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Average rating:
4.40
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Canon PowerShot A6308.0 megapixels | 2.5" screen | 35 – 140 mm (4×)
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Average rating:
4.40
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Opinion: Sharp images, beautiful colours, full manual control, swiveling/articulating LCD, a good grip, and SD movie mode. Many years of enjoyment!
Can't take pictures in low light and the viewfinder is junk, but what can you expect?
Problems: The battery door hinge mechanism is a bit flimsy after years of use.
Opinion: I have been using this camera for a few years now and it's a great manual compact point and shoot. It is very versatile with some limitations of course. The ISO only goes up to 800, and it doesn't have image stabilization making the use of a tripod a must. The screen can move around which is nice because you can capture people in their true elements while traveling. There 5 different levels of manual settings letting you control how much control you have, plus there is the preset settings if you need a quick shot like underwater, snow (everything most digital cameras have). The manual levels in this camera are pretty amazing for the compact camera. If you don't want to lug your equipment around with you everywhere this camera is the way to go, or if a family member is getting getting into serious photography, this is a great start.
Problems: No image stabilization makes taking some shots near to impossible without a tripod. The flash isn't great.
Opinion: After 6 months and over 3000 pictures I've now sold my A630 for the exact same price that I bought it (€150 used) proving that this is a classic which doesn't lose its value easily.
It's so consistently good across-the-board that it's hard to say what the best thing about it is, but in short:
- excellent sharpness straight-out-of-cam, especially for macro
- extensive manual controls allow almost complete freedom
- flexi-bendy screen (brilliant for awkward macro shots)
- widely-available firmware crack will allow RAW and other functions (invalidates warranty...search the forums for more)
Recommended for novice-to-amateurs who want an all-round portable can-do camera.
Problems: None at all. Noise is an issue in low light, and you might want to apply noise-reduction filters post-processing for some shots...but we know that noise is an issue with any compact camera, and at least the A630's in-built noise reduction doesn't smear things.
Two minor minus points:
- the viewfinder is only useful when following moving objects, otherwise you won't use it much...but it's good that Canon continue to build these into their compacts.
- when you are filming video, you will notice a constant high-pitch tone throughout the entire audio. This is normal and has to do with the microphone speaker's proximity to the lens motor. It means that if you do shoot video, you will probably want to overlay your own audio track over it. The video quality is good enough, however, for your youtube clips etc.
Opinion: Many more features and choices on this camera than on my Kodak DX 7440. Very good in low light and takes nice indoor pictures without flash as a rule. Easy to turn on and off, unlike the Kodak. I love the Canon software with the Zoom Browser; hated the Kodak Easy Share software and was thrilled to get rid of it on my computers. Uses 4 AA batteries which means you can get new batteries anywhere if your rechargeables run out (except in the forest and am considering a Solio for that.)
Problems: Action pictures are harder to get - the Kodak responded a lot faster. The camera is a bit heavy due to using 4 AA batteries instead of a single rechargeable battery as in the Kodak. I bought 8 rechargeable AA batteries so I will always have 4 ready.
Opinion: WARNING (sound in videos)
I purchased the A630 to replace my Canon G3. The A630 had many advantages over the G3 including price, image size, speed, weight, and video image size/duration.
The price was right at $300 with taxes in August 2007. We were quite happy with the camera and the pictures and liked all the features of the A630 until we started playing back the videos we took.
The videos were great, if we were deaf, but unfortunately there was a distinct high-pitched buzz in all but the loudest movies. So thinking that this camera might be a lemon, we contacted Canon. Their response: "The noise you are hearing in the background is considered normal. Due to the gain of the built in microphone the sound produced by the camera components will be heard on the recorded video. The sound heard will be like a slight pitch or humming sound."
What?! Normal!? Although I was very impressed with the quality and timeliness of Canon's response, I am very disappointed in Canon's acknowledgment of this problem with their A630 cameras. The fact that Canon merely passes it off as "an acceptable level" is very disturbing since it is VERY noticeable in all our videos.
End result: we returned the camera and are again considering our options to replace our beloved G3.
Recommendations: If you are not planning on taking videos, then this is a good camera. However you might consider a cheaper alternative, like a camera without the video option since the sound quality is poor in the A630 videos.
Problems: As explained in the review, we found the high-pitch buzz noises from the videos taken unacceptable. The problem was evident in videos viewed on the camera, or after dloaded to a computer.
Opinion: Fantastic quality for the price!
Fantastic macro at 1 cm.
Problems: none
Opinion: A Real Bargain! Easy to use, bright lens, very sharp. Well built, a lot of features. Good quality images (80-200 ISO).
Problems: Noisy at 400-800 ISO.
Opinion: Excellent image quality up to ISO 200 with sharp and natural results!
Lots of features, great 35-140mm F2.8-F4.1 fast lens.
8 MP in an 1/1.8" sensor are more than enough.
I also have a Fuji F30, wich provides better image quality starting at ISO 200 due to less image noise (but the A630 is better IMO at outdoors/daylight shots).
The A630 is an exciting camera and a great value, it´s much better than i expected...
Problems: Live histogram, IS and Raw would be a plus.
Noisy at ISO 400 and almost unusable at ISO 800.
Poor LCD quality.
But for the price you pay...
Opinion: After my PS510 I tried the Fuji S6500FD, which gave pretty bad pictures (very bad lenses, Fujinon lenses!!). Returned it in a week. Now knowing that an old Canon PS gave perfect pictures in comparison to a relatively recent and huge-lens Fuji I decided to go for a new PowerShot.
I selected for manual options, CCD size and macro abilities. The PS A630 was comparable with the Fuji S6500FD, but without the useless "face-detection" and less optical zoom. But it indeed shoots great pictures.
Canon PowerShot A630:
PRO's:
- Very hard to detect any lens distortions. Only with 4x zoom and examining the picture in high digital zoom on your PC you can see some color distortions in high-contract areas (like tree-tops in the bright sky). Still hard to see when printed.
- Great, no, awesome macro features. When using manual focus, you can make objects sharp that nearly touch the lens! I caught a fly (was difficult, but worth the result!) and you can count its eye-segments!
- Battery life is great. Or that may just seem so, because this camera uses 4 batteries instead of two. I just depleated my first set of 2000 mAh NiMH batteries, and shot 450 pictures with it in about two weeks.
- When using ISO 80 or 100, noise is very very low. This is very nice when shooting dark objects or low-contrast scenes, like skies
- Use of SD card (cheap) and AA batteries (cheaper than specialized battery).
- You can run hacked firmware which enables running scripts, shooting RAW images and life histograms. Doesn't touch your original firmware so it's harmless. It runs from the SD-card.
Problems: CON's:
- Like the A510, the manual options take a lot of button pressing to set. Manual only usable when you have a minute to take your picture.
- For a low-noise shot, ISO 80 or 100, you need quite some light. When it's sunny and you're outside this is no problem. But in a forest when a little cloudy or inside this is a pitty. AUTO-mode often selects 1/60s, F/2.6 with flash and a rather high ISO. In aperture-priority-mode he selects rather low shutter speeds which causes motion blurring. Note: Not-low-noise (ISO 200, 400) does not mean a-lot-of-noise. ISO 200 and 400 still give fine pictures.
- The automaticly shutting lens protection covers are fragile and I already caused one of the four in each other sliding lids to jam. Probably when being uncareful putting it into a casing. Maybe I got it that way but I can't remember. I didn't want to go trough the trouble of getting it fixed because it's merely an imperfection rather than a failure. (after my vacation I decided to send it for repair after all.. was free and took 2 weeks...)
- SD-card holder and batteries share the same lid. Batteries pop out when you want to remove the card. When at home I don't need to do this because the camera supports USB 2.0 and very quickly copies the pictures. But when somewhere else where the drivers are not installed, you need to use a card reader and remove the card from the camera.
- No changing the optical-zoom setting when shooting a movie. You can digitally zoom when filming, but you don't want that.
- Not quite a 'compact' camera. Carrying it in your pocket is uncomfortable because it is rather heavy.
Personally I experience these CON's as inconveniences and rate this camera a great camera. Also because it costs only 199 euro's (about 230 dollar I guess, June 2007).
Reviews and specs
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 | 22.3 megapixels 3.2" screen Full frame sensor |
