Fun to use and great pictures

Review of Canon A620 camera

This is my third trying out a digital camera, and this is the one to keep!

I wanted to buy myself a camera for the many reasons we all want one. To capture the moments you want to remember. But before I start getting into my experience, I want to point out that I am NOT an experienced digital camera owner, so I won't have all the advanced knowledge of camera capabilities that alot of the other reviewers have.

My first camera purchase was based completely on the sales persons' advice. Originally, I came in the store because I was looking for a Sony which was on sale. They didn't have it in stock at their store and based on my camera needs he sold me the Panasonic Lumix LS2 (5MP). In my opinion, that one would be fine for true beginners to digital cameras, but a person may end up feeling like the camera is a toy after a while. That's how I felt after about two weeks of pictures. I absolutely hated the shutter lag, I missed alot of great moments with pets because of this.
I've been told by a co-worker who has owned a digital camera for years to look at Canon's cameras (He is a brand snob with cameras and would only buy Canon's). When I first bought my Panasonic, we both brought our cameras to work to compare them. Mine had 5MP, his was an old Canon with 3MP. First thing that was noticable was the colors. My photos had over saturation, where his photos looked more true to life. In comparison to the details, there was no difference with quality. But yet there was a difference of 2MP. And his old Canon had hardly any shutter lag to it too. The last straw came when after only having it for about three weeks, the A/V cable connection crapped out on me.

I returned it and traded it for a Sony Cybershot (6MP). The Sony camera took great shots, but I returned it only after 2 days because of the horribly small buttons. I have fairly small hands and fingers (I'm a 5, 1" woman) and I found the buttons irritatingly small to deal with. God help anyone who uses this camera with average sized hands. I also didn't like that it didn't have a digital zoom or A/V capabilities. I also found the menu cumbersome to deal with. Something I didn't think of when I was trying it out in the store, but later realized how frustrating it was, so off to the store to return another unsatisfied purchase.

I then had my eye on the Canon A620. It cost me about $125 more than the previous two did, but I'd rather buy something I'd be happy with. Its really easy to navigate around the menu. It has 4x optical zoom and 16x digital zoom. Another great feature is it has audio capabilities when shooting video. It may not be as great as a camcorder's sound quality, but for me, the fact that this even has it was a bonus. The auto focus capabilities are unbelievable too. I do alot of gardening and I wanted to take pictures of my plants or flowers and the focus is incredible with the Macro feature. I print out almost all my photos on standard letter sized photo paper, and it looks like shots taken from a film camera. Because it is a 7MP camera, all the fine detail comes through with amazing results. I find the colors are so vivid without looking overly saturated.

Overall, spending the extra money to get a camera that gives me pictures like this was well worth it. I am very satisfied with all of its features, the ease of use, and of the bottom line of course, the quality of the pictures. I would highly recommend this camera to anyone.