thoughts on the Canon A610

I went into KL today to purchase a camera (not for myself, unfortunately, but for mom at work) and after my usual online research I went to test drive the Canon A610, A620 and the Nikon Coolpix P2. As is obvious, I came back with the 5.1 megapixel A610. Do I like this camera? Boy, you betcha telephoto lenses I do. It’s bang for buck for every feature it has and let me just babble on about some of my favourite, because the rest of the specs you can find over at Digital Photography Review site – www.dpreview.com.

First of all, the 4x zoom (35mm – 140mm) for a camera at this price range is well worth it. The 2″ display screen, although smaller than my Sony W1, is adequate especially since it also allows you to tilt and swivel the screen which its predecessor the A95 does not.
The body is built solid and you can get a good grip on the camera to minimise shake when taking pictures.
Shooting modes up the wazoo, with settings for indoor, snow, kids and pets, foilage (!!), fireworks, bla, bla bla — very handy when travelling.
And on top of that it’s got aperture and shutter priority settings, though limited, still better than nothing.
The camera performs well indoors and low light when I tested it tonight.
I own a very ancient, we’re talking like 1998 here, Powershot 350 which i still keep around because i loved its macro performance. This A610 can do 1cm macro focus. *1* cm!! I can take artistic photos of boogers if I wanted!

Of course, there are also things i didn’t like about this model. Chief among it being the loud whirs the zoom lens produces. Second being the cheap plastic ring around the lens which you’re supposed to remove to put on attachment lenses. This list isn’t long cause i can’t really find anything to knock on.

This thing isn’t going to win any beauty contest but it’s such a feature-packed ‘budget’ model I would recommend it to most people who aren’t fussy about size and sex appeal.

I’m done drooling.