Canon Powershot A560

The DIGIC III processor inside the camera allows face detection, a technology that is a must-have considering the kind of obscure focus that a lot of lower-end digital cameras. Sadly, this feature was not very well implemented, considering the results we got from our tests. I would say it was more of a hit and miss, according to the kind of backgrounds or lighting conditions that you shoot in. Still, the camera did manage to get the right focus more often than not.

What the camera required the most, however, is a good optical image stabilization. The digital image stabilization simply didn't work too well, and added up to the image noise, but more on that later. I guess Canon decided to keep optical image stabilization as a primary feature that separates this model from the Canon Powershot A570.

Besides, all the expected scene modes (check tech specs for a listing), the A560 also provides a decent amount of manual control over your shots. Besides manual control over the exposure, there's also an option for manual focus, for times when the camera just can't seem to get it right. The manual focus came especially handy when shooting in macro mode, where the camera would find it a bit hard to focus on the right part.

Features-wise, the A560 has the stuff where it matters making it an ideal no-nonsense value camera.