Canon PowerShot A640 - UK Digital Camera Review

Canon PowerShot A640 Review

Stretch your creative options to the full with the 10 megapixel Canon PowerShot A640 and a combined zoom of 16x (4x optical and 4x digital).

Larger prints will not lose any of their quality with the PowerShot A640 and the 4x optical zoom allows you to either take close-up shots or more distant shots without any loss of precision. The 1cm Macro mode lets you come as close as 1cm to your subject without any loss of detail. The Canon PowerShot A640 has 9 point AiAF to keep off-centre subjects sharply focused.

Canon PowerShot A640 Front
Canon PowerShot A640 Back

The Canon A640 offers various modes including, auto, shutter and aperture priority AE, manual, portrait, landscape and night together with special scene modes where selections have been preset to suit the situation. These include snow and beach, fireworks, kids and pets, indoor, foliage and underwater. Manual mode allows plenty of scope for your own creativity. My Colors offers photo effect choices such as vivid, neutral, sepia, black and white, skin tones and custom.

Movies with audio can be shot in AVI (Motion JPEG compression + WAVE) with the Canon A640 at either 15 or 30fps with length depending upon memory available. A 32MB memory card is supplied with the Canon PowerShot A640 which can use SD (Secure Digital) card / SDHC / MMC card. The 4 x AA Alkaline batteries supplied with the PowerShot A640 give a battery life of approximately 280 shots or 500 shots if Canon NB-2AH batteries are used. The extended battery life is as a result of the DIGIC II image processor which deals with camera functions and processes images at high speed.

Images can be viewed on the 2.5" vari-angle LCD screen which, because of its flexibility, creates opportunities for the more unusual shots to be taken. It also has a 3:2 ratio overlay which indicates the printable area for standard photo prints. The optical viewfinder has real-image zoom.

The Canon PowerShot A640 has ISO equivalents of auto, high ISO auto, 80/100/200/400/800 - the high speed ISO 800 allowing correctly exposed images to be shot without a flash in low light conditions. Flash modes are auto, manual, on/off, red-eye reduction and slow sync. White Balance options include auto, daylight, cloudy, fluorescent x 2, underwater, tungsten and custom.

The PowerShot A640 is PictBridge compatible and movies can be connected to a TV or computer for full screen playback.

For the Canon PowerShot A640

Canon PowerShot A640 Specifications & Features

  • 10 Megapixels
  • 4 x Optical Zoom
  • 4 x Digital Zoom
  • 16 x Combined Zoom
  • 1cm Focusing Distance
  • Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Underwater and Custom White Balance Settings
  • 2.5" Low temperature P-Si TFT, approx. 115,000 pixels
  • Auto, Manual, On and Off Flash Modes
  • Red Eye Reduction
  • Maximum Image Size 3648 x 2736 Pixels
  • 640 x 480 30fps Movies up to 1GB
  • PictBridge Compatible
  • Secure Digital (SD/SDHC) or MultiMedia (MMC) Card - 32MB SD Card supplied
  • 4x Size-AA Alkaline or NiMH Batteries
  • Approximate Weight 245g

Canon PowerShot A640 User Reviews

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Reviewer: Paul - UK
The A640 is an update of the A620 and it has been successful in keeping the best of the 620 whilst adding improvements.

It would be suitable for both beginners and advanced photographers as it permits manual choices to be made by the more advanced user but also offers plenty of preset features for the (as yet) less skilled photographer. There would be much to learn from this camera.

It is an easy camera to use as all controls are in the "right place" and features are easy to access. I was very pleased with my outdoor shots and, overall, image quality and colour is excellent.

Features
Rating 10/10
Image Quality
Rating 10/10
Usability
Rating 10/10
Reviewer: Davey O'Brien - UK
I like this camera very much. It is quick, easy to use, has lots of features and a very good LCD monitor. This could be used by photographers at any level as it offers full manual control and preselections.

Image quality is extremely good as is colour (with skin tones looking natural). Outdoor shots come out very well and flash works well with indoor, red-eye reduction being quite effective. The 4 AA batteries give a lengthy battery life and once these are in place, the camera has a very comfortable feel.

Would recommend as a good choice for a family camera.

Features
Rating 10/10
Image Quality
Rating 10/10
Usability
Rating 10/10
Add a ReviewAdd a review for the Canon PowerShot A640
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Canon PowerShot A640 Review & Features - © UK Digital Camera Reviews 2008
For the Canon PowerShot A640
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