Review on 📷 Canon PowerShot A1300: 16MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom & Wide-Angle Lens (Black) - OLD MODEL by Peter Sullivan

Background: We've had a Canon A20 with great 2 megapixels for 10 years (smiles). One was stolen in airport luggage (my stupidity for packing it). Luckily I was able to buy a replacement A20 on e-bay. We have been very satisfied with this for about 10 years. We can say that this A20 was bulletproof. Fast forward to 2012. My husband wanted a small and light camera - no problem. But I wanted an optical viewfinder - a BIG problem; hardly anyone else makes them. Thanks to Canon for providing this feature. For those of you wondering what an optical viewfinder is? It's just a camera that you hold to your cheek and maybe use the zoom buttons to compose the picture. That's how they did it with film cameras before LCDs were invented. Single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, which are much more expensive, use this method, albeit with vastly improved optics. An alternative is to hold the camera (without the viewfinder) at arm's length. Which leads to the following result: -- Take off your glasses because you can't see enough detail on the toy screen. -- Then when you finally see your picture, you realize that your camera is not supported -- this results in a BLUR. So you have to take another one. -- Then slap your forehead (in agony) as you realize the sun is shining so brightly you can't see anything on the small screen. bar and regret not having bought a camera with an optical viewfinder. Take them while they last. You could buy this camera for the price of a bottle of champagne. Note: You can still use this camera's LCD screen at arm's length if you wish. The other reviews are great; I wanted to emphasize the great emphasis on the viewfinder. Sports and wildlife photographers rely on such viewfinders because they can track, zoom and frame (in a split second) what would be impossible with an LCD. Photo pillow, fuhgettabudit. Your images are terribly grainy (few pixels and small sensors), and as with any wearable device, the blurring is terrible. I know; I have tried. Try not to embarrass yourself by sharing these pictures. This camera is great. For many years I processed film in a darkroom, printed enlarged images from negatives, carried bags of interchangeable lenses for my SLR, owned overhead projectors; now is all i need. I can't imagine spending money on a more expensive camera unless you're looking to upgrade to a good DSLR, but it would be bulky and heavy. This camera weighs 6 ounces instead of the 12.5 of my beloved old A20. I've found that most of my family and friends take a lot of pictures (whether with a phone or camera) and then never do anything with them. They are not shared with anyone, but are mostly just on chips or CDs in desk drawers. So it's worth noting that this camera includes Canon's Album software; The chip pops out for easy unloading (or use the cable connector) - to help us organize. soft case. I did a test landing at Beste Buye and everything works fine. I ended up buying a Kodak Essentials Hard Case. The Case Logic units I tested were too small. The last word on chargers and batteries. There is no charger. This camera uses two AA batteries; If you need them, they are available worldwide from Topeka to Taipei to Tuscany. If you buy a camera with a charger, please note that you need to carry another charger with you. You already have cell phone chargers, GPS chargers, Blackberry/i-Pad/PC chargers. Some have two different cords, one for 12 volts for the car and one for 120 volts for the wall. Does your cam charger work with 120/220 dual voltage? If not, you will have to buy a second one (220 V) for a lot of money for trips abroad. Not to mention another converter when you finally go abroad. Pooh. [But see notes about rechargeable batteries in the comments of this review below] Purchase Notes: This camera does NOT come with a memory card (but batteries do). Revain has a nice 4GB SD card for around $6. Add it to your cart. Do NOT purchase any of these items with 1-Click at checkout or you will lose free shipping. Add them to your cart, then checkout, then change the shipping method to "free shipping" and complete the process. Please comment if you have problems and I will try to solve them. Hello everyone.xxx oooh xxxPS. For me, image size is important for some of my programs (it probably doesn't matter for most people), so remember: A1300 can be set to 640x480, 1600x1200 or one of 3 even larger formats. My old A20 could accept 1024x768 but it's not available on the A1300.