Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera

I purchased the Canon A620 to replace my older digital camera and let me say that I'm happy I upgraded. The Canon A620 has some great new features that my older camera had lacked and the picture quality is simply outstanding. Now I'm not going to claim I'm a professional photographer, I'm more of an intermediate user, but the quality of the photos taken from this camera can be fantastic.

Features:
7.1 Mega Pixel Image Sensor
2.0" Swivel LCD screen
4x Optical Zoom (Along with optional 4x Digital Zoom)
SecureDigital (SD)/ MultiMediaCard (MMC) storage card slot
PictBridge USB technology for direct printing to Photo Printers (No PC needed)
20 different shooting modes and High Quality AVI Video Mode
Four AA battery bay
Small camera strap
USB Port (USB cable included)
A/V Out port for showing media on your TV (TV cable included)
DC In port for powering the camera without batteries (AC Adapter not included)

This camera looks and feels like a more expensive camera. I was surprised how much it cost because I thought I would have to pay twice that much for a camera like this.

Usability:
This camera is very simple to use. Despite the intimidating look of the back of the camera with the 5 buttons on the back with the addition of the diagonal pad each button has it's own purpose and is relatively easy to use. But, don't worry you won't need to master all of these buttons just to take a photo.

If your just starting out you can set the camera to Auto Mode, using the simple little wheel on the top of the camera. This mode is best for point-and-shoot photos when your not trying to get a color perfect or lighting a certain way, in this mode the camera will try it's best to take the picture the best it can, usually with fantastic results. But, if you want to get a tad more technical you can, with a push of a button you can turn the flash on and off and you can also enter Macro mode for close up shots of objects, for example flowers. Accessing additional features is quite easy even for a beginner. The user guide for the camera that is included is very useful in helping you learn how to use additional features or how to customize advanced settings. These may sound hard to do but it really isn't thanks to the A620's easy-to-navigate system menu. The easy on-screen menu makes it simple to erase the memory card, change the camera options, and change the playback options on the camera.

Also one fantastic feature on this digital camera is the stunning LCD screen. While only 2 inches big, it has one amazing ability. This sharp, crisp display can...flip! That's right, you can turn it! The LCD display rests on the back of the camera facing towards the camera to protect it. You can then take it out and turn it around to view it normally like on most digital cameras. But this is where it stops being a regular LCD screen. You can move the LCD screen outwards and turn it to let your friend see how he looks before you take the picture. This is a feature usually only seen on digital camcorders. You can also adjust the LCD screen on different angles if you want in order to make sure your getting that special shot just right. This is one great feature of the camera and has come in handy for me many times.

Extra Features:
Along with the standard flash and timer settings most digital cameras have the Canon A620 has some very nice features you'd expect on more expensive cameras.

Video Recording:
First off we have a Video AVI recording mode, this will let you record good, quality videos from your camera at the 640x480 pixel resolution (bigger and sharper) or at the 320x240 pixel resolution (smaller and less sharp). The higher resolution videos will fill up your memory card faster but, they will give you a better video quality. The lower video resolution will take up less storage space on your memory card and are best suited for e-mail or online viewing. You also have an option to change the frames per second (or FPS) of the video while shooting in both video resolution modes. You can shoot video at 30 frames per second, or at 15 frames per second. At 30 frames per second you will get better quality video but larger file sizes, at 15 frames per second you will get smaller file sizes but, a reduced quality of video.

While the videos recorded by the camera are pretty good they aren't as great a stand-alone digital camcorder would be, although you would be surprised how well some of the videos come out. The video files are created in .AVI format but, they are compatible with both Macs and PCs without any need of additional video plug-ins or codecs. Videos can be downloaded to your computer and played back using Apple's QuickTIme software which comes standard on all Macs and the Windows PC version is included on the CD-ROM. It is a free download from Apple's QuickTime web site. (http://www.apple.com/quicktime)

Other shooting modes and advanced features:
Although this camera is great for beginners and advanced users, you will find that this camera has plenty of features to explore and use. There are over 20 shooting modes with this camera, some of them include, Stitch Assist (for panoramic shots), Video mode (for recording AVI videos) and various other features like Shutter Speed modes and Custom color modes. I won't go into all the features here but, to see a full list of features visit the Canon web site (http://www.canon.com) and look up the camera model (Canon PowerShot A620), there you can download the Users Guide (In PDF format) - there you will find a full list of all the different shooting modes the camera has to offer along with details of how to use each feature.

Picture Quality:
This is where the camera really shines. The quality is just amazing, I'd expect this quality to only come from a camera twice as expensive. If your upgrading from an older digital camera and your tired of grainy and blurry pictures you have no need to worry. With this camera your photos can come out perfect every time. The quality of these photos are really great. If you turn on the close-up Macro mode you can really tell how detailed these photos can get. The key things of course are to keep the camera steady and to have good judgement weather to turn the flash on or off. Of course you can always use a tripod or rely on the camera's auto-flash feature if you wish. The point is that the camera's 7.1 Mega Pixel image sensor produces beautiful photos that are simply stunning.

Printing:
With a camera like this and a modern photo printer you can print out your own photos right at home. 4x6 sized prints are very popular but, since the picture quality of this camera is so high you can even print a photo up to 8x10 and not notice any grain or blur. I've printed out dozens of photos with this camera and each of them look great. The photos come out sharp and crisp. So as long as you have a decent photo printer your prints will look just as good as the professional ones.

Of course not all of your photos will come out perfect. While the photos may seem sharp and clear on the LCD display on your camera, be sure to take a closer look with the photos on your computer, or use the camera's built-in zoom mode while playing back the photos. This way you can see if the photos came out as good as you hoped before you take a chance printing them out on a big piece of photo paper. If your looking to print out your photos too be sure you have a fairly modern photo printer. If you really want to print 4x6 photos and don't mind not being able to print anything larger you might want to look around for some of the more compact photo printers out there. Canon, HP, and Epson each make their own models, most of them do a great job as long as the picture is clear.

Memory Cards and Storage:
The Canon A620 uses an SD/MMC memory card slot. This is a slot of accepting flash memory cards, this is how the camera stores the pictures. Think of it as a digital roll of film, except it's reusable and can hold way more than 20 photos depending on the size. The camera does included a small 32mb Secure Digital (SD) memory card, although this is enough to get you started taking photos, you will soon yearn for a bigger memory card to store more photos and videos. Luckily the prices of memory cards have dropped significantly over the last year. Don't worry when your memory card gets full, you can always import the photos to your computer for storage and erase the card to re-use it.

The size of the memory card will directly reflect how many photos and videos you can take. The more storage space the memory card has, the more media you can fit on it. For example, a 512 MB (megabyte) card can hold up to around 150 photos, depending on your shooting modes and settings. A 1 GB (Gigabyte) card can hold up to around 300 or 350 photos, and a 2 GB card can hold up to around 500 or so photos. Now remember this all depends on the photos and videos you are taking, so the higher the quality setting is set, the more space the photo or video takes up. So you can probably fit twice as many low-quality photos on the camera than high quality ones. The choice is up to you but, today since the memory card prices are so low it seems crazy to sacrifice picture quality to get a few more pictures taken.

Memory cards are no longer as expensive as they used to be, today you can get a 1 GB SD memory card for about $20 online. Usually if you go into a local store you will end up paying twice as much. So your best bet would be to order these memory cards online and save yourself some cash.

Technical note: Memory cards are not the full capacity that is advertised, a 1 GB card sounds like it would be around 1,000 or so megabytes or so right? But, in reality a "formated" 1GB card will only come out to be around 967 mb of useable space. Why does this happen? The simple answer is the memory card needs space to organize data and more space to help the computer read the card, while this takes away some space for taking photos usually it isn't too much and since memory cards are cheaper today it doesn't matter too much.

Use with a computer:
The Canon A620 will work with mostly any modern computer. Basically any computer with a USB 1.1 port or higher (USB 2.0 is highly recommended due to higher transfer speeds) will work with this camera. The Camera may need some software for it to work correctly with some computers but, there is a disc included bundled with it so you shouldn't have any problems. I recommend Microsoft Windows users have Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), and Apple Macintosh users have Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" or later. Basically the newer the computer and the newer the operating system the less trouble you are going to have importing your photos, if any.

Canon does include a CD-ROM with a few programs for both Windows XP and Mac OS X. If you do not install the software on the disc you should still be able to import your photos without a problem. The software on the CD just helps in case you want to take advantage of advanced features or manage your photos more easily. Either way it is highly recommended you have some type of photo management software on your computer, for Apple's Mac OS X users I suggest the latest version of iPhoto, this comes pre-installed on most Macs and can be purchased separately as part of the iLife suite. Also ArcSoft PhotoStudio is also included for Mac on the CD in case you don't have iPhoto. For Windows users you can either use the included ArcSoft PhotoStudio software or download the free version of Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.0 (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/starter.html), either program will give you the basic functionality you need to view, fix, store, and share your photos.

Now I use an Apple iMac to import my photos and it's a breeze, all you have to do is plug in the camera with the provided USB cable, set the camera to playback mode, and turn it on. Then Mac OS X will do the rest of the work, using Apple's iPhoto (Included with most Macs) to import photos is a piece of cake, and gives you a lot of options that premium photo software packages don't.

Now for the Windows experience. Fortunately this wasn't hard as I thought it would be. You plug in the camera, switch it to playback mode, and turn it on just how you do with the Mac and a Windows Photo Wizard will pop up asking what you would like to do with your photos. Now if you have any photo software installed (Like the ArcSoft PhotoStudio software that's included on the CD-ROM) you will have some options. If you don't have any photo software on your computer Windows will let you import all your photos to a folder on your Hard Drive. If you have software installed then you can use that to edit, and manage your photos and use some special features that Windows does not have built-in. So basically you should have no trouble importing your photos with a computer.

Battery life:
This is quite possibly the only flaw with this camera and most other digital cameras. The batteries just don't last too long. Standard AA alkaline batteries will last a few days of on-and-off shooting but, if you really want to use the camera for long periods of time and avoid spending tons on one-time-use batteries you may want to look into rechargeable batteries. Thankfully like memory cards these have come down in price. You will want to buy four AA rechargeable batteries, the brand name and type is up to you. Batteries can either take overnight to charge or as little as 15 to 30 minutes depending on how much your willing to spend. Regardless of what type of rechargeable batteries you pick it will be expand the shooting time with your camera. You may want to check with the camera manual or ask the store clerk at a local electronics store to make sure the rechargeable batteries are compatible with the camera, although in most cases they are, it just pays to play it safe and find out.

My experience:
I love this camera, it's just great. It takes great vivid photos, it takes nice videos, and it provides flawless images that I can use to print out my own photos. I use this camera at family events, parties, or even when I got for a walk. This camera shines where my older camera failed. With this camera it's easy to capture anything with one push of the shutter button, and with great quality too. I basically take this around with me everywhere because you never know when you might want to take a photo of something. The camera works great with my computer and printer and I couldn't be happier with it. The camera is pretty rugged too, I keep it in the case all the time but, it has taken a hit or too (luckily nothing too bad) and it still works perfectly. It truly is a great upgrade from my old camera and I will continue to enjoy using it until my need to upgrade...which I don't think will be anytime in the near future.

Conclusion:
The Canon A620 offers many features of a professional camera but, is aimed at the consumer. With numerous shooting modes and extra features you will find this camera has all you need, and more. It is simple enough for a first-time user and advanced users will enjoy taking advantage of some of the additional features. The only other problems I can see with this camera besides the battery life, is the size. Now don't get me wrong, this camera isn't huge. It's actually not bad but, it's not a slim camera. It will fit in your pocket but, not as easily as some other cameras. But, of course I'd give up size for features any day of the week. In fact this camera actually looks good to. It looks more expensive than you think it is. The zooming lens is perfect and the battery bay doubles as a good handle. This camera would be a perfect for a first-time digital camera user, or even just to replace a lower-quality digital camera. With the Canon A620 you can capture your memories for years to come, with great quality too.