Canon PowerShot E1 Digital Camera Review

Canon PowerShot E1

First Impressions Review

Oct 02, 2008 - By Mark Brezinski
The Canon PowerShot E1 is a 10-megapixel point-and-shoot designed for a young audience. The camera's design features a lot of curves and rounded edges, and it comes in an array of pastel colors. It's squarely aimed at the Hannah Montana market, but we're wondering whether that demographic wants its digital gear festooned in baby shower colors and cutesy design. The camera comes with both a totally automated easy mode and some manual options, so young photographers who do pony up $199.99 for the E1 will have a reasonably full-featured piece of gear.
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Canon PowerShot E1

Viewfinder
The PowerShot E1 has a basic viewfinder that can be useful if you want to to save on battery power, or if the sun so bright that seeing the LCD is difficult.


A very simple viewfinder

LCD Screen
The LCD measures 2.5 inches and the resolution is only 115,000 pixels, which is definitely on the low end of today's market. However, Canon has made the wise choice of making all the icons and menus quite large, so you don't have to squint at the otherwise sub-par screen.

In German or English, this is a pretty low resolution LCD


Flash
In our brief, entirely non-scientific tests, the flash seemed pretty bright, considering its small size. The refresh speed was reasonably fast, and it was quite powerful. As with most point-and-shoots, the proximity of flash to the lens means you might have problems with red-eye.


In our informal hands-on experience, the flash seemed
pretty powerful for its size.

 
Lens
The lens on the E1 offers 4x optical zoom, a bit longer than the 3x you'll often find on cameras at this price, with an equivalent zoom range of 35 - 140mm on a 35mm camera. Maximum aperture is f/2.7 at the widest angle, f/5.6 at full zoom.

The 4x zoom is a bit better than average

Connections
The E1 has a standard, mini-USB jack, located on the upper right side of the camera, along with a DC input.



USB and DC power
Battery
The E1 takes AA batteries, which means that you can easily find some more if you run out while on the road or vacation. Using Ni-MH rechargeable batteries with the LCD on, the AAs should last for approximately 450 shots. An optional AC adapter will let you plug into the wall.
 
AA batteries and SD cards are both cheap and easy to find
Memory
The E1 can take SD, SDHC and MMC cards, all of which are inexpensive and readily available.

 

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