The PowerShot brand of Canon has been thriving in the digital imaging industry for a long time. For your information, Canon kicked off the brand way back in 1995, hence, it is celebrating its fourteenth anniversary this year. Under its umbrella, the PowerShot brand encompasses different series of cameras, ranging from digital compacts to prosumer models. The G series is the flagship lineup of the brand. Another series, the SX, consists of ultrazoomers. But presumably, the most popular is the A series, whose target market is the masses. For the majority’s delight, Canon brought to us the latest release from the said lineup – the PowerShot A480.

 An essential digital compact that is easy on the budget, the 10-megapixel Canon PowerShot A480 espouses a simple design dabbed with subtle curves on the edges. The model that we received was dressed in red. For those who are uncomfortable with this color, the A480 is available in black, blue, and silver as well.

 In terms of glassware, the A480 makes use of a Canon Zoom lens with 6.6 – 21.6mm (35mm equivalent: 37 – 122mm) focal length, 3.3x optical zoom, and approximately 4x digital zoom.

 We all know that the PowerShots are not as sexy as the IXUSes. However, from this angle, we can see that Canon has managed to make the stocky A480 a bit curvy for better grip.

 Out of the box, the A480 is bundled with a lanyard, a pair of AA batteries, USB cable, 32MB SD card, software disc, and standard A/V cable.

Starting off the test with this standard shot, we can see here the accurate rendition of different colors of the Rubix cube and skin tone. No perceptible color bias on the white areas is observed.

Going out of the office, we walked around the Mediterranean-inspired setting of the plaza at Eastwood City, and took shots of these dramatic sights:

 The clock tower at 3.3x optical magnification. It’s time for lunch, so we looked for a good place to eat. 

 The mood will never be complete without good food. We decided to go Italian this time, and chose a platter of fettuccine alfredo, meat lasagna, spaghetti with meat sauce, and garlic bread. Here’s the macro shot of it. 

 After the hearty lunch, we went to the nearest mall in the vicinity. Under average indoor light settings, we noticed that the A480 had a hard time focusing on its subjects. Hence, one of the photos ended up fuzzy when shot inside a flower shop.

ISO 400

 ISO 800

ISO 1600

The clock tower by night. Although the A480 was able to preserve the details, it is pretty obvious that image noise started to worsen at ISO 800. Of course, at ISO 1600, you could no longer expect better. The most acceptable night shots that we got are those which were captured at ISO 400.

If it only arrived ahead of our deadline, the PowerShot A480 could have made it in our digital camera shootout which will be out in HWM next month. Nonetheless, our friends from Canon Philippines were able to send us its relative, the A470, which performed well in our battery of tests. Capped with a relatively affordable price tag of PhP 9,950, we couldn’t see any valid reason for the budget-conscious Juans and Marias to have an aversion to the thought of deciding on the PowerShot A480.