Canon Powershot A620 7.1MP Digital Camera
Item Purchased: Canon Powershot A620 7.1MP Digital Camera
Location Purchased: Amazon.com
Price: $224.96 w/shipping
Review: When it comes to the newest technology, I prefer to let other people spend their hard earned money on tomorrow’s toys and wait a while. It used to be that I was an elitist and purist for art mediums but now it is more a matter of knowing the fundamentals and embracing new technology all at the same time. There is beauty to be found in both.
I doubt I’ll ever give up on taking pictures on film. There is just something warm and alive about the photographs I get from my Lomo LC-A that I don’t think will ever be duplicated with megapixels. Likewise, the control I have over my photographs with my extremely affordable Sigma SA-9 is unmatched by any digital capture box.
Due to Kodak and Nikon’s recent decisions to stop all production of 35mm film cameras… And due to the fact that I would like to include more pictures on this website without sitting in a smelly Walgreens photo section for an hour each day waiting to get my film back, I finally took the leap into digital. And oh what a leap it is.
Because the price was right, I opted to go with the 7.1 MegaPixel Canon Powershot A620. If price wasn’t an issue, I’m sure I would have opted for a digital SLR, but that would run me up into the several thousands. It took me a good three years after all of my friends had cell phones to buy one for myself. There’s no way I’m going to buy the best of the best until its not the best anymore.
This camera, far from being an electronic version of the 220 film cameras I used to use as a kid, is an amazing little piece of equipment. The pictures it takes are crisp and the controls are easy to decipher for a guy like me who has used cameras for quite some time now. Did I mention the actual control that this little contraption gives the photographer? Everything I could do by twisting the lenses on my other camera, I can do with this one by tapping a few buttons. Here is a run down of the features:
The first thing you notice about this camera, is the physical shape and dimensions of it. Unlike most consumer quick-snap cameras, the Canon A620 has a convenient grip for your trigger hand. For those of you who use a modern SLR film camera, you will welcome this familiar feeling when you wrap your right hand around the small camera body. Once in place, you find that not much is different from shooting film. The mode dial is at your thumb and just below, on the back of the camera body, all of the other controls you will need to navigate this digital world are laid out for you. Haloing around the shutter button is the zoom ring which is both smooth and fast in this little camera. Finally, my favorite physical feature about this camera is the swivel LCD viewscreen. So many of my acquaintances have scratched or flat out broken their digital camera’s screen from everyday use. The swivel screen makes it possible to have the display flat against the back of the camera while in use and facing the camera body when not. This, I’m sure, will save me several hundred dollars in maintenance.
Once I started using the camera, I found it easy to find all of the normal features I would look for in a 35mm SLR. Everything from ISO speed (50-400) to shutter speed was right there at my fingertips. The mode dial includes several automatic color balanced modes for situations such as portraits, landscapes, etc… There is even several familiar settings such as aperture priority (my preference when shooting autofocus) or shutter speed priority. There is even a 2 stop exposure compensation mode which aids in low-light situations.
The lens offers 4x optical zoom (hooray!) and 4x digital zoom (blech!) which could give you a combined zoom of 16x (grainy yuck!). In 35mm terms, the optical settings allow you to get a range from 35mm-140mm. Not too shabby for a little quickshot! An unexpected bonus with this camera is the option to buy a special lens adapter and additional lenses that screw right over the original one. There’s that lens-twisting I miss from the old days of horse-hoof optics.
Putting this camera into action was like using a third hand. I was amazed at how quickly I could flip through the settings to find the one I wanted. The automatic setting is surprisingly dense with detail and accuracy and the 9 point autofocus gets what I want 7 times out of 10.
Picture detail, at the maximum is 3072 x 2304 pixels with modes all the way down to 640 x 480. The low setting is ideal for documenting subjects I want to comment on or come back to later. It may even be what I shoot pictures for Consumatron with, but I prefer the crisp look of the 1600 x 1200 setting (there are three other settings, btw). Unfortunately, the camera only comes with a 32MB SD memory card, so at my preferred setting, I can only shoot approximately 25 photos. You can also shoot video with this camera at a resolution of 640 x 480 with a frame rate of 15fps, but I doubt I’ll be using this option much.
Digital film professionals might be disappointed with this camera because it doesn’t save images in the popular RAW format. All you get is JPG here. That is good enough for my needs, though. If I want a gallery show or publication, I’ll use film (or send off some high-quality JPGs, in that order).
The camera comes with software and cables so you can easily dump your images to your computer or view them on your television when all of your friends are over. (Who said slide projectors are gone? They’re just smaller and sleeker now.) None of this is necessary if your computer has a card reader like mine, but it is there if you need it.
My biggest complaint about this camera is the fact that it takes AA alkaline batteries. I would have much preferred a rechargeable lithium ion one. I suppose that’s how Canon suckers you in though because I am now thinking seriously about purchasing an accessory kit for this camera. And a larger memory card. And…
In the end, I am a lot happier with this digital camera than I thought I would be. The pleasant surprise of the array of easy-to-navigate features and crisp 7.1MP image quality, grouped with Amazon.com’s amazing price, make me one happy consumer. I don’t take large purchases lightly. Honestly, I’d rather be sitting in a park writing a novel than flashing my benjamins to some register jockey (proof of this lies in the fact that I choose to work in a bookstore for a living). Now I can document my park-lounging in full digital color.
Hopefully I remember to photograph the things I buy before consuming them now, so Consumatron.com can have more pictures… You know… For the kids.
Rating: 4.75 / 5
Buy a Canon Powershot A620 7.1MP camera from Amazon.com: Consume.
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