A true Powershot (Canon Powershot A650 IS)

Member Name: geek_squad

Product:	Canon Powershot A650 IS
Date:	28/07/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: User friendly, good image quality, display screen can be adjusted

Disadvantages: Shuttle delay is slightly longer

Upon first setting your eyes on the Canon Powershot A650 IS, you immediately get the impression that is a serious camera in terms of performance. The silver colour that is complimented by the black accents gives the user a sense of dimension when using the camera, it highlights the various parts of the camera such as the lens which gives it a modern look.

Based on its size, which is bigger and heavier than the typical camera, it lacks the ability to be carried using a neck strap which would be good given the weight of the camera.

The overall image quality of the camera is slightly above average, with good exposure accuracy and sharpness. The camera performs quite well in a range different shooting conditions, but most importantly it performed consistently.

The LCD display screen is proven to be an extremely useful function, because of its ability to be tilted both horizontally and vertically. You'll find yourself taking photos that you would have otherwise assumed were out of your reach or rather view. This is definitely a good feature for photographer that want to step up in the creative ladder. Now you'll be able to comfortably take shots that were previously considered too hard such as over your head.

The camera's image stabiliser feature is useful, particularly when you have extended your hand to use the camera's tilt screen which increases image sharpness and avoids motion blurs. It also has a reasonably high ISO setting of 1600, which is sufficient for most shooting conditions.

There is a viewfinder on the camera, however it should not be used primarily because it is slightly inaccurate when compared to the LCD display screen. Despite this, it is still a great feature when the sun's too bright to use the LCD display screen.

In addition to the bog standard feature this camera also has a wide range of manual settings that leaves you free to explorer and experiment with them to get the ideal shot. Manual focus is quite useful if you are very specific about the settings and want to get it absolutely spot on.

One of the tips when using this camera would be to take a few seconds to set the white balance manually, because the colour accuracy is always better when doing so when compared to using the camera's default auto setting.

As a whole this camera is quite user friend, with an ergonomic design that is nice to grip, menus layouts that are well designed and sensitive controls. The camera does not come with rechargeable batteries, instead 2 alkaline batteries. When choosing the batteries, it would be best to choose a battery capacity that matches your usage, the more often you take photographs the higher the battery capacity should be.

Summary: This is a great camera as a whole, especially if you don't want to have an SLR yet

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