noise levels are kept low and the general color of the photo, as well as the spread of lighting, was better than the portrait taken with flash.

For an inexpensive camera, the level of detail in macro shots is quite good. The image could have been sharper but for a budget P&S, it is not bad.

Sony Cybershot W510

For a US$ 95 camera, the image quality of the W510 is pretty good. Colors are well balanced but not as vibrant as the A1200. However, I noticed oversaturation in some colors especially with the hues of blue and red. While the color quality is not as good as that of the A1200, this camera beats the Canon in terms of sharpness. As with the A1200, barrel distortion is a problem at the 26mm end and is quite pronounced.

Compared to the images taken by the A1200, resulting photos from the W510 were not soft and are a bit sharper compared to the Canon. However, this camera suffers from visible noise at high ISOs and does not control noise as well as the A1200.  Images also suffer from overexposure if taken in bright situations, especially brightly backlit images. Ironically though, this camera shines in bright sunny and well lit conditions.

For portraits, the images taken outdoors were quite good. Focusing is accurate but not quite on the money as the A1200. However, I had no too pink cheeks to complain about. As with the A1200, indoor portraits with flash were off the mark – colors were off and the flash fired smack center on the face, washing away any detail. Without flash, the level of detail was quite impressive and the quality of lighting was much better.

Macro shots produced very good images and for an inexpensive camera, the W510 performed well.

Conclusion

Many people scoff at low cost, low budget cameras because they think images produced by these cameras are crap. While it may be true for some camera makes and models, I can say that the images produced by the Canon Powershot A1200 and by the Sony Cybershot W510 are not crap. For their price, I was kind of impressed by their overall image quality. While quality of the images may not win in competitions, I’d say they are more than good enough for the average Joe – and Jane – who just want a camera that is simple to use yet take good vacation and family photos without denting the pocket. Both cameras are easy to operate (practically a no brainer) and I think provide good overall value for the money. Sure, there are better P & S cameras out there but for a sub-US$ 100 camera, I can’t ask anything more with these two models.

If I had to choose among the two, I’d go with the Canon Powershot A1200. While the images are soft compared to the Sony Cybershot W510 the overall balance of very good image quality, accurate colors, noise control and available features are more than enough to cover that flaw and a couple of others.

Miscellaneous Images