Canon A2000 IS

Noise
Image noise is the occurrence of visual static across areas of your image, which becomes much more noticeable at high ISOs and in areas of solid color. Cameras that have significant levels of noise can make it difficult to shoot an acceptable imgae in poor lighting conditions.

Noise – Manual ISO (4.50)
The first part of our noise test involves shooting the GretagMacbeth color chart at every full resolution ISO under bright studio lighting, then running the resulting images through Imatest to look at noise levels across these settings.

As you can see, the noise levels bumped significantly after ISO 400, skyrocketing to 4% at ISO 1600, indicating significant image degradation. This peformance compares poorly with other cameras we've tested.

Auto Noise (1.14)
The second noise test uses the camera's automatic ISO function, so we can see how well the system can judge a well-lit scenario and choose an appropriate ISO setting. Under the sunny glare of 1700 lux, the Canon A2000 shot ISO 200, which is respectable, however the overall high noise levels gave it a thoroughly mediocre score in this section as well.

Low Light (6.93)
We tread a two-fold path to test a camera's low light abilities, first with varying light levels, and secondly with long exposures. The former involves shooting the ever-popular GretagMacbeth chart at 60 lux, 30 lux, 15 lux and 5 lux, which roughly equates to the light level of standard indoor nighttime illumination down to the light of a single candle.

The A2000 handled 60 and 30 lux without breaking its stride, maintaining good color accuracy, and expected noise levels. However, at 15 and 5 lux it really struggled, massively under-saturating the image, and at the lower level producing an excessive 6.5% image noise.

The second facet of this test  involves taking photographs of up to 30-second duration under low illumination. There is some manner of shutter speed control on the camera, but it's hidden inside the exposure compensation controls. Using this you can manually set up shutter speeds from 1-second to 15-seconds. Unfortunately, when you do so, you lose any sort of exposure compensation controls, and the camera doesn't give you any indication that you'll under- or over-expose the image. Regardless, we tested for color accuracy and noise levels at 1-second, 5-seconds, 10-seconds and 15-seconds, and when we managed to expose properly, we were pleasantly surprised by good color accuracy and noise levels between 1.5% and 2%.

Overall, the A2000 did well in low light. Its high noise levels and tendency to under-saturate conjoined were offset by a good result in the long exposure section to bump the score noticeably.

Canon PowerShot A2000 IS Low Light Scores

Still Life
To give you an idea of  how noise levels increase with rising ISO levels, here is a series of images taken at all full resolution ISOs under fluorescent lights, using the camera's auto exposure settings. You can click on any of them to see the full-size versions, but keep in mind that these are large images so they may take some time to load.

ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600

Video Performance (7.06)
A digital still camera is no replacement for a camcorder (at least not yet), but being able to capture rudimentary video with your point-and-shoot is still useful. As part of our regular testing regimen, we test video frame grabs for the same color accuracy, image noise and resolution qualities we look for in still photography.

Low Light - 30 Lux
While inevitably worse than the 3000 lux setup, the A2000 still did pretty well under 30 lux illumination, especially with yellow-greens and light reds.

Resolution (1.99)

As with still resolution, video resolution is measured as alternating line widths per pixel height (lw/ph). The PowerShot did quite poorly in this test, shooting only 602 lw/ph horizontally and 331 lw/ph vertically.

Motion (1.50)

We took the A2000 out onto the mean streets of Boston to film speeding cars to test how well it it recorded motion. The camera accounted for itself pretty well, keeping up with moving objects without fuss or visile scan lines. Overall, the Canon scored well for video, based mostly on its excellent color performance.

Canon PowerShot A2000 IS Video Scores