Canon PowerShot A460 Digital Camera Review

Model Design/Appearance (5.75)
The model design of the Canon PowerShot A460 is not going to be winning any awards for being unique, innovative or fashionable unless the design world begins looking to bricks as its major point of inspiration. This low-slung camera is thick and a bit clunky and it certainly isn’t going to turn heads with its utilitarian design. The controls tend to blend into the body of the camera; there's a limited number, however, the camera back still appears cramped and disorderly. The A460 lacks clean lines and instead has odd projections and cutaway sections on all sides of the camera. The lack of coherent design or thought makes this camera an oddball and not in that loveable Charo-esque way.

Size/Portability (6.0)
The Canon PowerShot A460 isn’t a camera to slip into a back pocket when out on a day hike. In fact, this beast of a camera didn’t exactly fit in the pocket of a winter overcoat during a day trip to the lake. Its hefty build make it difficult to bring this camera along just for the fun of it. It will likely be left at home until an event filled with snapshot moments is assured to occur.

The camera weighs in at 5.82 ounces without batteries or a memory card. With two AA batteries in place, the weight tallies to just under half a pound. The A460 measures 4.17 inches wide x 2.04 inches high and 1.58 inches wide. Expect to be purchasing a camera carrying case if buying this model, as it’ll be essential when not shooting. The one design benefit in terms of size and portability comes in the construction and design of the battery/memory card cover and locking mechanism and the tightly snapping port covers. These protective devices assure users that, even if jostled significantly, the underlying components will remain safely shielded from damage.

Handling Ability (6.5)
The Canon PowerShot A460’s thick width makes handling a bit tricky. It is easy for larger hands to miss the grips on the front and back of the camera and instead hold it with two hands. Because the LCD monitor suffers from solarization whenever the camera is even slightly tilted, the handling ease is further complicated. Shooting one-handed is possible with a bit of adjustment but it isn’t the most comfortable arrangement. The grip on the front of the camera for fingers on the right hand is only marginally successful when shooting one-handed and after shooting in this position for a few shots it becomes uncomfortable to maintain a proper grip. Thankfully, users won’t need to worry about compromising audio quality or blocking the flash since Canon wisely placed these features away from the left hand.

Control Button/Dial Positioning/Size (6.5)
The Canon PowerShot A460’s controls are sizable, however difficult to engage. One of the major initial issues with the controls is the lack of differentiation between the controls and the camera body. For whatever reason, Canon decided to finish the controls the same as the camera. Visually this makes it hard to gauge where controls are when shooting quickly and makes general navigation unnecessarily laborious. Additionally, the controls are labeled with up to three different icons or text-based labels. This adds to the visual confusion and makes for a nightmare if shooting digitally for the first time. There is no major difference in font, label size or color. If buying this camera, it would be wise to spend a bit of time with the owner’s manual before beginning to shoot.

Menu (7.0)
Although the Canon PowerShot A460’s menu system varies in layout and style, the overall system is intuitive to navigate. Additional help information would be handy for novice users starting to engage manual controls but some referral to the camera user guide should clear up any confusion that may occur when in both shooting and playback modes. The large four-way control makes navigating the menu easy and settings and sub-menus can be quickly entered and altered via the set and menu buttons. Clear labels indicate when these buttons should be engaged in order to make adjustments to settings. By splitting up controls and features into several menu systems Canon makes navigating menus simple.

The Canon PowerShot A460’s Rec. Menu is different from a shooting menu in a number of ways. This menu doesn’t provide access to manual controls. Instead it contains options to control auto focus behavior and assistance, red-eye reduction, and digital zoom. The only setting that seems a bit out of place in this menu is the light metering option that camera manufacturers normally cluster with the rest of the manual control settings. When needing to adjust this setting, the initial impulse was to enter the function menu where the A460’s manual controls are largely concentrated. The record menu uses a largely text-based scroll-down system with an opaque gray background. Scanning this menu and the sub-settings is accomplished entirely through the four-way control located on the back of the camera body.

Rec. Menu
AiAF	on, off
Slow Synchro	on, off
Red-Eye	on, off
Light Metering	evaluative, center-weighted average, spot
AF-assist Beam	on, off
Digital Zoom	on, off
Review	off, 2 – 10 seconds, hold
Disp. Overlay	off, grid lines, 3:2 guide, both
Date Stamp	off, date, date & time

The function menu uses a live view display with a graphic overlay on the left and bottom edges of the LCD screen. Sub-menu options are listed along the left edge and are scanned via the four-way control’s up and down arrows. Once an appropriate sub-menu has been highlighted, the user can scan the options listed along the LCD with the four-way control’s left and right arrows. Directly above the settings for each submenu there is a text description of the contents of each sub-menu. Further information could be helpful for novice users but the clean and uncluttered system found here is a welcome and somewhat surprising relief when contrasted to the design of the camera’s back face. The function menu is accessed by pressing the function/set button located beneath the four-way control.

FUNC. Menu
Mode	manual, super-macro
Exposure	+/- 2 EV, 1/3 EV step increment scale
ISO	auto, 80, 100, 200, 400
White Balance	auto, day light, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, custom
Drive Mode	single, Continuous, 10 second self timer, 2 second self timer, custom self timer
My Colors	off, vivid, neutral, sepia, black & white, custom color
Image Size	L (2592 x 1944), M1 (2048 x 1536), M2 (1600 x 1200), S (640 x 480), Postcard (1600 x 1200), Wide (2592 x 1456)

The playback menu is perhaps the least logical of all the menu systems with opaque sub-menu screens opening once a selection is made.

Playback Menu
Slide Show	all images, date, folder, movie, still, custom and effect
Sound Memo	record, pause, play, erase, exit
Protect	on, off
Rotate	rotation of image
Erase All	ok, cancel
Transfer Order	order, mark all, reset

The Canon PowerShot A460’s setup menu is identical in design and layout to the Rec. menu and can be found in both shooting and playback modes. Access to the setup menu is gained by pressing the menu button on the back of the camera and moving to the right of either the playback or rec. menu tab located at the top of the menu system.

Setup Menu
Mute	on, off
Volume	start-up volume, operation volume, self-timer volume, shutter volume, playback volume
Start-up Image	on, off
LCD Brightness	normal, bright
Power Saving	auto power down, display off
Date/time	set date/time, ok, cancel
Format	cancel, ok, low level format
File Numbering	continuous, auto, reset
Create New Folder	create new folder, auto create
Lens retract	1 minute, 0 seconds
Language	twenty-five language optiosn
Video System	NTSC, PAL
Print Method	auto, borderless printing with appropriate Canon compact photo printer
Reset All	cancel, ok

Ease of Use (6.5)
If left in auto mode, the Canon PowerShot A460 will never overwhelm the user. Sure, certain necessary controls like zoom are absurdly placed and poorly labeled, but the menu system is simplified in auto mode. But once the auto mode is switched off, all bets are off the table. The layout and design of the Function Menu is illogical when taking into consideration settings like the long shutter speed and image compression. For its reasonable price and intended point-and-shoot audience, this model could definitely benefit from a design overhaul that would make it coherent regardless of shooting mode. Spend the afternoon with the owner’s manual before taking the camera out for a spin will definitely be beneficial.