Beyond the low-light issues, the A640's photos were crisp and detailed. We noticed little fringing or distortion, and fine details showed up quite clearly, especially in the lower ISO settings. Colors tended to appear slightly muted and cool, but otherwise images were very attractive.
A shot taken at ISO 800 with the A640 (top) compared to one shot with the A710 IS (bottom). As you'd expect, the 10-megapixel A640 has the worst noise profile of all the A-series cameras.
Unfortunately, the A640 preserves the PowerShot's history of less-than-stellar low-light shooting. Otherwise, the Canon PowerShot A640 is a great camera for users who want a solid point-and-shoot with photographer-friendly manual capabilities. If you like the A640's feature set but don't want to spend quite so much for the resolution, you might want to consider the camera's 8-megapixel but otherwise identical little brother, the A630.
Shooting speed
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Time to first shot | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
Note: In seconds
Typical continuous-shooting speed
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Note: Frames per second
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