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349 of 357 found the following review helpful:
 Amazing camera value!Sep 08, 2006
By Hiram Grant
"just call me Sam"
This is one of those nice cameras that's so well done, it's easier to talk about what the camera ISN'T, rather than what it IS! This camera is not a small, shirt pocket camera, and might be a bit bigger than a woman would wish to carry in a purse. It's not a super-tele camera, but it does have a respectable, bit longer than average 4x optical zoom.
Using the camera, it has a good weight and feel for average sized hands. The use of AA batteries helps keep the cost down, and has it's own advantages, although some may prefer the longer life charges of Lithium-Ion batteries (I do). General, controls are well thought out and easy to use. The zoom is nice and smooth.
For those that prefer an optical viewfinder, Canon is probably the strongest supporter, and this is a better than average viewfinder, although it does not have a diopter adjustment. But you'll probably never use it with the tremendous 2.5" rotary screen. Yes, there are 3" screens on the market, but this dwarfs anything on a hinge! It is a great aid in composing photos at low, high, or other odd angles (photos you simply didn't take before).
Another feature that gets high praise is the flex-focus system. Today's AF cameras do a decent job, but occassionally, they just don't hit on the right focus point. With the flex system, you can determine which point to use. This is simply great for crowded rooms or nature photos where the subject may not be the closest item within the focusing areas.
Control for this price point is very good indeed. Multiple "scene" modes make it easy for the novice (ok, or sometimes lazy pro), while the semi-auto and manual modes give even experienced users all they need.
Simply put, this camera could have easily been priced $50 to $100 more. The only real competition is the A640, $100 more, 10 meg, and a bit more attractive black finish.
244 of 250 found the following review helpful:
Unexpectedly Good PicturesOct 03, 2006
By Frederick W. McManus
"Rip"
My first impression of the A630 was less than stellar. After a year plus squinting through the viewfinder of my Rebel XT, I was really looking forward to composing my shots in a big, beautiful LCD again. Unfortunately, the LCD on the A630 may be big, but it's not beautiful. It does a fine job helping you review what's already been captured and presenting menu options legibly, but a mediocre job of rendering what's coming through the lens. The color is inaccurate and interference frequently appeared on the screen when half-clicking to freeze the focus. It still beats a viewfinder for composing an image but, frankly, I'd rather have the smaller LCD on my daughter's A620.
Ultimately, though, picture quality is everything to me, and here the A630 excels. I took 60+ pictures on a recent trip to Door County, WI and not one of them was a clunker, including several taken in very tricky lighting situations. Shooting modes worked as advertised although, with good lighting, the auto mode produced identical results. Indoors, flash pictures were perfectly exposed and the flash had a surprisingly good range.
On average, and I know this is heresy, the A630 took better pictures than my Rebel XT, and I didn't feel the need to Photoshop a single one of them. If I cared more about the LCD, I would have given this camera a lower rating, but a lower rating would not have done justice to the quality of the images this camera produces.
54 of 54 found the following review helpful:
Excellent optics, macro range,good manual controlsMay 10, 2007
By M. M Magliaro
"maxvideo"
Let me preface this by saying I come from the "old school" of photography. I've use good-quality film SLR cameras for years, and have always hated digitals because of all the cumbersome controls and lack of good manual control of the camera (yes, even on digital SLRs).
This camera is quite an improvement. If you are just a point-and-shooter, you can take it out of the box, throw batteries and an SD card in it and just click away. But if you know what you are doing with a camera, there are good manual controls in here for you, too, and that's what I want to focus on.
If you need to take close-up shots of small models, insects, flowers, etc this is the camera for you. If you want something tiny and slim just for snapping pics on vacation, this is NOT the camera for you. It will do a superb job, but it's more than you need and therefore bulkier than you probably want.
It has shutter and aperture priority - the latter being the most important. You can manually stop down the lens anywhere from 2.6 to 8.0. It wish it would stop all the way down to, like f/22, but that's a lot to ask for a $200 digicam. In macro mode, it really truly can focus on things only 1 cm away from the lens, and the focus is still crisp - very impressive.
Put this thing on a tripod, put a good light on your subject, turn the flash OFF, use the built-in timer to avoid shaking the camera, and you'll get magazine-publishable photos, and that's no lie.
White balance is superb. You can take shots under flourescent, incandescent, tungsten (photofloods) and the color rendition is terrific, even if you use the "auto" white balance. But you can manually calibrate it if you really want to. There are also several preset white balance settings (flourescent, incandescent, tungsten, and about 4 others).
It runs on 4 AA batteries, so you can shoot a long time before the batteries are dead, but definitely invest in 4 NiMH AA's and a charger.
It uses standard SD cards, not like those morons at Sony who insist on using a proprietary memory card in their cameras.
The best thing about it is that all the real controls you need if you are used to using a real camera are easily accessible right at the top level buttons - exposure compenstation, macro mode, flash on/off, f/stop.
There is also a full manual mode, so you can set f/stop, exposure, shutter speed and focus all completely manually. I fooled with some of the DSLRs, and those "mid-range" hybrid models like the S3 (sort of in between the things like this A630 and a DSLR). Frankly, they are agony to use. If I spend $800-$1000 on a DSLR, I do not expect it to punish me to find how to change the *(&#$@_)&* f/stop!
A 4x true optical zoom is a pretty darn good range in a small cam, as well.
The door where the USB hooks up is kind of cheap feeling, but I won't know for a long time whether it will hold up or not. Video shoots a smooth, crisp, non-grainy 30 frames per second in normal room light. Nice.
The LCD is large, bright, and clear, and it flips out to the side of the camera (if you like that sort of thing). I don't know why a few people complained about it.
Hooking to a computer - If you've got a Mac with OS/X, don't bother installing ANYTHING that comes with the camera. Just plug the camera into your USB port, and use the Mac's built in camera application. It will pull the photos off neatly in to a folder, and even delete them from the camera for you if you want. This is another nice plus. Who needs those silly bloated custom applications that come with these cameras? (And BTW, I am a computer software engineer by trade.)
I first tried an A550 (also a nice cam) and exchanged it at the store for this A630, because the 550 doesn't have the manual exposure controls I needed. For the extra $30 in price, the A630 is an enormous step up in quality and controls, well worth $30 more.
36 of 36 found the following review helpful:
 Great PicturesDec 07, 2006
By T. Wright
I had been looking for a new digital camera for over a year. I finally made this my pick. At first I wasn't happy with the menus and settings. But after testing it for a few weeks, I'm very pleased with it.
The pictures are outstanding!! If you have never used a Canon digital(I hadn't) the menu settings and multiple picture settings can be overwhelming. Just set it to "auto" the pics come out great. Then you can slowly learn the various setting(if you want to). I'm a geek so I tested them all.
-It starts up within 2 seconds and the time between shots is just over 1 second(really).
-The flippable LCD screen is great, but, the quality of the image on the LCD is only fair. If this is important to you, this camera is not for you. It really doesn't matter to me, I prefer the optical view finder for 99% of my shots.
-There is NO information displayed in the optical view finder.
-Very comfortable in the hand.
-There is no battery meter (just tells you need to replace).
-A little larger and heavier than a "pocket" camera.
-It takes four AA batteries - which is great, can get them anywhere - no waiting for recharge.
-For a still camera it takes great videos.
I would recommend this camera. It's not perfect - but after much research, it was a good choice for the price range.
Also, I bought a 1GB memory card - so I don't have to work about running out of space.
57 of 60 found the following review helpful:
Excellent cameraOct 18, 2006
By S. Brooks
I purchased this to replace the Canon A70 (another good camera) as I wanted more megapixels in order to take photos to be enlarged and have greater ability to crop. The camera is easy to use, has lots of useful "one-button" features such as for night shots, aperture priority and shutter priority. The camera can also be put in manual mode which permits manual settings and I've found to be very useful particularly for outdoor, backlit situations.
The clarity of the photos is very good. The movie function is also very good and far better than the A70 which was more grainy and pixilated due to the lower resolution.
The software provided is eay to use (at leat for Windows, I do not know about for Macs).
A couple of features of these Canon cameras I've found very, very useful and you might want to consider in buying any camera, particularly if you travel. First, it uses AA batteries which are easy to find, so you don;t have to worry about finding an outlet and adpator to recharge your proprietary battery. Second, it uses an SD card which are also relatively easy to find and can be used in many devices, as opposed to say a Sony memory stick.
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