Canon PowerShot A630 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
by Canon
Our Price: $649.99
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Category: Digital Camera
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: CanonRelease Date: 2006-09-01
Model: 1288B001
Product features:
- 8-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 16 x 22-inch prints
- 4x optical zoom; 2.5-inch vari-angle LCD display
- ISO range up to ISO 800 for less blur in low light while hand-holding
- 3:2 guide masks LCD to display 4 x 6-inch print size; 16:9 format option for still images
- Stores images on SD cards; powered by 4 AA-size batteries
- Serif PhotoPlus X3
- Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]
- Aperture 3
- Targus TG-CH5000 AC/DC Rapid Charger with 4 - 2700 mAh AA Batteries
- Pixelmator [Old Version]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon PowerShot A630 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
Customer Review: Excellent optics, macro range,good manual controls
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me preface this by saying I come from the "old school" of photography. I've use good-quality film SLR cameras for years, and have always hated digitals because of all the cumbersome controls and lack of good manual control of the camera (yes, even on digital SLRs).
This camera is quite an improvement. If you are just a point-and-shooter, you can take it out of the box, throw batteries and an SD card in it and just click away. But if you know what you are doing with a camera, there are good manual controls in here for you, too, and that's what I want to focus on.
If you need to take close-up shots of small models, insects, flowers, etc this is the camera for you. If you want something tiny and slim just for snapping pics on vacation, this is NOT the camera for you. It will do a superb job, but it's more than you need and therefore bulkier than you probably want.
It has shutter and aperture priority - the latter being the most important. You can manually stop down the lens anywhere from 2.6 to 8.0. It wish it would stop all the way down to, like f/22, but that's a lot to ask for a $200 digicam. In macro mode, it really truly can focus on things only 1 cm away from the lens, and the focus is still crisp - very impressive.
Put this thing on a tripod, put a good light on your subject, turn the flash OFF, use the built-in timer to avoid shaking the camera, and you'll get magazine-publishable photos, and that's no lie.
White balance is superb. You can take shots under flourescent, incandescent, tungsten (photofloods) and the color rendition is terrific, even if you use the "auto" white balance. But you can manually calibrate it if you really want to. There are also several preset white balance settings (flourescent, incandescent, tungsten, and about 4 others).
It runs on 4 AA batteries, so you can shoot a long time before the batteries are dead, but definitely invest in 4 NiMH AA's and a charger.
It uses standard SD cards, not like those morons at Sony who insist on using a proprietary memory card in their cameras.
The best thing about it is that all the real controls you need if you are used to using a real camera are easily accessible right at the top level buttons - exposure compenstation, macro mode, flash on/off, f/stop.
There is also a full manual mode, so you can set f/stop, exposure, shutter speed and focus all completely manually. I fooled with some of the DSLRs, and those "mid-range" hybrid models like the S3 (sort of in between the things like this A630 and a DSLR). Frankly, they are agony to use. If I spend $800-$1000 on a DSLR, I do not expect it to punish me to find how to change the *(&#$@_)&* f/stop!
A 4x true optical zoom is a pretty darn good range in a small cam, as well.
The door where the USB hooks up is kind of cheap feeling, but I won't know for a long time whether it will hold up or not. Video shoots a smooth, crisp, non-grainy 30 frames per second in normal room light. Nice.
The LCD is large, bright, and clear, and it flips out to the side of the camera (if you like that sort of thing). I don't know why a few people complained about it.
Hooking to a computer - If you've got a Mac with OS/X, don't bother installing ANYTHING that comes with the camera. Just plug the camera into your USB port, and use the Mac's built in camera application. It will pull the photos off neatly in to a folder, and even delete them from the camera for you if you want. This is another nice plus. Who needs those silly bloated custom applications that come with these cameras? (And BTW, I am a computer software engineer by trade.)
I first tried an A550 (also a nice cam) and exchanged it at the store for this A630, because the 550 doesn't have the manual exposure controls I needed. For the extra $30 in price, the A630 is an enormous step up in quality and controls, well worth $30 more.
Description of Canon PowerShot A630 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
Replacing the highly popular PowerShot A620, the PowerShot A630 features a rotating 2.5-inch vari-angle LCD, 4x optical zoom lens, and a vast array of creative shooting modes. The PowerShot A630 packs a vast array of advanced features into a remarkably compact spaceDigital Cameras
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