Photograghy News,Reviews

Monday, October 24, 2005

Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera Review


Canon PowerShot A620 is a low cost/high performance Canon digital camera as Canon says:

"We regard the PowerShot A620 and PowerShot A610 as mini-G cameras – offering G-series performance, but retaining an A-series price," said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe. " With an impressive range of high-end features, these cameras offer photography enthusiasts advanced control and flexibility."

The addition of Canon’s advanced DIGIC II image processor results in faster and more responsive cameras that deliver improved image quality. Focusing time has been cut by around 60%, and shutter lag is negligible at no more than 0.1 seconds. Smooth continuous shooting is now available at approximately 1.9 fps (A620) and approximately 2.4 fps (A610). With DIGIC II’s superior assessment of white balance, colour rendition accuracy is increased.

Cnet Reviews Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera and Says:

Design
From the front, other than its battleship-grey body (in contrast with the A95's silver styling), it's unlikely you'll see much difference between the Canon PowerShot A620 and its predecessor. It's about the same size and weight (11.5 with four AA batteries and SD card) and has a nice-size handgrip, which means that those with larger hands will find it more comfortable to hold than the many ultracompact models on the market today.

However, the vari-angle LCD now measures 2 inches, and because of its increased size, Canon has moved some of its buttons. A small mode switch sits horizontally to the upper right of the LCD, so toggling between playback and capture takes little effort. Below, four control buttons surround the four-way controller. One does multiple duties by deleting images during playback, adjusting exposure compensation, and in full manual mode, jumping between aperture and shutter-speed settings. A display button cycles through three LCD options: off, no information, and full information. The Canon PowerShot A620 also has a Menu button and a Print/Share button for transferring images to a computer or a compatible printer.

Features
The Canon PowerShot A620 digital camera has it all: full manual exposure controls; auto, program and scene modes for snapshooting; and a high-quality video mode -- there's something for every photographer and every shooting situation. You can even choose a shooting mode that fits your mood. After all, some days you might just want to point and shoot; other days, you might feel more enthused about manual controls.

While you won't find as many advanced features as on some more sophisticated cameras, the Canon PowerShot A620 digital camera provides enough to keep most control-happy photographers satisfied. They include manual white balance, low sharpening, sepia and black-and-white effects, three metering options and settings for vivid and neutral colour.

We particularly like two features: the camera's Flexizone focusing option and the ability to layer a grid over the LCD to line up horizons and other straight edges. The Flexizone option lets you manually move the focus point so that your off-centre subjects come out sharp. Another helpful feature is Safety Shift, which functions in aperture-priority or shutter mode and selects the proper aperture or shutter-speed setting if your choice doesn't quite work out. For instance, if your selected shutter speed requires an aperture wider than the PowerShot A620 can produce, the camera compensates to prevent an underexposed shot. You can also save your settings so that you don't have to dig around the setup menu to prevent the camera from resetting everything when it powers down.

Performance
The addition of Canon's Digic II processor kicks the Canon PowerShot A620 up a notch or two from the PowerShot A95, but it's still not the fastest camera on the block. That said, it generally performed well in our tests, with a time to first shot of less than 2 seconds and a shot-to-shot time of about 1.8 seconds. Not surprisingly, using the flash slowed things down, and we had to wait about 3 seconds for the flash to recycle.

At about 1.8fps, the Canon PowerShot A620's continuous-shooting speed at high resolution was faster than the A95's; and even after 60 shots, the camera kept on taking pictures. Low-resolution continuous-shooting speed was down only a fraction of a second from the PowerShot A95's, coming in at 2fps. Again, the A620 seemed to set no limit on the number of images it would capture, but we stopped after 50.

Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera Specifications

Sensor
• 1/1.8" Type CCD
• 7.1 million effective pixels

Movie clips
• 640 x 480, 30/15 fps
• 320 x 240, 60/30/15 fps
• 160 x 120, 15 fps

Lens
• 4x optical zoom

LCD monitor
• 2.0 " TFT LCD
• 115,000 pixels

Connectivity
• USB 2.0 Hi-speed (mini-B, PTP)
• A/V out

Storage
• SD / MMC card
• 32 MB SD card supplied

Weight (no batt) 2
235 g (8.3 oz)

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