Canon PowerShot A720IS 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon PowerShot A720IS 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Digital camera Review: 1-2 months to ship???
Summary: 1 Stars
Does anyone know why it takes 1-2 months to ship this camera? Is this a mistake? I am looking to buy this camera but don't want to wait that long.Digital camera Review: 4-3/4 stars.... almost 5!
Summary: 5 Stars
Very pleased with this camera after several weeks and several hundred pictures. The only reservation I have is the "system pause" after taking a picture. This small characteristic can be bothersome at times. Battery usage is low and with a 4-gig card you can shoot pics all day without having to transfer. Great camera which I would recommend to anyone, even for semi-pro use with the good selction of manual features.Digital camera Review: 6X PowerShot
Summary: 5 Stars
This camera has, to date, lived up to all our expectations, in spite of the fact it initially had some foreign material on the surface of the photo sensor internal to the camera. This was discovered in the images after about a week of use.
The unit was quickly cleaned/repaired by Canon (less than a week from date of return to back home). They even covered all shipping costs both directions to the repair depot.
It is exceptionally light due to its use of only 2 AA rechargeable batteries for power.
The 6x lens, Image Stabilization, 8 mega pixel resolution, and 1600 ISO capability in one package make it a great value for its size and price.
Digital camera Review: A Great Point And Shoot With Nice Manual Controls
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a semi-professional photographer. My main camera is a Nikon D70 with a number of Nikon lenses. I bought this to take with me when I don't feel like lugging the D70 around. (The A720 is lighter than even my lightest Nikon lens.) I researched compact cameras for many months and read dozens of reviews before deciding on this one. I am extremely happy with its performance and the quality of the images.
PROS:
* Very compact, light, and ergonomic. Great placement of dials and buttons. Intelligently designed menus. If you have any experience with digital cameras, this one will take about 10 minutes to learn how to use.
* Excellent exposure metering, contrast, and color. The exposure metering is far superior to that of my $[...] Nikon D70. The colors are beautiful, especially in vivid mode. Contrast is top notch. The highlights don't burn out and the shadows are true shadows, not mid-tones.
* Great manual controls: aperture, shutter, ISO, exposure compensation, flash compensation, saturation, contrast, focus area, even manual focus. When using manual focus, the LCD magnifies the section of the shot you are focusing on, allowing you to more easily get the focus just right. Great feature.
* Nice optical zoom (6x) to 210mm.
* Large f/2.8 at 35mm (f/4.8 at 210mm) aperture allows you to blur backgrounds nicely and take shots with small depth of field. This is great for portraits and artistic shots.
* Ability to focus as close as .39 inches. Good camera for macro shots.
* High quality, sharp LCD that is usable even in bright sunlight and when viewing at an angle. (Part of the reason I bought this camera was because it offered an optical view finder. The LCD is so good on this camera though, that I have not used the view finder at all.)
* Excellent battery life when using rechargeable AA batteries. (I haven't tried regular AA's.)
CONS
The problems with this camera are the typical ones associated with virtually every compact camera ...
* Slight color fringing when shooting backlit objects.
* Not as sharp as an SLR with a quality lens (of course).
* Noisy above ISO 100 and largely unusable above ISO 400. If you need to take quality handheld shots in low light, no compact camera is going to cut it. Get a digital SLR and a fast lens. (Sad fact: the sensor on this camera is only a hair bigger -- .75mm diagonally, or 8% larger -- than the sensor on my 7 year old Nikon CoolPix, and yet, Canon, like most digital camera makers, have stuffed 4 times as many pixels on this tiny sensor. 400% more pixels on a sensor that's only 8% larger. That means significantly smaller, noisier pixels. Because of this, my 7 year old Nikon CoolPix is less noisy at ISO 100 -- the only ISO it has -- than this Canon at ISO 80 or 100. Very sad indeed. This sensor overcrowding though is true of every compact camera now, so you just have to put up with it. The higher megapixels allow you to print larger prints and crop more, but you end up with more noise as well, even at low ISO's like 80 or 100.)
* Would be nice if it went wider than 35mm for wide-angle landscape shots.
Digital camera Review: A Little Camera with limitations
Summary: 3 Stars
I wasn't going to write a review of this camera until I had more time to use it; however, I quickly discovered a significant weakness which I think people should be aware of before they buy one. Apparently the camera has little or no buffer memory. In addition to the long recovery time after a flash which has been mentioned by others, there is a big delay between shots. And it is not minor. Evidently the processor has to write directly to the card. I spent yesterday afternoon putting the camera through its paces and I was quite taken aback by this problem. I was repeatedly frustrated as I tried to take a series of shots quickly. The zoom is also frozen each time until the write is completed. Anyone used to a modern DSLR is in for a big surprise. My experience was duplicated by a friend with his 720. A fast card is very desirable, but it won't solve the problem (I used one). Otherwise, I have been pleased with the camera, and it seems to meet my basic requirement for a camera I can throw in my jacket pocket and take with me everyday. It will just require a more deliberate approach. I will soon be going to Europe and after I get back and recover from jet lag, I will write more.