A review of the Canon Powershot A640 digital camera
There are two ranges that Canon have produced for their digital cameras. The first is the Ixus range which contains slim, sleek and gorgeous looking cameras with high specifications and the other is the Powershot range which contains digital cameras which look like tanks, but also have high specifications. Which would you prefer? We take a look at the Canon Powershot A640 to see whether looks really do matter……. Design |
| The Canon Powershot A640 really does look like a tank and also feels like it with dimensions of 109.4mm (w) x 66mm (h) x 49.1mm(d) and a weight of 245g which is a 100g more than most digital cameras around today! You can forget slipping into your back pocket or even taking it out with you for a meal and putting it on the table as someone might mistake it for the chip and pin machine! The front of the camera has a chrome lens, which is central and looks very sophisticated on the black body. Above the lens is the viewfinder and flash. To the left side there is a very chunky handgrip which doubles up as the battery compartment accessed from the bottom. The top of the camera has the power button and shutter release and the mode dial. The back of the camera has all the action and is very interesting indeed. The 2.5” LCD screen on this model is rotating and can be flipped out to view or folded to reveal the back of it with the Canon logo on it. This rotating LCD is supposed to be a big selling point, but to be quite honest it’s just too fiddly and gets in the way and we don’t really see much point in it. When it has been flipped out it makes the camera much bigger than it is already and looks more like a camcorder than a digital camera. Above the LCD is the viewfinder and to the right are the controls. The first control is a switch to change between playback and LCD and then there are two shortcut buttons being delete and print. Below there is the menu panel and a display and menu button. From the side the Canon Powershot A640 looks very wide, especially when the lens is fully out. The four! AA batteries and memory card are kept in the handgrip compartment accessed from the bottom. Overall, the Canon Powershot A640 is comfortable to hold until the LCD has been flipped out which then makes it very cumbersome, but it is solid and sturdy. |
| Features |
| There are features aplenty on the Canon Powershot A640, with 10 mega pixels and a 4x optical zoom to start with. Although a bit of a bind the rotating 2.5” LCD screen is very useful as you can use it take self portraits (if that’s your thing) or over crowd shots. The technology that Canon has included is exceptional and the Digic II Image Processor will process images at high speed for excellent responsiveness and to extend the battery life. There is also iSAPS, which acts as an in-built helper, which uses scene information, and makes the most of camera settings before the shot is taken. There are 21 scene modes to offer manual settings in almost any situation and even modes, which will assist with difficult lighting conditions. The 'My Colours' features is present on the Powershot A640 as with most of the Canon range, which is great fun in the way that you can change image colour effects before or during shooting. There is a great macro mode which will allow images to be taken as close as 1cm. |
| Performance |
| The images that we took with the Canon Powershot A640 were of a high standard and with minimal digital noise, which was very refreshing. Even at ISO 400 images were usable with minimal digital noise, but as we got to 800 ISO images were not good. The colour reproduction was excellent with no purple fringing and we achieved some excellent clear, sharp images that we were more than pleased with. With the start-up to shoot time being an average 1.5 seconds, we then managed to take a shot every 1.8 seconds in bright light and just under a second longer in low light. The shutter lag time impressed us further being only half a second from pressing the shutter release to the photo being taken. The battery life was above average and better with Ni-MH batteries, which are a great investment. |
| What's In The Box? |
| The 8.0 or 10.0 effective Megapixel PowerShot A630 or A640 digital camera 32MB Secure Digital card Four AA alkaline batteries Wrist strap USB cable A/V cable CD-ROM featuring Canon Digital Camera Solution 33 page basic manual + 145 page advanced manual (both printed) |
| Overall Opinion |
| The Canon Powershot A640 is a good overall digital camera for its pricetag. With many great features and good images achieved it stands high above many other digital cameras of its price range although it could do with a bit of a facelift just to improve the overall appeal of it. |
| By Hayley Malyon |
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Pros + 10 mega pixels + 2.5” rotating LCD screen + Good photo quality + Good performance |
Cons - Bit too big and chunky - LCD resolution poor at 115,000 pixels |
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Picture Quality 9/10
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Battery Life 9/10
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Setup Simplicity 9/10
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Build Quality 8/10
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Ease of Use 9/10
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Overall Rating 
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15/12/2006
at 1:29:37pm
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