Canon PowerShot A630

Pros: Great hand grip, excellent manual controls, custom shooting mode, excellent image quality - very detailed and sharp

Cons: Low res. LCD screen, noisy zoom, zoom needs more steps, no live histogram, slight vignetting

Summary: I received my A630 about two weeks ago and have taken many indoor and outdoor photos. WOW!!! That’s all I NEED to say. But I also WANT to say more. The A630 is truly an excellent camera.

Here’s my review of each category:

Image Quality: I have been an S45 owner for the past 4 years, and my S45 takes superbly sharp, detailed and color accurate photos, with the exposure being somewhat fair to average. The S45’s main problem was corner vignetting and slight corner softness. The S45 is also a 4 MP, 3x optical zoom camera. These were great stats four years ago, but not today. It was time for me to make the upgrade to the 7 – 10 MP range with a bit more zoom. My challenge was to find a Canon camera that could take photo images as sharp and detailed or maybe even more sharp and detailed than my S45, and provide the same level of excellent color saturation and accuracy, with better overall exposure. A pretty tall order for any point & shoot camera. After spending much time researching various cameras, reading numerous reviews and viewing many internet photo samples, I narrowed down my choices to three Canon cameras. So a few weeks ago, I bought the A630 along with the A710IS and the newly released G7. I passed on the S3IS, mainly because it was too bulky and has 6 MP. My test shots included indoor scenes under incandescent and fluorescent lighting conditions and also with no lighting at all. Outdoor shots included landscape, buildings, people and moving objects in both sunny and cloudy conditions.

The results……….only the A630 produced better image quality than my S45, when viewed on my Dell Ultra Sharp 19” computer monitor and when printed out on my HP D7360 PhotoSmart printer. The sharpness was better and the level of detail in the A630 surpassed that of the S45. Image quality is excellent for both indoor and outdoor shots. The A710IS was a disappointment, as the images were noticeably less sharp and not as color accurate. The G7 was close to the S45 in image quality, but not as good as the A630, and for the fact that the A630 costs half as much as the G7, it was a no brainer to send the G7 back to the store, although I loved the G7’s feature set and higher resolution LCD screen. The G7 is a great camera, don’t get me wrong, but I could not justify keeping both cameras, especially for the cost of the G7 and considering that the G7 did not produce better quality photos than the A630 (equal in some cases, but not better). Maybe the G7 I received was not the best of the litter from the assembly line.

Construction: The A630 is very solid and well built. It is heavy enough to give a sense of sturdy construction, but not too heavy. Size is just about right. Hand grip is excellent and is easy to hold. The G7 was difficult to quickly grab and hold without pressing any buttons on the back. All the buttons are arranged in an orderly fashion, are easily accessible and have a solid feel to them. I like the fact that the lens retraction can be adjusted to 1 min. or not at all. I prefer Lithium-Ion batteries over rechargeable AA batteries, but battery life does seem to be better with the AA’s. And with a Sony charging unit that only takes 15 minutes to charge four NiMH 2500 mAh batteries, as compared to one hour to charge the Lithium-Ion batteries, I guess I’m starting to like the AA’s. The 2.5” LCD screen is large and bright, but the resolution is lacking. It only has 115,000 pixels, the same pixel count as my S45’s 1.8” LCD. Canon should have provided at least 230,000 pixels for this size screen. I would gladly trade-off lower battery life for a higher resolution screen than not being able to accurately judge the sharpness and detail of the shot just taken with this screen. With the low pixel count of this LCD screen, it is impossible to tell if you have a good shot or not. You won’t know until you download it to your computer. The A630 is a very fast camera, as start-up time, focus time, flash recharge time and shutter lag times are excellent.

Features: Excellent and very comprehensive feature package, especially all the manual controls. The “C” mode is great for custom settings. I have preset the “P” mode for outdoor shots and the “C” mode for indoor shots. This camera gives you the option for focusing using single focus frame, AiAF and Flexizone. I love AiAF focus setting. I wish this camera had a live histogram. I also wish it had a dedicated Shortcut button for setting adjustments inside the Function menu. The zoom is a bit noisier than the other three cameras I tested. Lack of RAW is no big deal for me, as I never used it on my S45. The twist screen is a nice new feature to have for those hard to frame shots.

Ease of Use: The A630 is very easy to use, but then again, I have used several Canon cameras over the past 4 years, so I am used to their menu system and button locations and function. I was able to operate the A630 right out of the box without even needing to read the manual. The 4-way wheel makes it easy to make adjustments.

Overall, the A630 is excellent camera with amazing image quality, fast operation, full manual control and easy to use once you get used to the menu system (for new Canon users). I highly recommend this camera, especially at a retail cost $299, and an on-line cost averaging around $250.