Canon has done well with the Powershot A640. This compact digital camera has a complete feature set including full-manual controls, manual focus and custon white-balance. The A640 handles well and produces rather images with good sharpness, exposure and low-noise up to ISO 100. At ISO 200, noise becomes apparent but it stll produces very usable results with plenty of details. ISO 400 is quite noisy but usuable for small prints. ISO 800 is not.

 

There is no problem recommending the Canon A640 based on its performance and ergonomics. Of course, this camera is not without flaws and, in this respect, the previous Powershot A-series flagship cameras, did even better. Colors produced by the A640 (but not by the A630) are somewhat flatter and less saturated than normal. This is surprising since Canon usually slightly oversaturates colors in their consumer-oriented cameras. This camera's 4X optical zoom lens is the source of its ony other significant problem. While some barrel distortion at wide-angle is common and acceptable, as is slight corner softness, vignetting is more serious. The A640's lens has enough light fall-off to make vignetting noticeable in everyday pictures, particularly in front of uniformly lit subjects or sky. This gives such pictures an undesirable tunnel-like appearance.

 

As alternate models, the Canon Powershot A620 and Canon Powershot A610 are definitely worth considering. There is also the execellent Fuji Finepix E900 for a high-resolution alternative. Finally, the 8 megapixel Canon Powershot A630 is an option as well, it shows slightly more noise at high-ISO but produces much more appealing color and slightly sharper images.