Canon Powershot A630
The Canon Powershot A630 is an eight megapixel digital camera with a four times optical zoom lens. In terms of features Canon has developed the Powershot A630 on the lines of a cut down SLR camera. It offers a good range of features including manual exposure settings and manual focus as well.
It is likely to appeal to anyone who is looking for a camera that is a step up on a standard point and shoot model, but retains a fairly compact body size.
Image Quality
In terms of picture quality the Powershot A630 performed just about how it was expected to in the tests. Colours are strong without being overpowering, plus the images are sharper than average. The manual exposure controls also give you the chance to have a greater influence over the way each image looks.
Starting off with the outdoor scenic shots these are handled well. You can see how the strong blues and greens contribute to the overall vivid feel these photos have. The second test shot does not suffer from darker edges and corners to the photo in the way many other cameras do.
The extra degree of sharpness is evident in each of these shots. Another positive note is the way the sharpness remains strong towards the edges of each photo.
One big disappointment is the way the Powershot A630 fails to deal with the glare of the sun shining on light areas. Detail is lost from objects. While this is a fairly common problem other cameras tested at the same conditions performed better.
The dedicated test for colour supports the findings throughout the test shots. Colours are strong in general, with blue more to the fore than most without managing to dominate.
Colours show up well in outdoor shots. Skin tones look natural and the photo has a warm feel to it in general.
Moving indoors the test shots for lowlight work out very well. Indoor pictures are sharply focused and well lit when you take the conditions into account. There is a slight touch of red eye in the indoor pictures, but this is quite well controlled when compared to many other cameras.
For close up work the Powershot A630 is able to focus from almost next to the subject. It is certainly one of the better cameras in the market.
Features
The 4x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 35 - 140mm in 35mm format. There is also a feature called safety zoom. This is only available at lower resolutions and offers an extra 1.6x or 2x zoom. In addition there is 4x digital zoom.
When focusing you have a choice between a nine point or one point focusing system. Fully manual focusing is also available. Macro photography is catered for with a minimum focusing distance of 1cm.
A small selection of scene modes are available. These are Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pet. When selecting the appropriate scene the Powershot A630 will use what it considers to be the optimum settings for the shot. Stitch Assist is also available to help you put together panoramic shots.
To add something different to your photos there are a number of colour effects. These are Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Positive Film and Custom Colour.
The 2.5" LCD screen can be pulled out, moved and tilted to suit the shooting conditions.The screen is very good in lowlight. It is made up of around 115,000 pixels. In addition to the screen there is also an optical viewfinder available.
Features relating to flash are comprehensive. As well as the modes Auto, Manual Flash On / Off, Slow Sync Speed and Red-eye Reduction, flash exposure compensation and also bracketing are available. The range of the built in flash unit is 4.2m. This falls to 3m when the zoom lens is in use. To boost the flash an external flash unit, the Canon High Power Flash HF-DC1, can be bought separately.
There is not a 3:2 aspect ratio available for 6 x 4" prints, but a special wide aspect ratio is available.
For when you would like to appear in the picture there is a self timer. There are two standard self timer modes. These allow you to specify a delay of either two or ten seconds. There is an additional mode allowing you to select a delay time of your choice up to thirty seconds. You can then shoot up to ten shots at the end of the delay time. A histogram is available as well.
One of the biggest attractions of the Powershot A630 is the fact you can set the aperture and shutter speed. The maximum f number available is f/2.8-f/4.1. Shutter speeds can be set in the range 15 to 1/2500 seconds.
Other advanced features you have control over are exposure compensation (+/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments), white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Underwater, Custom), ISO equivalents (AUTO, High ISO Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800) and metering (evaluative, centre-weighted average, spot (centre or linked to focusing frame). Continuous shooting is available. The maximum speed is 1.8 frames per second. You can continue shooting until the memory card is full.
After a picture has been taken you can add up to 60 seconds of voice memo to it.
TV quality movies can be recorded. The maximum resolution is 640 x 480 pixels. The maximum speed is 30 frames per second. Sound can be recorded and you can zoom in and out while recording is in progress. The maximum length of each movie is 1GB or one hour.
Canon supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Powershot A630 to a television set, computer and PictBridge compatible printer.
Useful accessories include a waterproof case (WP-DC8). This is waterproof to a depth of 40m. There are also lens converters available. Lens Adapter, LA-DC58F Tele-Converter 1.75x TC-DC58N, Wide converter 0.7x WC-DC58N.