Written by: Lisa Pearson
As a photography novice, it is often difficult to find a decently priced camera that has a good balance between being a user friendly point-and-shoot camera while still taking quality photos. As much as I would like to buy a high quality camera that takes phenomenal pictures, I do not have the funds to purchase such a camera, or the know-how to operate the machinery.
The Canon PowerShot ELPH 310 HS is a point-and-shoot camera at a moderate price point that is both easy to use and takes high-quality photographs. The ELPH 310 HS makes taking pictures in a variety of settings easy and enjoyable. Most point-and-shoot cameras lack the color quality and features that are standard on the ELPH 310 HS. You are able to take nice, high quality photos and videos without much effort on your part.
The ELPH 310 HS is compact and super slim at 3.8 x 2.2 x 0.9 in inches and weighing a mere 4.9 ounces. You can easily tote this camera along to parties, trips, or to just carry in your pocket or purse as you never know when the opportunity for the perfect picture might come up. The camera itself is very stylish coming in a range of bright metallic colors that really make this camera stand out from the others. There are 2 control buttons each on the top, side, and back of the camera as well as a 3 inch LCD screen.
Some of the impressive features of the ELPH 310 HS are the variety in shooting modes and photo effects, 8x optical zoom, and color quality. The shooting modes allow you to take photos in a wide variety of settings such as low light for taking pictures of sunsets or in darker settings such as indoors. The photo effects allow you to transform regular photos to something much more memorable by changing the color of the photo to sepia, making certain colors stand out, or even make skin darker or lighter.
Another great feature of the ELPH is that it takes great, full 1080p HD 1080p video at 24 frames per second and 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. The ELPH 310 HS is able to play back videos at slow motion which is an unexpected surprise.
The Canon PowerShot ELPH 310 HS runs about $230 while cameras with similar features such as the Nikon Coolpix S4150 which runs at about $160. Both cameras are very popular and share the same attributes such as the same auto focus type, focus range, aspect ratio, 3-inch screen, and both are lightweight, ultra compact cameras. Although the ELPH costs more, it is certainly worth the extra money as other seemingly similar cameras lack the color quality, color effects, vivid HD video, and amount of zoom capabilities that the ELPH has.
The Canon Powershot ELPH 310 HS exceeded my expectations in a point-and-shoot camera. With this ultra-compact digital camera, you can take beautiful photos and videos that rival those taken with a DSLR camera at a fraction of the price.