Canon A620 Review

[daveg227]

I recently purchased the Canon A620, it was a bundled package with a Canon photo printer. It has been replaced by the Canon A630, but they are still very similar cameras. Compared to the Minolta S414 which I've used previously, it is much easier to use and the pictures are far superior.

It takes only a few minutes to set up once out of the box. I still haven’t opened the manuals for the camera. This camera is perfect for the average family photographer/flickr hope to be on "Explore" wannabe like me. It is very easy to use and has the more advanced features to become more involved with digital photography, which is what I will do as soon as I win one of the prizes for my review!!

The A620 uses 4 AA batteries, as with any digital camera use NiMH batteries and and you'll be all set. I have taken hundreds of pictures before having to recharge them.
Another thing is the tiny SD card that comes with the camera, I would suggest a 1gb which can be bought for around $20 .
However, the biggest issue I have with the camera is the plastic door which covers the camera's USB port is flimsy, and will more than likely end up breaking off.

The A620 is small but not so small that you can’t get a good grasp of it when taking pictures.



Overall I would strongly recommend this camera is for the everyday user, and for the price I don’t think you can find a better camera with the features it has available. However I there are not many places selling the A620, so you may have to go with the A630.



Based on my experience so far I would have to rate the camera a 9 out of 10 the only flaws being the flimsy USB door cover and the 32mb sd card that comes with it.

[googlit]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/cameras/134_model_large_f3e47fded1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/powershot_a620/)

Check out usage stats for this camera at flickr (http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/powershot_a620/).

[thekevinmonster]

I h ave one of these. I got it last summer for my birthday, and immediately discovered that I like taking photos. A lot.

Pros:
- AA batteries. Sure they're big and heavy, but you can power the camera on alkalines if you need to, and AA NIMH cells aren't expensive.
- Not too small. I don't want a camera so small that I can lose it. Plus, super small compact cameras often have a lot of distortion due to the teeny tiny lenses.
- Full manual mode. This is partly why I like the camera. I love having control, being able to eke out whatever I want by adjusting the white balance, exposure bias, shutter speed, flash sync, etc. You can go all the way from truly all manual mode to fully automatic.
- Good macro mode. I took a picture of something at a 45-degree angle from the lens, and part of the object was actually touching the lens barrel. Nevertheless, I got a razor sharp picture and it focused without a complaint.
- rotating LCD. I love the rotating LCD. I just did a very neat photo that involved the camera on the ground two feet from my bathtub. I wouldnj't have to been able to set the focus or do anything without being able to flip out the screen and look at while standing.

Cons / rant list:
- Noisy. Image noise and actual noise. The zoom is quite loud; turning the camera on and off will instantly provoke any nearby cat to stop being cute and come running to see what went "WHIRRRRRRRRRR!" Image noise is also rather awful - I find ISO 400 almost unusable. My mother's Sony DSC-H1 is nearly silent in comparison.
- Autofocus seems to miss the mark. Photos don't seem to be always razor sharp, which might be the focus messing up. Plus, I've found myself leaving it in center focus mode because the AiAF stuff will happily focus on That Twig That Is Nowhere Near The Thing You Are Shooting.
- Shutter lag. There's enough that it irritates me.
- No battery indicator. Seriously, you're taking pictures, and then "CHANGE BATTERY!" Off!
- Processing time is really long for long exposures. A 15s exposure nets about 15s worth of waiting around.
- Manual focus 'zoom' feature is useless. You get an option to 'blow up' part of the LCD to help you focus manually (which is pretty much necessary if you are doing crazy depth of field stuff.) However, it blows up the image on the LCD, it doesn't take a zoom capture of the data from the sensor. THus, you get this big pixelated bleaah thing to try and focus to.

Overall:

Surprisingly, I'm very glad I bought this camera. There might be a lot of cons, but these are cons that are making me go, "I need a DSLR". The sheer flexibility is great. I love being able to control what I'm doing, and yet still pull it out and take a nice snapshot.

It's also small enough that I wouldn't hesitate taking it to the amusement park, whereas I would *NOT* take a DSLR or something out there. With a pair of cargo pants, I could easily dunk the camera in there and hop on a roller coaster instead of cramming a giant bag of stuff into a cube locker.