The review I have written is the crux of what all I know about A610/620.
Both the cameras have a 4X optical and 4X digital zoom. The review holds good for A610 as well as A620. There are only 3 differences in the 2 models.
(1) The color of A620 body is a bit darker.
(2) A620 is 7.1 megapixels as compared to 5 megapixels of A610.
(3) A620 supports remote capture (discussed in next paragraph).
The only benefit of 7.1 megapixel is that you get bigger photos for liberal cropping wihtout losing image quality.
Remote capture feature is available only on A620 (not A610). Useful for people who work a lot on indoor macro. Or just wanna have fun with the camera without even touching it. You can directly store the photos on the computer. The Shooting settings screen lets you control the following manually:
(1) White Balance
(2) ISO Speed
(3) Exposure Compensation
(4) Photo Effects
(5) Flash Exposure Level (in Manual mode)
(6) Exposure Mode
(7) Metering Mode
(8) Shutter Speed
(9) Aperture Value
The best features I liked about this camera are as follows:
(1) Swivel LCD screen - It lets you take shots from difficult angles (like from ground level, or overhead shots) which are tricky to compose without swivel screen.
(2) Image sensor size - It is one of the main reasons I bought this camera. Image sensor is a ’chip’ on which the light falls through the lens and is recorded into the memory card. Bigger the area to capture light; better, clearer and crisper the photos.
Image sensor of A610/A620 is 1/1.8" (7.2 mm by 5.3 mm) => sensor area=38.16 sq mm
Image sensor of most other cameras (some even higher priced, like S3IS) = 1/2.5" (5.8 mm by 4.3 mm)=> sensor area = 24.94 sq mm
There is whopping 53% more image capture area in the image sensor of A610/A620 as compared to even much higher and equally priced cameras like canon S2Is and Nikon L and S range.
(3) Full manual control: It lets you play with shutter speeds, aperture, focus and ISO settings to the hilt. A610/A620 is good enough for professional use as well. The camera has full auto mode as well for novices.
(4) Good shutter speed range: 1/2500 sec (freeze sports and action) to 15 secs (beautiful night photography even in darkest of conditions). A tripod is highly recommended for harnessing benefits of higher shutter speeds.
(5) Processor - The DIGIC II is improved version of previous DIGIC processor in terms of processing speed, image quality, image composition and battery life (improvement of 65% over DIGIC).
(6) Battery life: 4AA cells last about a week of heavy shooting. In case you do not plan to use rechargeable batteries, use only duracell (or similar) cells.
(7) Video capability with sound - 640X480 at 15/30 fps, 320X240 at 15/30/60 fps and 160X120 at 15 fps. You can playback the movie at various slow speeds (without sound). A high speed SD card (at least 100 X) is recommended for movies. A 640X480 size movie will gobble up card @ 1.5 MB per second.
During video shoot, you can only zoom digitally upto 4X. I wont recommend doing it as it will pixelate your video. The best part is you can zoom optically till 4X and then start the video shooting. The quality of sound captured is also quite good.
(8) AV out - Lets you play slide show of your photos as well as videos on the TV .
(9) Lens change capability - A very good feature keeping in mind if you wish to explore with other lenses on the camera.
(10) Stitch assist- Good mode to capture wide landscapes in multiple shots and stitch them easily with the software provided. A maximum of 26 photos can be "stiched" seamlessly using the software (only in horizontal orientation)
(11) Flash: You can set the intensity as well as the speed of flash. The range of flash is also very good and spread out.
(12) Excellent macro capabilities. You can take photos from 1cm from the object (in wide angle mode). Do not use flash mode in macro mode as it will definitely spoil the image.
(13) AF assist - The camera provides infra red light to shoot in low light conditions and also to autofocus objects. Quite helpful in taking pictures in very dark situations.
(14) Self timer - You can specify the number of shots and the timer delay (0-30 secs, 0-10 shots, with or without flash)
(15) DC in - You can also power your camera using an adapter. Useful for people who keep the camera connected to computer most of the time. Although personally I do not recommend using it unless you are very sure about the quality of electricity you are using (fluctuations etc.) Use a good quality spike guard in case you need to use DC power.
(16) The zoom lever - The zoom lever is placed in a circular lever surrounding the shutter button which sets the thumb is free to adjust the settings deftly on the back of camera. It speeds up the shooting process and making changes to camera settings once you get used to it.
(17) Blazing fast continuous mode shooting @ 2.5 frames per sec (without flash). Very good for taking pics of fast moving objects and then selecting the best shots.
(18) Good bundled software: The software provided by Canon along with the camera is very easy to use and informative. Some interesting features in the software include video editing and capturing video frames as photos. (640X480)
Cons: None of the cons point towards image quality which is much better than expected. I have mentioned these cons keeping in mind the camera price range and the manufacturing company.
(1) Delicate cover of AV output
(2) Noisy optical zoom motor
(3) Optical viewfinder coverage area is only 80-85%
(4) Battery cover too tight to close
(5) The buttons are a bit too small and embedded, specialy the four-way button set. I liked the button size of canon A530 They are more hand sized.
(6) No exposure or flash bracketing - A desired feature on a potent camera like this
(7) Noticable barrel distortion at full wide angle in macro mode
The plus points hugely overshadow the negative features. If you want a good camera and want to grow and experiment in photography, go for it.
What I use:
(1) 8 uniross cells (2300 Mah)
(2) Uniross charger (9hours charging time)
(3) 1GB peak card (150x)
(4) A Vivitar tripod
For more in-depth review about this camera (or for any digicam, for that matter) please visit the following 2 sites: These 2 sites are "bible’ of digicams in the market. Quite useful in making choice for a digicam best suitable for you.
(1) More detailed and in-depth review (recommended for advanced users)
https://imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A620/A620A.HTM
(2) More user-friendly in-depth review (also shows un-edited sample photos from the camera in real life situations)
https://steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/a620.html
PS: The picture you see of me in my profile is taken by this camera only. :-)
Happy shooting....!! :-)
