I was using a P'shot A700 while my D20 was being fixed, and wanted to use the "Aperture Priority" mode to get a better depth of field, similar to what I do with a dSLR. However, when viewing the photos we found that they are VERY noisy and totally unusable. Can you really use this camera in this mode successfully? Am I missing something?

Thanks...Jan

Check the ISO sensitivity setting on the camera? the Powershot A700 features ISO 800 which in compact cameras is extremely noisy. It may be set to auto or set at ISO 800 at the moment. You're sure you're in AV mode?

Thanks, deckcadet...didn't realize it was set at such a high ISO automatically! Changed it from 800 to 100 and shall see a diff, I'm sure. Appreciate the QUICK help!
Jan

I don't know how much you know about the differences between compact digital cameras and digital SLRs. But compact digicams have much smaller sensors. The smaller pixels mean more noise. Whether the image file is usable or not is another question. I've found that a well-exposed image shot at a low ISO with a good compact is often very usable. Of course, if you compare at 100% on the computer monitor, the compact camera file will look like crap. For that reason, I do 8.5x11 test prints to get a good real-world idea of the image quality.

Do you know what ISO you shot the image at? Have you tried printing it? What's the subject? Maybe you can post a sample. In any case, it's unrealistic to expect the same image quality from the A700 as you get from your EOS 20D. Whether the images are actually usable or not is another issue.