jybravo70's Full Review: Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera
After nearly 2 years with this camera I almost hate to see it go. I purchased the camera in January 2006 on my second trip to China, for Chinese New Year. The first thing that amazed me was the camera¡¯s quality of shots of fireworks, there is a fireworks mode built in. The camera has many modes and the quality is better then expected and still brilliant after almost 2 years of heavy use.
The camera is sold as a pocket camera but I can only get it to fit into a jacket pocket. It is larger and bulky compared to the slim line digital cameras but its optics make up for this. Most of the camera¡¯s weight is due to its batteries. It requires 4 AA batteries. While many see this as a problem I see this as a plus. I travel around China quite a bit and often don't have access or time to charge an in-camera battery. Having the ability to go to any store and get good old standard AA batteries is very nice when visiting places like, the Great Wall of China or the Forbidden City. The optics are also better because of the camera¡¯s size, better CCD and lens.
The camera has many shooting modes and includes a manual and custom mode for creativity and to over ride the auto modes if you want to. Flash recharge is good, less then 2 seconds. Start up time is pretty fast, less then 3 seconds, and almost all the features you need to access are on the main dial or only 2 clicks away from the d-pad. Overall I was impressed with the quality and number of modes and used nearly every one except for the underwater mode. One very fun feature is the stitch feature, allowing you to take panoramic photos by stitching scenes together in the camera, nice feature but you can only stitch 2 to 3 photos together in camera, only the PC software allows for 360 degree stitching.
Picture quality was always excellent for 4x6 and 5x7 photos. Only in Auto or some of the preset modes did I get over or under exposed pictures. ISO maximum is 400, from my experience pocket cameras going above 400 generate too much noise. Color reproduction is excellent and you can customize colors and even do black and white with only 1 color being rendered, nice for unique art shots. Night shooting and low light black and white were marginal and required a tripod and deactivating the flash. This camera loves outdoor and bright environments. Most of my unusable pictures were due to camera shake, no vibration reduction, or me pushing the camera beyond its intended purpose.
The camera shoots video, compact to large format AVI, but quality is not very good. You can only zoom in with large format while shooting video and the sound quality is not very good. Shooting video with this camera is like shooting stills with a digital camcorder, a nice feature but used only when necessary. The video is edited best in Windows Movie Maker, a plus because it comes with XP.
Photo storage is excellent. SD cards have come down in price over the past 2 years and on the highest resolution and a 2 Gb card I can get 340 pictures. This is about as long as the batteries will last unless you use the flash a lot or keep the LCD on the whole time. The card slot is behind its own little door making card replacement a snap. USB upload times are short, only a couple of minutes for 2 Gb full cards.
Navigation menus and additional features are accessed via the Menu button and are no more then 3 layers deep which is almost perfect. In shooting operation mode features are accessible via the center d pad button and you have to use the LCD to change picture size, quality, mode, etc. Flash can be deactivated from a button on the back, nice as many other cameras require menu settings to accomplish this.
Packaged software is very good and versatile. You designate where you want to upload photos to once and the rest is automatic. The camera sorts the files by date, naming your folders by the date they were shot so you may have to rearrange them with names after uploading. Editing software is ok for standard but besides the normal features; crop, resize, red eye reduction, etc, it is limited. The best feature is the file system called Zoom browser. It allows you go view tiny thumbnails on the folders or if you open the folder tiny thumbnails you can hover over and see slightly larger thumbnails, invaluable to find a photo in a folder containing hundreds of shots. Transfer is easy and the software interface is fairly intuitive.
Overall impression was this is an excellent secondary camera or for point and shoot type moments; parties, day trips, impromptu situations. By using AA batteries it makes the camera very usable for the average person, forget to change the batteries¡ no problem, just stop off and pick up a 4 pack at the corner store. The camera is solid, weird for a plastic cased camera, and over 2 years of abuse it has never failed or missed a beat even once. Picture quality is excellent for scrap books and 4x6 or 5x7 print outs and for putting on digital photo frames. Camera features are numerous and fit almost every situation, having a manual and custom mode is a huge plus. Bundled software is very usable and easy to edit with, as long as the editing is only standard cropping and resizing. For an in between camera this one is excellent. While today there are more advanced cameras available, the price has dropped on this one and unless you are an amateur enthusiast photographer you do not need more then this camera can deliver. For the grandparents, kids going to college, or going on a trip you can¡¯t beat all this camera offers. I am replacing mine with an A720IS only because that one has higher mega pixels and is lighter and smaller. If the A640 was cheaper I would get it as it has all the same features of the A620 with all the modern upgrades of the past 2 years and 10 MP CCD.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 310 2-yr ago This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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