What happened to the A series?

I love my A620. It was my first Canon digital camera and my main camera for longer than i've had my DSLR. For me it was the perfect camera for travelling - I used to holster it in a Lowepro case like a pistol and could quick-draw it smoothly and still have it attached to the case via the wrist strap in such a way as so i couldn't drop it but it also didn't interfere with me operating it.

Just brilliant

I did replace it with the A650IS but couldn't like it as much, yeah it had improvements but it's larger size made it slightly less portable friendly, build quality felt less and it was slower than i felt it should and i preferred the memory card to be in a seperate compartment to the batteries. But looking back at the images it took they were really quite good.

I still have the A620 but it's barely operational, it's so tired! Once on holiday the lens caught my finger when retracting and it made a horrible loud squealing noise and ever since then the lens sounds really rough when extending/retracting, i guess it chewed some gears! Still it worked for three years of constant use after. But the screen is tiny now, although it still feels so good in the hand. It's no surprise that my first DSLR, a Canon 650D, had a vari-angle screen and other features like the A620.

It's true that my smartphone has replaced compacts for me as my 'phone is mostly always out with me but the quality of the photos are nowhere as good as a proper stand-alone camera. It would be nice if they made another one with AA batteries, though i'm wary of having wi-fi on it, useful yes, but most wi-fi gadgets i know of seem to drain the batteries even when switched off and even cause them to leak - which would be annoying as i would like to keep on in the car too.

In addition to the AA models in the A series, let's not forget the S3IS and S5IS, and several other very good AA battery cameras.

My son just returned the S3IS I had given him, still in the original box, and with a 52 mm Lensmate filter/telex adapter.  I tested it against my SX50HS, and at ISO 400 in low light, the S3IS had better resolution and color.  My first thought was "what am I going to do with this/"; but now I'm thinking about keeping it because of the size, lighter weight, fast lens, and image quality.

PhotoRaw wrote:

>I tested it against my SX50HS, and at ISO 400 in low light, the
>S3IS had better resolution and color.

GeraldW,
I'm not not surprised about this. That's why I like the F2.7 lens on my SX40HS.
The A590IS also had a faster lens (F2.6) which helps when shooting indoors at a lower iso. Perhaps a new model with the same lens and a CMOS sensor would be better. PASM + AA batts would be great.

Same with myself for keeping the small A710 IS; max f/2.8 - 4.8 and 7.1 MP.

At the time, Rookie Blake Griffin

Personally from what I've seen of 1/2.3" sensor cameras IQ, 12 MP currently seems to be the optimum pixel density.

Panasonic seems to agree as their new ZS50 reduced to 12 MP; previous ZS40 18 MP.

Nice action shot.  Shows why my wife and I still have 2 A710IS's (7 MP) and one A720IS (8 MP).

Back then, Canon's stated policy was to use as little processing of the images in-camera as they could.  That ended with the G7 which had a fair amount of noise reduction applied.  The A650IS and G9 used the same or very similar sensors, and the 650 had a lot more noise at ISO 400 and above; but it also retained a lot more detail.

I've used an A710 as a work camera for many years, mostly taking pictures of various electronic sub assemblies we manufacture for use in engineering documents and other various purposes.  While I can say it served me well, when I purchased my G7X, I then relegated my G15 as my main work camera.  After using it at work for awhile, there is absolutely no way I would want to go back to the A710 over the G15 in any shooting conditions, for any purposes.  The A series may have a loyal following but kudos for progressing technologies.  In addition to better lower light sensors, really a huge advantage when Canon started producing cameras with faster lens.

GeraldW wrote:

Nice action shot. Shows why my wife and I still have 2 A710IS's (7 MP) and one A720IS (8 MP).

Back then, Canon's stated policy was to use as little processing of the images in-camera as they could. That ended with the G7 which had a fair amount of noise reduction applied. The A650IS and G9 used the same or very similar sensors, and the 650 had a lot more noise at ISO 400 and above; but it also retained a lot more detail.

OpticGlass wrote:

The As and the Gs are priced differently. The As are/were less than $300, the Gs cost more, hard to compare. But the As are nice to have in the car all the time... if you run out of batteries just buy more anywhere. Not to worry if you didn't pack your charger.

The upper tier A's with 1/1.8" sensors (A80, A95, A620, A640, etc.) street price when first released were around $350+; the street price of A710 IS when released was around $316 +/-.