The Canon Powershot A650 IS is a 12 megapixel camera. It has a 6x zoom lens. Zoom can be increased further when shooting at lower resolutions through a feature called safety zoom. 4x digital zoom is also available. The focal length of the lens is equivalent to 35 - 210mm in 35mm format.

The capacity of the lens can also be increased by adding conversion lenses. These are a tele converter for increasing zoom (2.0x TC-DC58C) and a wide angle converter (0.75x WC-DC58B).

• Image stabilisation
• Special resolution for widescreen television playback
• Self timer
• Red eye correction after a photo has been taken
• 60 seconds of commentary or sound can be added to a photo
• Stitch Assist for panoramic photos.

Manual focusing is available. In macro mode the camera can focus from 1cm away from the subject.

The LCD screen is 2.5 inches in size and is made up of around 173,000 pixels. It is one of the few screens that pull out and twist round. I think this is an excellent idea as it can help with difficult shooting positions, such as holding the camera above your head and also positioning the screen away from bright sunlight. There is also an optical viewfinder.

The flash options are quite comprehensive for this type of camera. The modes you can select from are Auto, Manual Flash On / Off. You can also turn on slow sync speed and red eye reduction. Second curtain synchronisation is a further option. Flash exposure compensation and flash exposure lock can also be used. The range of the flash unit is 3.5m falling to 2m when the zoom lens is in use. There is also the option to buy an external flash pack (Canon's High Power Flash HF-DC1).

The scene modes you can select from are Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, Night Scene, Indoor, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium and Underwater. Selecting a scene gives the camera some extra information about the type of photo you are about to take and this makes it easier for it to select the optimum settings.

A number of different colour effects can be added to a photo. These are Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black and White plus a limited custom colour function.

Movies up to 4GB in size or one hour in duration can be recorded. Sound can be captured with the movie. While recording is in progress only digital zoom can be applied. This can reduce the quality of the movie. Before you start recording you can apply optical zoom. The maximum resolution of a movie is 640 x 480 pixels and the top recording speed is 30 frames per second.

Manual exposure, shutter priority and aperture priority are all available. There is also a custom mode. Shutter speeds can be set in the range 15 - 1/2500 seconds. Aperture size can be set in the range f2.8 - 8 (wide) and f4.8 - 8 (tele). Other advanced features include metering (Evaluative (linked to Face Detection AF frame), Centre-weighted average, Spot (centre or linked to Face Detection AF or FlexiZone AF frame)), exposure compensation (+/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments), sensitivity (AUTO, High ISO Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600) and white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Underwater, Custom). Continuous shooting is available at a maximum speed of 1.2 frames per second until the memory card is full.

Cables and software are provided by Canon to attach the Powershot A650 IS to a compatible printer, television or computer.

You can pick up an underwater case (WP-DC18). The case is waterproof to a depth of 40m. A weight for the case is also available (WW-DC1).

Canon Powershot A650 IS

Description:	12 megapixels and a 6x optical zoom lens
Ease of Use:	7
Features:	9
Colour:	9
Macro:	9
Indoors:	8
Value for Money:	8
Style:	8
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	9
Build Quality:	9
Total:	84
Verdict:	The Canon Powershot A650 IS is one of the best digital compacts on the market. It has a number of highlights and picture quality is up there with the best. In terms of features it has more than most similar digital cameras and I am happy to recommend this camera.
Review Date:	October 2007
Related Pages:	Canon Powershot A650 IS Specification Canon Powershot A650 IS Sample Images Canon Powershot A650 IS Features

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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 A650 IS