Canon PowerShot A3300 IS: Video and Image Quality

Video Quality
The PowerShot A3300's HD 1280 x 720p 30 fps movie mode can actually compete with a dedicated video camera and that opens up some interesting possibilities. Unlike many digicams, the A3300's optical zoom function can't be operated while in video capture mode. The video clip which accompanies this review was shot on our brightly lit riverfront. You know it is springtime in Louisville, Kentucky when city workers start sprucing the city up for the Kentucky Derby.

Image Quality
Colors (default Canon color interpolation) are bright, hue accurate and natural-looking though visibly over-saturated. Reds are warmer than they are in real life, blues are a bit too bright, greens are more vibrant than those seen by the naked eye, and purples tend toward blue. Most casual shooters won't consider these minor color intensity/shift variations as faults. Although there is a slight tendency toward overexposure, in bright outdoor light the A3300 IS produces reliably well-exposed, sharply focused, and almost noise-free images. Images are detailed and unexpectedly sharp. In bright contrasty lighting highlight detail was occasionally blown-out. Overall, the A3300's image quality is on the high side of average for cameras in this class.

The A3300 provides users with an acceptable selection of White Balance options, including Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and custom. The A3300 IS's Auto WB system does a remarkably good job across the board.

Auto White Balance, 5500k fluorescent light

The A3300 IS provides a reasonable range of sensitivity options, including Auto and user-set options for ISO 80 to ISO 1600. ISO 80 and ISO 100 images are indistinguishable - both show bright colors, slightly flat native contrast and very low noise levels. ISO 200 images also look very good, but with a little less pop.

ISO 80	ISO 80, 100% crop
ISO 100	ISO 100, 100% crop
ISO 200	ISO 200, 100% crop
ISO 400	ISO 400, 100% crop
ISO 800	ISO 800, 100% crop
ISO 1600	ISO 1600, 100% crop

At the ISO 400 setting noise levels are noticeably higher and there's a (barely) perceptible loss of minor detail. Higher sensitivity settings show flat colors, reduced contrast, lots of noise and fuzzy details. ISO 800 images are noisy, but not as noisy as expected - they should be OK for e-mail, Facebook, and 3 x 5 inch or 4 x 6 inch prints. I didn't shoot any ISO 1600 images.

Additional Sample Images