Canon PowerShot A430

Canon is probably the next largest recognized name in photography next to Kodak. I have bought two other digital cameras from Canon and been very happy with them. When it came time for my wife to purchase one for her day care through a recycling program, Funding Factory, I didn't even consider other brands. Canon has a good reputation and good warranty for their cameras. I found the A430 in the list of available cameras and of course looked up the specs and opinions of others. Here are some things I found out.

Canon A430 Specifications:
4 Megapixel
4x optical zoom
3.6x digital zoom
TTL Auto focus
5.4 - 21.6mm f/2.8-5.8 focal length (35mm film equivalent 39-156mm)
1.8 inch LCD screen
Optical zoom viewfinder
SD memory card multimedia card
Still image sizes 640 x 480 1,024 x 768 1,600 x 1,200 2,272 x 1,704 2,272 x 1,80
Movie sizes 640 x 480 320 x 240 160 x 120
USB mini B jack
2 AA battery power
Weight 5.64 oz not including batteries and memory card
Dimensions 4.06 x 2.04 x 1.58 inches

Okay, you may not know what any of this is but I will explain and help you figure out what this stuff really means. The basics of the camera are that it is a 4 Megapixel camera with a total 7.6 zoom. This means it will have 4 million little dots of color on each picture when you press that shutter button. The more individual little dots or pixels the better and sharper the image will be when you print it out. The 7.6 zoom means the camera will increase the size of objects by 7.6 times both optically using the lens and digitally with the cameras electronics.