Canon PowerShot A3000 IS

Shooting Modes (10.92)

The A3000 offers a good selection of shooting modes, including three auto modes. The first is Easy mode, where the camera controls everything (including turning the flash on and off) and the user just sets the zoom and presses the shutter. The Auto mode provides a little more control for the user, offering access to the image size and quality controls, as well as flash and self timer. The program mode provides access to the ISO, white balance, color mode, exposure and many other controls. There is no full manual mode or priority modes; there is no way for the user to set the shutter and aperture settings directly on this camera.

Auto Mode Features

Focus – The auto focus system of the A3000 is a little disappointing: we found that it was a little slow and noisy. Especially in low light, the camera was slow to focus and used the AF illuminator more than other cameras. There is an option in the on-screen menu to turn off the AF assist beam, but this does not seem to work; the camera still used the AF illuminator if this option was set to off. The focus mechanism was also a little noisy, producing an irritating buzzing squeak as it focused. You get some level of control over the focusing process: you can choose to use a center focus area (and if the camera uses a small or large area) or to set the camera to automatically detect faces and focus and expose for them.

There is no manual focus mode: instead, you get options for macro, normal and infinity.

Exposure – Up to 2 stops of exposure compensation both up and down can be applied, in 1/3 of a stop steps. There is no exposure bracketing or flash control available. but you do get some limited control over the flash exposure with the FE (flash Exposure) lock, which takes a shot before the real one to measure the amount of flash required.

Metering – The standard metering modes are on offer: evaluative, center weighted and spot. In addition, the face detection mode will use the detected faces for both focus and metering.

Aperture – The A300 has a reasonable aperture range, but there is no way to set the aperture directly: there is no aperture priority or full manual mode on offer.

Shutter Speed – In most modes, the shutter speed range of this camera is 1 to 1/1600 of a second. This can be extended out to 30 seconds in the low light scene modes. That’s an acceptable range for a compact camera, but the maximum is not fast enough to freeze action.

Self Timer – A wide selection of options are available for the self timer. As well as the usual 2 and 10 second delays, there is a custom timer that can be set to take a shot between 1 and 30 seconds after shutter down, and to take up to 10 shots. In addition, a face detection mode will hold the shutter until it detects two faces, then pause for 3 seconds and take 3 shots, allowing you to set the camera, run over to your beloved and get in place for a nice couple shot.

Scene Modes

5 scene modes are also offered as options on the mode dial on the top of the camera: Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets and Indoor. In addition, the SCN setting on the mode dial provides access to an additional 9 scene modes, including Face Self Timer, which uses face detection to decide when to take a self-portrait.

Picture Effects (2.00)

The My Colors mode allows you to apply a number of color effects to photos as they are captured. Examples are shown below.

Picture Samples
Off Vivid Neutral Sepia Black & White Custom More...

Manual Controls (5.84)

The A3000 IS offers 5 white balance presets, as well as a full auto mode and a custom mode that uses a photo of a white object to judge the white balance.

Drive/Burst Mode (2.00)

The A3000 offers two drive modes; a single shot mode and a continuous mode that shoots images and continuously writes them out to the memory card.

Shot to Shot (0.54)

We found that the continuous mode for this camera was not particularly fast; storing images on a fast SDHC memory card, it managed to take just 0.54 frames a second. While this is not a very fast speed, it is at least consistent, as the camera can keep shooting until you release the shutter or you fill the memory card.