Canon PowerShot A620
Review Date: January 11th 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 7M Superfine mode, which gives an average image size of around 2.5Mb - 4Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available on the Canon PowerShot A620 which you can select at any time if the camera is in the Manual mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
ISO 50 (100% crop) |
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% crop) |
ISO 400 (100% crop) |
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There is virtually no discernible noise at the slowest settings of ISO 50 and 100, and ISO 200 also looks very clean. Noise can be seen at the fastest ISO speed of 400, but overall the Canon PowerShot A620 deals very well with a problem that afflicts most compact digital cameras.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Alternatively you can decrease the in-camera sharpening by choosing the Low Sharpening image effects option.
Original
100% Crop |
Sharpened 100% Crop |
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File Quality
The Canon PowerShot A620 has 3 different file quality settings available, with Superfine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
| 7M
Superfine (3,076Kb) |
7M
Fine (1,896Kb) |
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| 7M
Normal (931Kb) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon PowerShot A620 handled chromatic aberrations extremely well during the review, so well in fact that I could only a couple of examples in test shots with extreme contrast.
| Example
1 |
Example
2 |
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Macro
The Canon PowerShot A620 offers a Super Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject in Super Macro mode (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
| Macro Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Canon PowerShot A620 are Auto, On, Auto Red-eye Reduction, Slow Synchro and Off. These shots of a magnolia coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
| Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm) |
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| Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (140mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, neither the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Reduction option caused any red-eye.
| Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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| Flash - Red-Eye Reduction |
Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Canon PowerShot A620 maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds, aperture of f/4.1 at ISO 50. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
| Night Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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Overall Image Quality
The Canon PowerShot A620 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The 7 megapixel images werea little soft straight out of the camera and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop. The Canon PowerShot A620 dealt very well with chromatic aberrations, which only appeared in one of the test shots - very limited purple fringing effects could only be seen in very high contrast situations. Macro performance is above avearge, allowing you to focus as close as 5 cms away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was very good too, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds offering lots of scope for creative night photography. The Canon PowerShot A620's handled noise very well too, with ISO 50-200 showing hardly any signs of noise and even the fastest speed of ISO 400 being perfectly usable.
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the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
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