Canon PowerShot A640

portability, performance, usability, zoom, exposure

screen, battery

100% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

Sharp pictures, great chromatic aberration performance, colourful shots

Some image noise issues, bulky design

Produces crisp, sharp images ; Excellent Macro mode

Quite bulky for a compact ; Occasionally inaccurate AF

Perfect for anyone who wants people to ooh and ahh over their images, rather than their camera

Flip-out, 2.5-inch LCD can be angled to snap over crowds. Movie mode shoots at 30 frames per second. Included A/V cables for big-screen connectivity. Can shoot underwater with optional case. AA batteries means never having to wait for a charge

Not super portable at 4.3 x 2.6 x 2 inches and 12 ounces. Bundled with a rinky-dink and borderline useless 32MB memory card

Very good resolution, very clean results at lower ISO settings Bright, but natural colors Excellent handling Decent edge-to-edge lens performance Useful 35-140mm equiv. 4x zoom lens with decent F2.8-4.1 max aperture range Reliable focus in most...

Clipped highlights in bright, contrasty conditions (not helped by high default contrast) Focusing at tele end in low light can hunt Zoom is not very smooth - only 7 steps from wide to tele No ISO button - WB, drive, metering etc only accessible via...

Canon is one of the few companies still producing solid photographic feature-rich compact cameras like this, offering a genuine alternative for the serious photographer on a budget wanting SLR-level control.

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Lots of manual controls, Flip-out LCD, Accepts accessory lenses, Noisy at ISO 800, No image stabilisation

Noisy at ISO 800, No image stabilisation

Lots of manual controls; flip-out LCD; accepts accessory lenses.

Noisy at ISO 800; no image stabilization.

It's not great in low light, but the A640 has plenty of features photographers will love.