Canon PowerShot A620

Reviewed November 2005

Characteristics

The PowerShot A620 captures images using a 1/1.8 inch CCD with 7.3 million pixels, of which 7.1 million are effective to produce a maximum image size of 3072 x 2304 pixels.

CCD sensitivity starts at 50 ISO and extends up to 400 ISO, automatically adjusted by the camera when it is set to any of the Scene modes. It can, however, be manually adjusted to 50, 100, 200 or 400 ISO when the A620 is set to P, Tv, Av or M modes. Moreover, an Auto setting is also offered, allowing the camera to adjust sensitivity as necessary automatically.

Just like the A610, the A620 is equipped with a 4X optical zoom lens that has a focal length range of 7.3 to 29.2 mm, the equivalent of a 35 to 140 mm. At the wide angle end, its maximum aperture is f2.8 becoming f4.1 when the zoom is at its maximum telephoto, closing down in both cases to f8, although minimum apertures of f11 and f16 — depending on zoom position — are possible in the Auto mode.

Below and to the right of the lens barrel a button serves to release the silver ring at the base of the zoom, revealing a bayonet mount onto which an adapter can be mounted.

The adapter (LA-DC58F) serves to attach either 58mm diameter filters or one of two optional lens converters, wide angle converter WC-DC58N, or telephoto converter TC-DC58N.

The A620 has a shutter speed range that covers from 1/2500 second down to 15 seconds, varying for the highest shutter speeds available with the zoom position and the selected capture mode. And, with all images captured with a shutter speed of 1.3 seconds or longer, a noise reduction system is automatically applied.

The PowerShot A620 offers 5 image sizes at which photos can be captured:

• Large = 3072 x 2304 pixels
• Medium 1 = 2592 x 1944 pixels
• Medium 2 = 2048 x 1536 pixels
• Medium 3 = 1600 x 1200 pixels
• Small = 640 x 480 pixels

Any of these image sizes can be combined with any one of three JPEG compression levels, but a non-lossy format is not offered:

• Super fine: the highest image quality applies a compression with a ratio of approximately 6:1.
• Fine: an average compression level, applying a compression that averages around 12:1
• Normal: the strongest compression, compressing images to a ratio of approximately 20:1.

As has been the case with a number of recent Canon cameras, the A620 also offers an image format called Post Card. The format captures a 1600 x 1200-pixel ( 3:2 format) image designed to be printed at a 4 x 6 inch (10 x 15 cm) size. When the format is selected and the shutter release is pressed halfway, greyed-out areas appear at the top and bottom of the monitor's image, indicating the areas that will not be recorded with the 3:2 format of the image. The Postcard mode uses a Fine compression setting, which cannot be modified, but makes it possible to permanently superimpose the time and date on the image.

The selections for image size and compression are made within the Function menu, displayed when the FUNC. button at the centre of the 4-direction control is pressed. This menu, accessible in all camera modes, offers the greatest number of options when the A620 is set to P, Tv, Av or M modes:

• ISO Speed: Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400 ISO.
• White Balance: Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten (incandescent), Fluorescent (warm), Fluorescent H (daylight), Underwater and Custom (measured under ambient light by evaluating a white surface).
• Drive Mode:
  • Single;
  • Continuous: captures photos at 1.9 frames per second using a Large/Fine image size.
  • 10-second Self-Timer.
  • 2-second Self-Timer.
  • Custom Self-Timer provides a selectable delay time (0 through 10 seconds, or 15, 20, 30 seconds) and a choice of the number of photos to take (1 to 10).
• Photo Effect: Off, Vivid (increases contrast and saturation), Neutral (decreases contrast and saturation), Low Sharpening (softens outlines), Sepia or Black and White.

• My Colours: this option is only presented when the camera is set to mode, or to the Movie mode, and allows selecting the specific colour setting (see the Ergonomics section of the review for a list and description of the My Colours modes available).
• ± Flash: provides flash exposure compensation (±2EV in 1/3 EV increments) when the A620 is set to either Tv or Av. And when the A620 is set to the Manual mode, or when the Flash Adjust option of the REC. Menu is set to Manual (see further) for the Tv and Av modes, the option provides an adjustment over the flash output 1/3 power, 2/3 power or Full.

• Metering Mode: allows selecting one of three metering patterns:
  • Evaluative.
  • Centre-Weighted.
  • or Spot.
• Compression: SuperFine, Fine or Normal (see above).
• Frame Rate: shown only when the camera is set to capture movies, this option serves to select the frame rate (see the Ergonomics section of the review).
• Resolution (Still image): as outlined above.
• Resolution (Movie): 640 x 480, 320 x 240 or 160 x 120 pixels (see the Ergonomics section of the review).

Other settings that are related to the image capture modes are located in the main menu, which appears when the MENU button is pressed. The menu is composed of three sections, two of which are always displayed irrespective of the mode.

The REC. menu is presented as the first section when the A620 is set to a capture mode:

• AF Frame: offers 3 auto focus options:
  • AiAF: lets the camera select the focus point(s) using one or more of the 9 AF points clustered near the middle of the frame.
  • Centre: focuses only using the centre AF point.
  • FlexiZone: allows moving the focus point to any position in the frame.
• Flash Sync: decides whether the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure (1st curtain) or just before the end of the exposure (2nd curtain) when the Slow Synch flash mode is used.
• Flash Adjust: Auto or Manual. Selects whether the flash's output is controlled by the A620 or manually.
• Slow Sync: On or Off. Turns On or Off the Slow Synch mode.

• Red-Eye: On or Off. When set to On, the orange lamp that also serves as the AF-assist lamp and Self-timer lamp is used to minimize red-eye.
• Spot AE Point makes it possible to associate the spot meter to the AF point when the FlexiZone AF is used (this option can only be accessed when FlexiZone is active).
• Safety Shift: On or Off. When the camera is set to Av (Aperture Priority) or Tv (Shutter Priority) this function ensures that a workable combination of aperture and shutter speed are used should the selected combination not be effective.

• MF-Point Zoom: On or Off. Decides whether or not the centre portion of the image is magnified to help in focusing when the camera is set to Manual focus.
• AF-assist Beam: On or Off. Controls whether or not the camera automatically uses the bright AF-assist lamp when the ambient light is insufficient for the auto focus system to work.
• Digital Zoom: On or Off. Controls the 4X digital zoom. The digital zoom crops the centre portion of the frame and interpolates it to the current image size, causing a degradation of the image quality. (Digital zoom is not available if the image size is set to Post Card.)
• Review: controls the display of a just captured image. Three options are available, Off, Hold (remains on screen until a camera button is touched) or a preset time (between 2 and 10 seconds).
• Save Original: On or Off. Decides whether or not the original — unaltered — image is saved as well as the processed one when one of the My Colours modes is in use.
• Reverse Display: On or Off. Decides whether or not the camera automatically reverses the image from left to right when the monitor is facing the front, as would be the case with a self-portrait.
• Grid Lines: On or Off. Superimposes a grid that divides the screen into 9 equal areas as an aid to composition.
• Date Stamp: Off, Date, Date and Time. Only available when the camera is set to the Post Card image format, it serves to decide whether the Date only, or the Date and Time or nothing will be permanently imprinted atop the image.
• Save Settings: saves the current configuration of settings so that it can be recalled entirely when the Mode Dial is turned to the C (Custom) mode.

The second part of the menu is the Setup menu, and its options are described in the Interface and Software section of the review.

The third part of the menu is a standard on all PowerShot cameras, and serves to personalize the A620.

The My Camera menu provides options to select a sound to be played when the camera starts up, or when it is being used, or for when the Self-timer is counting down, or for the shutter release.

Three Themes are present in the camera out of the box, and more — over 40 — themes are included with the camera's software, which can be loaded into the A620's internal memory instead of the default themes. Moreover, sounds and images can be mixed and matched at will, and then uploaded to the camera.

Set to the Playback mode the A620 displays the playback menu options when the MENU button is pressed. The menu has a similar appearance as the REC menu, but uses a different colour. And, as noted earlier, also provides access to the Setup and My Camera sections:

• Protect: marks an image as "read-only" preventing its accidental deletion.
• Rotate: rotates an image under review by either 90° or 270°.
• Sound Memo: makes it possible to record a sound annotation up to 60 seconds long.
• Erase All: erases all the images on the memory card, with the exception of those that have been "protected".

• Auto Play: presents a slide show of all the images on the memory card, displaying each for approximately 3 seconds.
• Print Order: is to select images for printing, and to specify the number of prints to make of each image using DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) tags. Photos can then be printed by a service. Or, since the A620 is Direct Print, Bubble Jet Print and PictBridge compatible, can be printed directly when the camera is connected via USB to a similarly compatible printer.

• Transfer Order: serves to identify images that should be transferred automatically when the A620 is connected to a computer running the software included with the camera.

The PowerShot A620 is compatible with SD (Secure Digital) memory cards and with MMC (Multimedia) cards. The North American version of the camera tested here is accompanied with a 32MB SD card, and is rated as compatible with cards up to 2 GB. The card slot is located on the right side of the camera, and covered by a solid plastic door. The card is ejected by pressing it on the edge.

The capacity chart shown below provides still image capacities for the 32 MB card included with the camera, and with an inexpensive but optional 512MB SD card:

As sold in North America, the PowerShot A620 is supplied with 4 AA-size alkaline batteries. However it can be powered by rechargeable Ni-MH batteries as well, giving it a much greater autonomy.

The 4 batteries are housed inside the grip, behind a latching door that opens underneath the camera, next to the tripod screw.

The A620 can be powered directly using household current if the optional power adapter (ACK600) is used, preferable if the camera is going to be used for an extended period of time in one location. The power adapter is plugged into the top jack.

Directly below is the USB port, which is compatible USB 2.0 Hi-Speed.

Last is the AV out which serves to connect the camera to a television. The output signal can be set to either NTSC or PAL in the Setup section of the menu (see the Interface and Software section of the review).