My Canon A430 Is Doing To Bad Of A Job!! Any new suggestions like the A570 IS around its price range???

Question

My brother thought me everything there is to know and its not me, it’s the camera.

Answer 1

Jack, have you thoroughly read and studied your Owner's Manual?

Are you comfortable using all the features and settings on your camera?

For some reason people always blame the equipment - the computer, the car, the camera, whatever - for any problems. In most instances its "operator error" to blame.

Many people seem to think that buying a newer camera with more bells & whistles will somehow elevate them to a higher level of photography.

Of course this isn't true - the most expensive, technologically advanced camera in the hands of an unskilled photographer will produce the same mediocre results.

A camera is just a tool, like a violin or guitar or hammer or saw. A person unskilled in the use of any tool will produce very poor results. It requires years of lessons and practice for someone to become proficient with a violin or guitar. Aspiring carpenters go through an apprenticeship program to become skilled in the use of their tools.

Take classes in photography if you can. If none are available, buy the book "Object & Image: An Introduction To Photography, Third Edition" by George M. Craven. Read and study your Owner's Manual. Buy a copy of The Magic Lantern Guide for your camera if one is available.

IMO, every aspiring photographer should begin with a totally manual 35mm film camera like the Pentax K1000 or Canon FTb or Minolta SRT-202. Using one of these cameras will teach you about f-stops and shutter speeds and ISO (known as ASA when those cameras were new). They also help you learn to slow down and actually think about the scene. (My major complaint about digital cameras is that they encourage what I call the "machinegun approach" to photography: make 300 exposures and hope 10% are worth keeping and/or spend hours in an editing program trying to make a mediocre image into an average one. Imagine a 10% success rate using a 36 exposure roll of film. It would be a very poor photographer who shot that roll. Do I always go 36 for 36? Of course not - I'm human. I often come close though.)

Answer 2

In what way is the camera doing a bad job? Are you blaming the camera for faults which, without wishing to be nasty in any way, may be your fault as the photographer? Why do you think a new camera will improve your photographs?

Answer 3

I have the A570 IS and I love it, especially the fact that you can add and get different lenses for it