I bought this camera a week ago after a lot of analysis of various options. My basic requirements were:- - Price below Rs. 20, 000 - 5 Megapixels - 3X Optical Zoom - Reputed manufacturer (read Canon, Nikon, Sony, Minolta, Olympus, Pentax) - Light weight I had to study a lot of web sites and photo mags to finally home on to three models - Canon A95, Nikon Coolpix 5200 and Sony P93. Having done the basic ground work, all that was left was to actually see these three cameras and do a hands on comparison.
I liked this particular model of the three because it met all the requirements listed above and in addition seemed to be of a very robust construction. The Nikon 5200 is a smaller camera, which on the face of it doesn’t seem to have so many features. The camera offers a plethora of shooting modes - Fully auto, programmed, shutter priority, aperture priority, movie mode, custom mode, portrait, landscape, night photo and many others, which I have not even begun to explore.
In fact, I must confess that I have shot about 50 photos so far only in Auto mode and the results have been superb. The swivelling LCD display, though similar to, is much bigger than the A80 which preceded this model. Keeping the LCD open is however a drain on the batteries. The camera comes along with four Alkaline batteries, which are not much good for prolonged use.
I would recommend going in for at least 4 x 2200 mAH NiMH batteries along with a good charger which should last for at least 1000 photos (depening on the LCD usage). You may also need to get an original Canon AC adaptor (ACK 600) for the camera, which is handly when you have to download a 100 or more images to the computer (else the batteries get drained). This however costs about Rs. 2000.
It may be preferable to then go in for a CF card reader which is about Rs. 5-600, which you can connect to the computer instead of the camera itself. The camera comes along with a 32MB CF card, which is more than what other camera manufacturers offer (Nikon only gives a 16 MB card), but quite small for extended shooting sessions.
It is worthwhile to invest in a 256 or 512 MB CF card which should safely be able to store at least 300-1000 images (depending on the size and resolution). Overall, a beautiful product, which I think does Canon’s already considerable reputation a real boost.