Canon PowerShot A640 Sample Images

[Photo-John]

Got a Canon PowerShot A640 in last week. I needed a camera that was SDHC-compliant (Secure Digital High Capacity) so I could do a review of a Lexar Professional SDHC memory card. Canon was kind enough to hustle me this camera, which I'd been wanting to review, anyway. Being a 10-megapixel compact, it was an excellent subject for the new Lexar SDHC card test. It's an inexpensive, full-featured digital camera with a 4x optical zoom, Canon's new Digic III processor, a swivel LCD display, and a cool digital teleconverter feature. I'm not actually sure if it actually differs from a normal digital zoom. But it's a nice idea and I was excited to try it out.

So here are a couple of tests. These were shot through a window and have been adjusted a bit for contrast and brightness. So they shouldn't be thought of as definitive quality tests. But they will give you some idea of what the camera and the digital teleconverter can do. The first image is at maximum optical zoom. The second was shot at maximum zoom using the A640's 1.4x digital teleconverter setting. Both have had PS unsharp mask applied during resizing. The exposure is 2 seconds at f/8 and ISO 80, for both images.

Here's a link to the Canon PowerShot A640 user reviews >>

[Photo-John]

Because it just feels wrong to post a couple of dark, rainy day photos, here are a couple to balance those out

I like the A640. It's a nice camera and I'm liking what I've been able to do with it. I wish it had image stabilization, though. I want that feature on all compact digital cameras. It makes such a big difference in being able to get good photos in all kinds of conditions.

A full, detailed pro review with lots of samples and studio tests is in the works...