New Canon A2100 IS and A1100 IS disappoint without manual exposure

The two new Canon A2100-IS and A1100-IS follow up on the A2000 IS and A1000 IS which disgraced the A-series tradition by having their PSAMs removed. The A2000/A1000 duo is just six months old, they were announced in August 2008.

Sadly, the two new models appear to NOT have manual-exposure either as you can see by going through the detailed specifications at dpreview.

This is sad really.

Canon A1100 IS
Perhaps more interesting of the two may be the A1100, especially among those who prefer an optical viewfinder (OVF) in their digital cameras. This has a 12mp 1/2.3" sensor, a 4x optical zoom lens (not wide), a modest 2.5" LCD display, and a reasonable starting price of $200 when it comes out in March.

Sadly though, no manual exposure not even Tv/Av!

Canon A2100 IS
The A2100 is the higher model number, and it has a longer 6x optical zoom lens and a 3" LCD, but it's pretty similar in most other aspects. Except of course it does NOT have an optical viewfinder. OVFs are becoming more and more rare in compact digital cameras, so don't hold that against Canon, but do hold the absence of manual exposure against them.

The starting price will be $250 when this camera rolls out in April 2009.

Canon A480 makes US debut
The A480 was announced in mid-January in many markets. It now makes its US debut, no doubt because of the thousands of "letter to the editor" professional photographer requests for this model ;-)

This lovely will come out in March for $130.

For the above, and all the other new Canons, you can see the summary Canon press release at the Imaging Insider.