Canon Powershot A630 Review

The Canon Powershot A630 is an eight megapixel digital camera with a four times optical zoom lens. In terms of features Canon has developed the Powershot A630 on the lines of a cut down SLR camera. It offers a good range of features including manual exposure settings and manual focus as well.

It is likely to appeal to anyone who is looking for a camera that is a step up on a standard point and shoot model, but retains a fairly compact body size.

In terms of picture quality the Powershot A630 performed just about how I expected it to in my tests. Colours are strong without being overpowering, plus the images are sharper than average. The manual exposure controls also give you the chance to have a greater influence over the way each image looks.

Starting off with the outdoor scenic shots these are handled well. You can see how the strong blues and greens contribute to the overall vivid feel these photos have. I also like the fact that the second test shot does not suffer from darker edges and corners to the photo in the way many other cameras do.

The extra degree of sharpness is evident in each of these shots. Another positive note is the way the sharpness remains strong towards the edges of each photo.

One big disappointment is the way the Powershot A630 fails to deal with the glare of the sun shining on light areas in the first shot. Detail is lost from the boats and also the white beams under the roof of the building. While this is a fairly common problem other cameras I tested at the same time performed better in this area.

The dedicated test for colour supports my findings throughout my test shots. Colours are strong in general, with blue more to the fore than most without managing to dominate.

Colours show up well in the outdoor portrait shot. Skin tones look natural and the photo has a warm feel to it in general. The picture was taken in overcast conditions and I used the cloudy white balance setting to increase the strength of the colours in the shot.

Moving indoors the test shots for lowlight work out very well. Both the indoor portrait and picture of beer bottles are sharply focused and well lit when you take the conditions into account. There is a slight touch of red eye in the indoor portrait, but this is quite well controlled when compared to many other cameras.

For close up work the Powershot A630 is able to focus from almost next to the subject. My macro test shot is very pleasing showing clear definition of the subject. It is certainly one of the better ones I have managed to take.

Finally the shots taken with a high ISO settings prove to be disappointing. I used ISO 400, ISO 800 and ISO Hi settings. Each time there was a reduction in picture quality in the final shot. Although this is the case with most cameras it still would have been a plus point if the Powershot A630 had managed a better quality result.

I was able to take a single shot in 0.38 seconds and five shots in 8.35 seconds. Both of these are average times, although I would like to have seen the time to take a single photo that bit lower.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The 4x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 35 - 140mm in 35mm format. There is also a feature called safety zoom. This is only available at lower resolutions and offers an extra 1.6x or 2x zoom. In addition there is 4x digital zoom.

When focusing you have a choice between a nine point or one point focusing system. Fully manual focusing is also available. Macro photography is catered for with a minimum focusing distance of 1cm.

A small selection of scene modes are available. These are Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pet. When selecting the appropriate scene the Powershot A630 will use what it considers to be the optimum settings for the shot. Stitch Assist is also available to help you put together panoramic shots.

To add something different to your photos there are a number of colour effects. These are Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Positive Film and Custom Colour.

The 2.5" LCD screen can be pulled out, moved and tilted to suit the shooting conditions. I also found the screen to be very good in lowlight. It is made up of around 115,000 pixels. In addition to the screen there is also an optical viewfinder available.

Features relating to flash are comprehensive. As well as the modes Auto, Manual Flash On / Off, Slow Sync Speed and Red-eye Reduction, flash exposure compensation and also bracketing are available. The range of the built in flash unit is 4.2m. This falls to 3m when the zoom lens is in use. To boost the flash an external flash unit, the Canon High Power Flash HF-DC1, can be bought separately.

There is not a 3:2 aspect ratio available for 6 x 4" prints, but a special wide aspect ratio is available.

For when you would like to appear in the picture there is a self timer. There are two standard self timer modes. These allow you to specify a delay of either two or ten seconds. There is an additional mode allowing you to select a delay time of your choice up to thirty seconds. You can then shoot up to ten shots at the end of the delay time. A histogram is available as well.

One of the biggest attractions of the Powershot A630 is the fact you can set the aperture and shutter speed. The maximum f number available is f/2.8-f/4.1. Shutter speeds can be set in the range 15 to 1/2500 seconds.

Other advanced features you have control over are exposure compensation (+/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments), white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Underwater, Custom), ISO equivalents (AUTO, High ISO Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800) and metering (evaluative, centre-weighted average, spot (centre or linked to focusing frame). Continuous shooting is available. The maximum speed is 1.8 frames per second. You can continue shooting until the memory card is full.

After a picture has been taken you can add up to 60 seconds of voice memo to it.

TV quality movies can be recorded. The maximum resolution is 640 x 480 pixels. The maximum speed is 30 frames per second. Sound can be recorded and you can zoom in and out while recording is in progress. The maximum length of each movie is 1GB or one hour.

Canon supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the Powershot A630 to a television set, computer and PictBridge compatible printer.

Useful accessories include a waterproof case (WP-DC8). This is waterproof to a depth of 40m. There are also lens converters available. Lens Adapter, LA-DC58F Tele-Converter 1.75x TC-DC58N, Wide converter 0.7x WC-DC58N.

In terms of ease of use it has to be remembered that the Powershot A630 offers a lot more than a standard point and shoot digital camera. To get the most out of it you will need to spend some time getting to grips with it and experimenting with the different settings it offers.

You can pick up a Canon Powershot A630 for around £190. This compares to around £200 for a Sony DSC W100, £165 for an Olympus SP-320 and £165 for a Kodak EasyShare C875.

There are not many cameras to choose from in this category. Overall I would say the Canon Powershot A630 is very reasonably priced.

The Powershot A630 is certainly more chunky then the super slim digital cameras that seem to be flooding the market at the moment. It is more like a cut down version of an SLR camera. It has a good grip on the front helping you to hold the camera steady when you take a shot.

It has dimensions of 109.4 x 66.0 x 49.1mm and weighs around 245g.

Four AA batteries are needed to power the camera. Canon supplies four alkaline batteries with the Powershot A630. They estimate you should be able to take around 350 shots with the supplied batteries.

Images are stored on SD cards. A 16mb card is supplied with the camera as standard. I was able to take seven photos before the memory card was full. Although this allows you to carry out a very basic test of the camera you will need to pick up a card with a decent capacity before you can use the camera more fully.

Click here to save money on SD cards.

Sharpness of the photos
Indoor photo quality
Feature set at reasonable price
LCD performance in lowlight
Angle of LCD screen can be varied

Small SD card supplied

The Canon Powershot A630 represents something of a dying breed of digital camera. With a wide range of features in a relatively compact body this type of digital camera is becoming increasingly hard to come by. The performance of the camera is good and the price is very reasonable. Recommended.

Canon Powershot A630 Front View

Canon Powershot A630 Back View

Canon Powershot A630 Top View

Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Canon Powershot A630