Canon PowerShot A620

Canon's A620 is the best entry into the Powershot series, and one of the most complete cameras we've seen. It combines incredible picture quality and full functionality into a great package that only has a few niggling flaws to let it down.

Few cameras across any category match the A620 for picture quality. We were absolutely floored when we opened up the images we'd taken and discovered that side to side, they rvialled those taken by some of the digital SLRs we have reviewed earlier. The colour was fantastic no matter what we were photographing and the sharpness and clarity was virtually unparalleled. Canon definitely have a winner on their hands here as the 7.1 megapixel sensor on this model just blew us away.

The A620 unfortunately bears the signature Powershot design; namely it has a large, square shape and jutting right hand grip. While the grip on this model is better than previous cameras, and the build as a whole is extremely sturdy,we just cannot get over how big and heavy it is. For a portable point and shoot model, it is much too big to comfortably fit in a pocket or small bag. We also found that despite having a mass of space to work with, it wasn't used very well. Our fingers often struggled just a little to get to basic functions like the zoom, and the LCD can get in the way when properly extended.

That is assuming you can take your eyes from the screen itself long enough to configure anything. The LCD is a beautiful piece of work. Whilst only measuring 2", there is no noticeable ghosting at all and the image is crisp and clear. The screen can also be rotated any way you please, offering that extra little bit of flexibility.

Functionally the A620 offers a full range of manual options, including whitebalance control as well as shutter and aperture priority modes. These are guarded by a safety mode that will compensate if you shift one option too far, preventing underexposed pictures. The A620 also sports various colour modes (sepia, black and white etc) and preset shooting configurations such as landscape and portrait, for the more amateur photographer.

The continuous shot and movie functions were very impressive. Video can be taken at 640x480 at a speed of 30 fps and there is no limit on the length (short of what your memory card can hold). The continuous shot function is equally free and runs at between 1.8 and 2 frames a second. There was also an alternative movie mode which we loved, that allows a massive 60 fps recording at 320x240 resolution for a full minute. 60 fps is more than enough to capture brilliant, fast motion videos, and a minute of recording gives plenty of time to record that final goal or the last fifty metres of the race.