Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Considering Canon A520 vs. either Nikon 5600/5900

May 8, 2005 12:04AM PDT

I am looking to get a new compact-ish point and shoot dcam and considering either the Canon A520 or either of the Nikon 5600/5900 models.

My criteria for decision is based on:

Liking the grip the two models offer in their shape (want good cam hand feel)

Ability to take good pics in low light, particularly at night.

Doesn't chew through batteries and can 're-charge' easily in other countries where voltage is different and not always compatible. (not sure if all a/c adapters are worldwide compatible these days)

Good size base memory card

Compatible with Window 2000 Pro. Noticed many of the reviews state that you need XP.

Megapixel size isn't too important, I'm a hobby-ist, although I want to buy the most for my $.

Any comments?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Recommended brands
May 8, 2005 2:52AM PDT

Canon Ixus and Casio Exilim with 5MP are good and reliable. Both uses SD memory cards. Presently the prices of these two brands are moving down and affordable. But still look around for comparison. Cheers

- Collapse -
Canon A520 Nikon 5600/5900
May 8, 2005 8:26AM PDT

1. Liking the grip - You need to visit a camera store and hold each camera to determine if it fits your hand.

2. Low light and night photography - Both Nikons are point-and-shoot cameras. Which means they give you few controls to affect night photography. They do have a "Night Landscape" setting, and that is just about all you can do.

The Canon A520 has manual override controls such as:
Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program and Manual settings. This can give you total control of night shooting.

For flash shooting, the Nikon 5900 has the strongest flash with a rating of 14.8 feet. The other two cameras have a rating of about 11 feet.

3. Battery Life should be good on any of the cameras.

Recharger for the Nikon 5900 is included with the camera and I could not find any information about it's capability in other countries.

The Canon A520 and the Nikon 5600 come with standard Alkaline batteries. If you want a charger you will have to purchase it along with some NiMH batteries.

4. No camera comes with a good size memory card.
You will want to purchase a large memory card for any 4 or 5 megapixel camera. At least 256 meg.

5. Windows 2000 Pro - should not be a problem, as you can always buy a card reader instead of using the software that comes with the camera.

6. 4 or 5 megapixels are the norm for this year. Either will provide all the necessary pixels for the hobby-ist.

.................

Here are links to reviews of all three cameras:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a510_a520-review/index.shtml

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/coolpix4600_5600-review/index.shtml

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/coolpix5900_7900-review/index.shtml


...
..
.

- Collapse -
D-Lighting on Nikon is very noisy
May 8, 2005 2:23PM PDT

I just bought the Nikon S1, which seems like pretty much a slimmed down version of the 5900 you're looking at. I see that you're interested in low light shooting, so you might be attracted by the D-lighting (digital flash) function of the 5900. Don't be! Unless it's better than on the S1, there's so much noise it makes the picture look comic bookish. The red eye reducer, however, works very well.

As for charging in other countries, the power cord for the dock is a two piecer, and you could probably find an attachment for different plugs. At least, that's why I assume they make them like that, not just to make them bulkier to pack.