My young daughter has been using this 8-year-old camera, which still takes good pictures. However, recently the date and time need to be re-set every time it is switched on, it will not keep the settings when switched off, which is not really acceptable. Anyone know of a way around this please? The Canon website has no firm-ware upgrades for this camera. I do not like to throw out something which is still otherwise serviceable!! Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

 

Ther is a backup battery in the camera, one that keeps settings, date and things like that in memory even if the camera is off.
It sounds like it is flat, on some cameras there is a possibilty to change this while on others you need to tear it appart to get to the battery.
Luck has it that you can actually get to it on this camera, there is a little plastic "holder" under the usb connector. See this link. It is just a normal cheap battery, take it out and get one of the same type and you are ready to go.

 

Check the manual to see if there is a date/time battery. Many cameras have a small button cell to keep information such as date/time live when the main battery is removed. They can last years and years. If you have the manual in pdf search for "screwdriver" first, as in my canon dslr manual it says " use a small screwdriver"

 

Snorri and PeteRob, thankyou for your rapid responses, much appreciated! Located the cell, out later to Maplins for a new one.
This was first digi. camera I bought, I still like it, this Canon range were good in the hand with the substantial grip area, and very easy to use. I have a Pana. TZ8 now, but I prefer proper viewfinders, I may go for a Fuji X20 next, but they are a bit limited on zoom range.

 

In 2006 I bought an A510 on clearance for about £30 which served me well on my week's holiday in New York; this was a 3Mpix camera against the A520's 4MPix.... I had to buy another memory card whilst in NYC, and even discounted (at that time) it cost more than the camera had cost me, to the amusement of the guys in the shop where I bought the 1 Gig SD card.
What really galls these days is that these low-end Powershot cameras had full manual controls whereas for the past few years, Canon has removed such features from all but its high-end P&S models

 

I agree, however if you go to Argos you can buy a Powershot SX150 IS for under £70...this is a throwback to the original powershots as it has PASM and manual focus ... it doesn't have the tiny but still useful optical viewfinder....

 

Must say that doesn't bother me that much - with small sensor cameras, you don't gain that much anyway.

 

Have been looking for something to replace my A720IS when it finally gives up the ghost, but just can't find anything as versatile. I either have to sacrifice Manual/Tv/Av modes or give up the f2.8 lens, or pay 3x as much for an S model.

So fingers crossed the 720 is long-lived!

 

The SX260, SX270 or SX280 may be worth consideration although they lack an optical viewfinder (and are far pricier than the circa £35 I paid for my ex-display A510 in 2006)

 

I recently bought a Canon Powershot G1-X for those occasions when I don't want to lug all my DSLR gear around with me. Although it has the same zoom range as the X20 (28-112mmm equivalent), personally I find this to be quite adequate. If you go for longer zooms you introduce the problem of camera shake, and not all stabilisation systems are up to the job. It's a great little camera, the large sensor renders beautiful detail, and you have the choice of a traditional viewfinder as well as the usual LCD screen viewing, although the field of view is rather limited. I've actually got more used to the 'remote' viewing that modern compacts demand!

 

but it does enlarge the centre of the image to enable the focus to be checked
(This is an edit which I forgot to add...)