Canon PowerShot A2400 IS

With its 5x zoom lens, 16-megapixel CCD sensor, and sharp, optically stabilized lens, the Canon PowerShot A2400 IS ($159.99 direct) is a pretty good point-and-shoot?camera?if you're on a tight budget. ?For the price, sacrifices must be made: The camera struggles with noise, failing to record fine detail at high ISO settings, and its video capture capabilities leave a lot to be desired. The A2400 poses no danger to our Editors' Choice midrange compact, the Canon PowerShot Elph 310 HS ($259.99, 4 stars), but it isn't a bad choice if you have less than $200 to spend.

Design and Features
The camera's metal body is quite compact, measuring just 2.1 by 3.7 by 0.8 inches (HWD). It is identical in size and shape to the Canon PowerShot A2300 ($149.99, 3 stars), but the A2400 is about a half ounce heavier, weighing in at 5 ounces. The difference in weight is likely due to the optical stabilization system, which is not found in the A2300. Canon sent us a blue review unit, and the camera is also available in silver, black, or pink.

A 5x zoom lens covers a very useful 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) focal range, and can let a good amount of light in thanks to its relatively fast f/2.8 wide angle aperture. Things get a bit dicey as you zoom in?the lens aperture reduces to f/6.9 at its telephoto extreme, which only lets in about one-sixth the light. Thankfully the camera's lens is stabilized, which should help you get sharp photos when zoomed all the way in without having to worry too much about using a fast shutter speed. The 5x zoom lens is pretty typical for a camera in this price range, but if you feel that a longer zoom is necessary there are bargains to be found. The General Electric E1410SW ($159.99, 3.5 stars) features a 10x lens that covers a 28-280mm field of view?making it possible to zoom in on distant objects.

The control layout is similar to that of the Canon PowerShot A4000 IS ($199.99, 3.5 stars), but the buttons are not as compressed as they are on that camera due to the A2400's smaller 2.7-inch rear LCD. You'll find dedicated buttons to activate Macro mode, toggle between full Auto mode and other shooting modes, and to adjust the Flash output. There's also a Help button that brings up an on-screen manual and a Record button that activates the camera's video mode.

The 2.7-inch rear LCD features a 230k-dot resolution. It's fairly sharp, although more expensive cameras, like the Elph 310 HS, sometimes feature 3-inch displays with 460k dots. The camera's shooting menu is an overlay design?hit the Function button and it shows up on the left side of the rear screen. From here you can change the Mode, adjust Exposure Compensation to brighten or darken a scene, control the White Balance, and adjust the ISO, among other settings. The menu is easy to navigate and quite snappy, so changing settings should be a breeze.

Performance and Conclusions
The A2400 isn't exactly a slow poke, but it's not the fastest gun in the Wild West either. It takes 2.4 seconds to start up and take a photo, can snap a shot every 1.4 seconds in continuous drive mode, and records a 0.3 second shutter lag. This puts it on par with the Samsung MV800 ($279.99, 2.5 stars), which boots and shoots in 2.3 seconds, takes a photo every 1.6 seconds, and delivers a 0.4-second shutter lag. It does trail behind the Canon PowerShot Elph 110 HS ($249.99, 3 stars), a camera that starts in 2.1 seconds but can grab a shot every 0.6 second and only records a 0.2 second shutter lag.

I used?Imatest?to measure the sharpness of the A2400's photos and found the results to be good, but not off the charts. It scored 1,907 lines per picture height on the sharpness test, which is higher than the 1,800 line mark that we used to classify an image as acceptably sharp. The Elph 110 HS did better here as well, notching a fantastic 2,189 lines.

Imatest also measures noise, which is one area where the A2400 lags well behind the curve. It can only shoot photos with less than 1.5 percent noise at its base ISO of 100?the noise increases to around 1.7 percent from ISO 200 through ISO 800. At ISO 1600 it hits 2.3 percent, which makes for a very grainy photo. Even though the numbers were a little bit high, the noise isn't the real issue here. When you shoot the camera at ISO 800 and above, excessive noise reduction kills the fine detail in photos. For best results, you should keep the camera set to ISO 400 or lower. Other cameras do a better job controlling noise. The Elph 310 HS can grab clean images through ISO 800, and does a pretty good job with image detail at that setting.

Video performance is a little lacking. The A2400 records QuickTime footage at 720p25 resolution. This isn't the best choice for capturing fast motion, but that isn't the major issue. The footage itself is grainy, even under studio lights, and the camera's lens cannot zoom in or out while footage is rolling. You do have access to a digital zoom, but using it makes the quality of the video degrade drastically. The camera has a standard mini USB port to connect to a PC, and records photos to SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards.

If you're looking for a camera and working within a budget, the A2400 IS is not a bad way to go?as long as you are aware of its struggles at higher ISO settings. More expensive cameras, like our Editors' Choice Elph 310 HS, can produce better photos in more challenging conditions and deliver better video, but that camera costs a full $100 more. If you feel limited by the camera's 5x zoom lens, consider the $200 Canon A4000 IS, which is very similar in design, but delivers a lens with an 8x zoom factor. The General Electric E1410SW is the same price as the A2400 and features a 10x zoom lens. If the 28mm wide angle just isn't wide enough for you, the flip-screen Samsung MV800 is just a little bit wider at 26mm, although it is more than $100 more expensive, and has similar low-light difficulties.

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