I was planning to buy a new Digital camera which would about 3.2 megapixels and was kind of indifferent between Nikon Coolpix 3200(a very good camera too) and Canon Powershot A75. At the end I decided on the later(because of its manual features) and I am quite happy with its performance.
The Canon Powershot A75 box comes bundled with the following items
The 3.2 effective Megapixel Canon PowerShot A75 camera
32MB CompactFlash card (still you want to buy an extra 128 or 256 MB Card)
Four AA alkaline batteries
Wrist strap
USB cable
A/V cable
CD-ROM featuring Canon Digital Camera Solutions, ArcSoft Camera Suite, and drivers
153 page camera manual + software manual (both printed)
The camera is a fairly small camera though its not Elph-sized. It has a 1.8 inch LCD display screen.
The camera has a bunch of accessories considering its price. If the 35 - 105 mm lens just doesn’t cover enough range for you, Canon offers three conversion lenses. The WC-DC52 brings the wide end of the lens down to 26.6 mm. If you need more telephoto power, the TC-DC52 bumps the tele end up to 252 mm. For macro shots, consider the 250D close-up lens, which lets you get even closer to your subject (especially at the tele end).
If you are into scuba diving or photographing under water (it has a underwater mode) you can buy a Canon A75 underwater case which custom made for the camera, this allows photographs to be taken 40 meters underwater.
Now about photography, Canon Powershot A75 is almost like a begginners’ Digital SLR. It has a wide range of Manual controls which allow you to set shutter speed in the range between 1/2000 sec to 15 secs, you can set the ISO speed of the camera from 50 - 400. You can manipulate the aperture, the white balance as well as manually focus. Like average SLR’s, you can divide the viewing screen into grids:- A 3by 3 matrix, or center metering or spot metering.
You can shoot video with audio in three modes. You can actually attach voice tags to different shutter functions, for example you can make the camera ’’say cheese’’ if you are using the self-timer function. You can do a slide show in the camera and use a voice tag(60 secs max.) which can play music or describe the photos.
It also has a one-click picture transfer feature which makes it easy to directly print(a compatible printer is needed) from the camera.
To sum up, the A75 is a great entry-level camera for both beginners and amateurs, and I highly recommend it.