To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
The A3200 IS one of many Canon cameras jostling for attention in the sub-£150 sector. It has some distinguished company, including the cheap and cheerful PowerShot A800 and the feature-packed Canon Ixus 115 HS. The A3200 IS’s price and features place it in between its two siblings. The metal body and Li-ion battery help to keep the bulk down, although unlike the stylish Ixus 115 HS, there’s no attempt to disguise the fact that this is a budget camera.
It’s actually a little faster to adjust settings than on the pricier Ixus, thanks to a mode dial and a simpler menu layout. There are no manual exposure options but the scene modes and creative filters are likely to prove more popular among non-technical photographers.
Selecting P for Program on the dial gives access to all the key settings we expect, such as ISO speed and white balance. Auto mode has a more limited set of options, but still includes easy access to a Track Focus mode, which follows moving subjects around the frame to ensure that they’re in focus. It’s a similar idea to face detection, and while it requires a little more effort from the user, it doesn’t get confused by tricky lighting or when people turn their heads.
Video is recorded at 720p, with clip lengths limited to 22 minutes – longer than most cameras at this price. Its inability to zoom or refocus while recording is typical, as is the low 12kHz audio sample rate, resulting in a lack of high-frequency crispness. Video picture quality was pretty good, though, with restrained noise levels, accurate colours and sharp details.
The camera was generally responsive in use, but quick successions of shots were on the slow side at 2.7 seconds between shots in Program mode and 3.5 seconds in Auto mode. Image quality was up to scratch, though, with expertly judged automatic settings producing consistently flattering exposures. Details were reasonably sharp, although the edges of frames suffered a little from chromatic aberrations and the 140mm telephoto zoom position wasn’t as sharp as other focal lengths.
Considering its 14-megapixel sensor, the results aren’t too badly smudged by excessive noise reduction – click to enlarge
The 14-megapixel resolution is needlessly high, capturing more detail than anyone is likely to need, and as a result, more noise than anyone wants to see. Sadly, it’s increasingly difficult to avoid these sensors in budget cameras. Some noise was visible even in well-lit scenes, but these photos didn’t exhibit the syrupy smudges caused by excessive noise reduction in many rival cameras. Optical stabilisation meant that the camera could use slower shutter speeds in low light rather than resorting to noise-inducing fast ISO speeds. When fast ISO speeds were necessary, noise reduction lead to extremely soft details but noise was successfully kept under control. As a result, shots taken indoors were the right side of acceptable, and often looked excellent once they’d been resized to fit a computer screen.
On paper, the A3200 IS is extremely similar to the Panasonic FS16 and S3, both of which picked up four stars last month. The Canon sits between the two for price but it has a bigger zoom range and nudges into the lead for image quality. This is particularly noticeable in low light where its approach to noise reduction produced more natural looking results than the Panasonics’ tendency for unsightly smudges and blotches.
So while we’re extremely hesitant about handing out a five-star rating to a 14-megapixel compact camera, we won’t hold back on principle. This is the best digital camera we’ve seen for around £100, and a worthy Budget Buy award winner.
