I own a Canon 20d DSLR that is used mainly indoors w/ a fast 28/1.8 prime lens.

I use the A640 as my "carry averywhere" camera. It lives in a small backpack w/ all my other daily items like wallet, keys, etc.

IQ is nothing short of stunning. Out of camera images are better than the 20d. Really! With fairly good light this camera will not disappoint. I use the manual focus feature often, too. ISO 80 - 400 give perfectly acceptable prints. ISO 800 gets a tad noisy, but if it's exposed properly it's usable, especially when converted to B&W.

10mp allows for plenty of cropping!!

I've made some really super large prints with A640 files and my Epson 2400 printer.

A640 is an incredible value. If your an artistic-type, street shooter or world traveler you will love the myriad features: macro, manual focus, flip screen, etc.

Build is really just great considering price point. A640 black trmped A630 silver for me.

Finally, I just tested new Canon G7 today. Don't waste your money on that when you can get the A640 (same camera in many ways, better in some ways).

I had the canon A620 and I loved it, I wanted more...I got it!!! I bought the A640, its the best camera I've ever tried for a very low price.
The only thing you can expect.....Great Quality Pictures!!!

I purchased this camera the week it came out. 10Megapixels is overkill today but as with all technology overkill today is outdated tomorrow. I took this camera to a hot-air balloon festival on a sunny day. All but one photograph came out extremely sharp and clear. The only photo that came out with an issue had the sun directly in it and was overexposed (my fault). To me in that one day the camera paid for itself.

First, something that shouldn't matter: it's a darn attractive camera. Yes, it's plastic, but it really does set itself apart from the 8mp A630 in beauty. Like that camera, it is too big to be a shirt-pocket camera, and while better than most compact cameras, the 4x zoom can be beat in length.

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.

Like the A630, this camera could have easily been priced $50 to $100 more. The only real competition is the A630, $100 less, 8 meg, and a bit less attractive, more plastic looking silver.

Ordered it thru Amazon. I had purchased the Nikon P1 and was unhappy with it so I ordered this one and Whew, I'm glad I did. I love it. It's a little larger than the P1 but I love the fact I can change the batteries just by adding some AA's. After all, what Mom doesn't carry extra AA batteries around with her? No need for a separate charger to forget when going on vacation. I love the fact I can move the LCD screen to take photos and see at different angles. Every parent needs a camera like this one. I highly recommend it.

THIS CAMERA I HAVE TO SAY IS PRETTY AWESOME!I JUST RECEIVED IT TODAY.IM SOO GLAD I BOUGHT IT..I WAS A LITTLE UNDECIDED BUT AFTER READING SEVERAL REVIEWS ABOUT THIS CAMERA I FIGURED WHY NOT GIVE IT A TRY. THERE WAS NOT ONE NEGATIVE REVIEW ABOUT THIS CAMERA.(^_^) AND NOW I SEE WHY. I STILL HAVE TO GO OVER THE MANUAL OFCOURSE JUST LIKE ANYTHING ELSE YOU BUY, RIGHT?JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO I HAD BOUGHT THE HP R927 AND ILL TELL YOU I WASNT SATISFIED. I IT HAD A GLARE ACROSS THE SCREEN WHEN IT WAS TAKEN OUTSIDE.VERY VERY HAPPY NOW! =)

I have been a Canon camera fan for years, my first SLR was a Canon, and so I was excited about 10 MP in a consumer-grade camera from Canon. After one week of average usage, here are the highs and lows. BTW, my frame of reference is my Canon G5.

Highs-

*- Incredible battery life. The camera comes with four alkaline (no name) batteries. I have taken more than 220 pictures and 30 minutes of video using the original batteries.

*- 10 MP captures everything! At first, the pictures looked "off" somehow. Then I realized the level of detail in the pictures is just amazing.

*- The screen is excellent. It is bright, and big, tilts to every angle, and frames the entire picture, and, and, and.... Very impressive.

*- Video capture 640 x 480 @ 30 fps is phenomenal. The video clips are as good as any basic camcorder.

*- The camera is light yet feels well built. The lens moves smoothly, the dial clicks into each position, etc. The compartment doors do concern me (see below).

*- USB 2.x picture transfer is very fast @ about 2.5 min for 1 Gig of data.

*- The camera supports 4GB SD cards, maybe larger.

*- A610 and A 620 accessories work with the A640. I purchased a lens adapter and a few 52mm filters to refine my pictures. The lens adapter is not the plastic one form Canon it is a metal generic from Sakar. Everything works well and fits correctly.

Lows-

** This unit only, I hope, records a high pitch squeal in video mode. My replacement camera is on the way. The sound does not affect the quality of the images in the video clips.

** The camera stops recording video at 1 Gig. In 640 x 480 @ 30 fps mode, this is just over 9 minutes. So, there is a video limit though I could not find the data before I purchased the camera. I did read "One hour" somewhere but that would have to be in 320 x 240 @ 15 fps or "Compact" video mode to stay below the 1 gig limit. Also worth noting, 640 x 480 @ 15 fps video mode looks great and can record almost 20 minutes before reaching the 1 Gig limit.

** When the camera stops video recording at 1 gig, you cannot transfer the file form the camera via USB connection. Removing the SD card and putting it in a SD reader is the only way to get the video onto your PC. For the technically frumpy, my PC is running Win XP 2 (SP 2) so this is not a file size issue for the PC.

** The battery and USB compartment doors feel like they might break at some point. Opening the battery door requires a dual action slide lock then slide door that is not intuitive.

** The picture control functions and the camera operating menus require reading, or lots of experimentation. I had a good frame of reference since my last camera as a Canon, but I remember the learning curve and it applies to the A640 too.

Overall-

I am quite happy with this camera. For around 300 dollars, it would be hard to find a more versatile unit. Moreover, it has a Canon lens. Not to be obvious, but good pictures require good lenses, no matter the megapixels or other marketing goop. There are other good lenses, but when you buy a Canon, you do not have to ask who made the lens.

Great camera, Great features, Has a nice feel to it like older SLR's ,yet not too big and bulky. Resolution is excellent and advance features are plenty. Make sure to get a least 1GB card better yet I got the 2GB. I am very happy with this product. Canon does it right.

If this review is editable. I will edit it after I get and test the replacement.

I loved the camera for the three days it worked. Any issues I had with it were likely due to my inexperience.

But on the third day it went black while I was using it. I never dropped it or banged it or anything. I was siting and photographing a tea ceremony. The menu still worked and I could see old pictures and the mechanical stuff seemed to work, but for new pics--nothing. I turned it off and on and it was fine for a few minutes and then went black again and stayed this way.

I have no idea why. The only advise I got from canon was to hit Reset All which unfortunately didn't work.

I told amazon and they apologized profusely and have a replacement speeding towards me at two day shipping. I also just had to print out a return label for the defective camera so I don't have to pay return shipping. All I really lose is three days or so of camera use and a fair amount of confidence in the product's durability.

So for now two stars for the camera but five stars for Amazon, who are the nicest online retailer I've dealt with.

I bought a Cannon PowerShot A640 last week and already have taken over 100 pictures with it. It is easy to use, the Auto mode does everything. The picture quality is outstanding and the detail in Zoom mode is impresive. This camera has far exceeded my expectations as to the quality and ease of use. I like the fact that it uses AA batteries which are readily available. My first digital camera was Sony and after 2 years I discovered that the battery was propriatary and no longer available. It also has a natural feel in your hand, Not too big and not too small.

Chuck Hoopes
York, Pa.

MY LAST CAMERA WAS A CANON A-300 IT WAS A VERY GOOD, THEN I WENT AND GOT THE POWER SHOT A-640 AND I JUST LOVE IT IT IS THE BEST CAMERA FOR THE PRICE
AND EVERYONE SHOULD GET ONE DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON OTHER CAMERAS UNLESS YOU ARE GOING FOR A REAL PRO CAMERA. IT IS VERY EASY TO USE. TOO ME ALL THE OTHER CAMERA'S ARE A WASTE OF MONEY WHEN YOU CAN HAVE 10 MP X4 OPTICAL ZOOM.THANK YOU JUST BUY IT YOU WILL BE HAPPY YOU DID.....

This camera is awesome. There are just so many options to play with. I love the fact that you can flip the screen out and take pictures of yourself. You can also take pictures from your computer. Hooking your camera straight to the TV and watching the picture and videos you made is awesome. I'm very statisfied, and the price was outstanding. 10 MP is overkill for me, but it's nice to have it there. The hard black plastic body is very strong and scratch resistant. Having the double A batteries is a plus for traveling.

This is my first ever digital camera, but I did my research and I think I knew pretty much what I was getting into. The only reason I didn't give this camera 5 stars is it's less-than-stellar performance in low-light situations, and when the ISO was set 800. I knew about these problems before hand though so I can't complain too much. I love the pivoting lcd screen, it lets me shoot from all different angles, and also do self-portraits. If I could've found this exact camera with image-stablization, I would've paid extra, but in the end I had to make a trade-off, megapixels, and pivoting screen were more important to me.

Every person I took a photo of had red-eye, even with the red-eye reduction on. This was completely unacceptable to me and I returned the camera. I also found the flash to be inadaquate in many situations. Outdoor shots were nice though.

I have owned 4 Canon Digital Cameras and this was the most disappointing to me personally. I have replaced this with the Canon XTI and am very happy so far. The extra cost is well worth it to me.

This is my first digital camera and it was easy to learn to operate for a novice. But I have yet to take an indoor flash shot without the subject having the red-eye glow. Be prepared to use an image program to manually remove the red-eye on almost ALL indoor flash shots! I've heard this is a normal occurance of the point and shoot Canon line, but that's a LOT of work to have to "fix" all of the red-eye manually in a graphics app.

If not for that I would surely give this camera 5 stars.

I have owned this camera for around three weeks now, and I really love it. I am not an experienced photographer, but I like to take snapshots and sometimes edit and enlarge them. This is my third digital camera in the past 10 years. The first, at 1.2 MP, served me well for a long time. The second was 5 MP, but it didn't have a viewfinder. I quickly learned that I am incapable of taking blur-free snapshots without supporting the camera against my face - which I cannot do without a viewfinder. Neither of these cameras could produce good close-ups.

I decided to upgrade to 10 MP even though everywhere I looked recommended lower quality. These recommendations were based on the fact that people like me do not need pictures that can be enlarged to sizes greater than 8x10 and 10 MP is not necessary for good 8x10 prints. I decided to ignore the advice because I have learned that technological advancements come so rapidly that today's overkill is tomorrow's inadequate.

For the last few weeks, I have been taking my camera everywhere. I have been playing around with the settings and features, including video recording. My video of my nephew being an awesome child Christmas Eve at church is better than the one his father took with his not-so-new camcorder, and the sound is great too. I took a lot of fabulous pictures of my pets, two of which I posted in the gallery for this camera. I used the software that came with the camera to crop these photos, but did not otherwise edit them. Notice the detail of my yellow cat's whiskers and the sunlight on his fur. At first I thought my pictures were fuzzy, but when I made them larger I found that it was because of the incredible detail. These are the kind of photos I have always wanted to be able to produce. My people photos do sometimes have red-eye, but I don't mind editing it out. That's part of the beauty of a digital camera.

As for battery life, I've taken hundreds of pictures and lots of videos and I'm still using the batteries that shipped with the camera. I haven't done much with the flip screen, but it's very nice to be able to flip it around to protect the screen when the camera is not in use. I haven't done much zooming yet either. I am a very happy customer.

I have been very pleased with the camera. It takes excellent photos
and has many options.

I would definetly purchase this camera again.

Besides the tilting lcd panel and the excellent resolution, it has some really cool feactures that sets it apart from the competition, I really liked the Color Accent, that lets you take pictures in B/W but accenting one particular color of your choice, all of this without any software! on the fly!

The camera is easy to use. Canon is a quality product and this is the 3 Canon camera I have owned. Works well with my Canon printer.
Very satisfied with procuct and Amazon

This is a great value and a great camera! It's the camera you can take anywhere and will tend to have with you when a photo-op comes up. It also uses AA batteries easily available anywhere in the world, so it's great for your European trip, etc. No charger hassles. The color, fast-focusing autofocus, lack of shutter delay are excellent and the movable LCD is very convenient. I love mine!

$ for $ one of the best kept secrets on the net. Would recommend this camera based on picture clarity and ease of use!

This is a great camera that is easy to operate and takes great pictures. Much faster recovery than other digital cameras. Not too small or too big. Easy to grip and hold.

This is a great camera. The only problem I had with it is it takes a while to figure out how to use the features. I still haven't figured everything out and I bought it a few months ago.

It is just what I was expecting and more. The pictures are great on the automatic settings and manipulable on the manual settings. The movies are easy to download and the sound is really surprising. The price was the best I found for the camera anywhere.

I bought this camera to put in my purse when I don't want to lug the larger digital SLR one around. Very impressed with the quality of photographs under all lighting conditions. The price makes it that much better.

I've been very pleased with this Canon product. I bought it to replace a Power Shot S-45, which finally gave up the ghost, after two or 3000 excellent pictures. At first, I was a little hesitant about the size of the A640, which is a little bit larger than the S-45, but I rapidly became used to it. I do not miss the RAW format capability very much.

i have the same problem like the other reviewer for the canon A640 the first few days of receiving the camera! bad quality pictures. xmas pictures came out bad and can't recapture xmas 2006. what is the deal here? i have a 5 megapixels canon sd model that i bought over 4 years ago and the quality whether low light or bright light, the 5 megs came out much crispier and clearer than the 10 megs. My in-laws got the 5 megapixels in the A model the same time i got mine few years back and my pics always came out 100 times better. so i should have taken the hint with the A640. you'd think buying what kind of issues would be in a 10 megapixel camera or would not have much problems. but the A640 is by far a lower end camera than my 5 megs canon SD. I want to return the canon A640 to amazon, but after reading their return policy it would be a waste of my money to even exchange it for the canon SD900. i should have spent another $60 or even $200 more for the G7 and not have to deal with this kind of fustration. from now on, i will only buy the canon SD or G models.

Excellent camera - many features. Easy to use - great definition and good price

I bought this camera because I wanted a small camera with good features and high image quality. I have a SLR and its to big sometimes to carry around. This small camera surprisingly has almost all features found in SLR cameras, however it can be troublesome to get quickly to some features. Anyways I think it is a great buying for those who like to take pictures and not worry about manual settings. The lcd panel turns 360 degrees, and it is really handy.

I love it and definitly recomend it.

I love Cannon cameras and I went to a great deal of work to research this camera before purchasing it. Actually, I bought the A620 first and had to return it for a misfuntion .. I tried to exchange it because I loved the camera but alas, they were all out of stock ... so I paid $100 more and got the 640. The biggest disappointment is taking picture indoors using the "auto" feature (which is how I take most of my pictures ... I am pretty much a point-and-shoot photographer). The pictures are incredibly grainy and blurry in certain light situations. I think the camera automatically switches to 800 speed file mode or something. It will take a clear picture one minute and a blurry one the next ... in the same light situation. Very frustrating because on the LCD screen I can't tell the picture is grainy until I get it home and view it on the computer ... and I never know when it is going to "switch" into that other mode. Most pictures outdoors are sharp (they should be ... it's 10 megapixels!) but I certainly didn't expect such a large percentage of my pics to switch to the grainier mode .. and very frustrating when you don't know when it is switching!

Best camera I have ever owned. I still need to learn scads about it and how to use it but from the little I do know it takes great pics and it is very easy to use. Very user friendly, a precision instrument made very well by Canon. My only drawback is I wish they would have included a more indepth book on just what the many possibilities it has and I know it does - I am more of a novice and I would have liked a little more information on just what I could really do with it.
Glad I bought it though and I figure I will have the rest of my life to figure it out to my satisfaction.

This camera is the best point and shoot available. there are so many things it can do without having much knowledge in the digital camera world. The images are extremely sharp. The only negatives are a poor image quality at 400 iso and above. But, most of the point and shoot cameras have the same problem. And you can't use the flash with the wide angle lens attachment. For me it doesn't matter because I hate using flash and rarely do so. The wide angle attachment is huge but, great to have on a trip. Definitely worth the money.

I saved up my money for a while to buy this camera. It was kind of expensive, but it was worth it. I looked at bunch of other cameras, but when i saw this one, I had to have it. It is so easy to use, and has a bunch of great settings to use! I loved it because it was really easy to figure out. It is a little bulky, but the quality is great. So much better than those little skiny cameras! Get it!

The camera is great, though I agree it does less well in low light. We have Windows98SE which means you have to install their software ZoomBrowser. This opens every single image on the card before you can do anything. Way too slow. After 2 calls to tech support, we gave up. They suggested it is not really designed for 98SE, and I suggested they should say that in the description. After much frustration, we went out and bought a card reader for $20. It does enable you to directly pull the images from the card onto the computer so that problem is solved, but you have to remove the card each time which is more cumbersome. I wrote this review to let those with Windows98SE to expect glitches, and that a card reader, while cumbersome will solve the issues.

Very, very good camera. All the features work really fine. It has a lot of characteristics, adjustable parameters, color adjustments, sizes. And awesome video quality (but in .avi, long archives).

I purchased this camera to replace an old 2MP. I also have a 3.2MP in the household, which is just a very basic camera. I was torn between going with the G7 and more "extras" or just to save myself $200 and stick with a simpler model. I am happy with my choice. I have not used any manual functions for the simple reason that every photograph I take is important and really didn't want to risk messing it up by having the wrong setting. I have used a lot of the preset functions and they all work wonderfully. I compared my pictures side by side with a Nikon digital SLR and you could not tell the difference in the photos. Maybe blown up to a 3 ft. picture you could? The features are easy to use and for the most part I was able to just navigate through the menus on the camera to figure out what I wanted. I enjoy the flip screen and mainly because my old camera did not have one. I can now take snapshots with my children that include me in the picture! I must make comment on the battery life since that seems to be a big gripe on some cameras. This uses 4AA batteries. I have taken HUNDREDS of pictures and had the LCD screen on navigating the menus and I still have not replaced the batteries. It's excellant and way beyond my expectations! This a great point and shoot camera that you can't go wrong with. The price is great too. When I purchased it you got a Canon all-in-one photo printer ($165)with a $150 rebate, a free memory card, and the great low price of just over $300 for the camera! One heck of a bundle for a great price!

I love the quality of picture this camera takes, the zoom is awesome. I bought the rechargeable batteries for this camera so in the long run the batteries will be more cost effective. Going from a 3.1 MP to a 10 MP Sure makes a big difference.

And as one other had said when I read their review, it looks fabulous, very sharp.

I purchased the Canon A640 from Amazon for $315 in December 2006. I was blown away by the price as the best price locally was in the $400 range. The camera has delivered everything as promised without any malfunctions and has performed even better than expected. The images are huge at 10 megapixels and there's little need for much zoom as you can crop the images way down with little quality loss. I also purchased a 2 gig SD card and even on the finest setting I can hold about 800 pictures. Using the auto setting under low light there is one slight hiccup wherein the camera has a hard time finding focus on the subject but it doesn't happen often and is easily solved by using one of the night settings. Overall, this is a great camera and I would highly recommend.

I bought this after much research. My daughter has a Canon A510 and the pictures are clear and the camera is so easy to use. When we book a trip to Europe I decided to get the A640 for myself.
Even though the camera is 10Megapixels the photos seem a little blah.
Color is not as sharp as I had hoped.
Speed is still slow...when trying to take a quick shot, even with the high speed card, which was $150, the speed to shoot is slower than I need.
Love the LCD viewfinder that is adjustable. Maybe I just need more practice with this one.

This camera comes with an extensive (advanced) instruction book. It takes some reading and playing with the camera, but is not difficult if you understand the basics of camera operation/photography. The size and handling characteristics make this camera easy to hold and use. The disc program (included) is easy to load and easy to use. I've not printed any large photos, so can't comment on the resolution/graininess.

This camera have all you need if you are, or wish to be, a creative photographer but do not want to carry with your DSLR or don't have the money to first experiment into the photography world.

I assure you that into its category this camera have no contender. By now I have almost a month with it at it works flawessly, great picture quality and ease to use.

Here are my pros & contras:

PROS:
- A lot of manual controls. You can even control the flash for less or more power and when to fire it, 1st or 2nd curtain.
- AA battery powered. I'll never buy a camera that doesn't use this kind of batteries (unless it is a DSLR). I can get AA anywhere if my rechargeables go dead or if I forget them in the charger, as it happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Be powered by 4 AA lets you shoot a lot more than other cameras even with regular alkalines.
- Excellent macro, 1cm (I think even less) excellent focus, clear images, great details.
- The vari-angle screen its a great thing. You can get easy ground level shoots or over the head, or shoot yourself for the perfect self-portrait. And i love to close the screen when not in use.
- Fast and accurate auto-focus.
- Excellent white balance features.
- The red eyes reduction works really great.
- Remote control with your computer. You can control all the features with your computer with your camera in a tripod. Cool for a photo session.
- Great body, it feels great in your hand. Heavy enough to keep it in control. Doesn't feel cheap at all.

CONS:
- The plastic tripod socket, i hate it. Are you kidding me Canon? Respect yourself! I feel this thing its going to brake or wear. Bad thing.
- Memory and battery in the same compartment. Not practical at all. And you have to unmount from the tripod if you want to put a new memory card.
- No cable or wireless control for remote shooting. I know that the cameras in this range doesn't have that option but I wish someday they have it 'cause it's an important accessory. You can deal with your self-timer if you need something similar.

I DON'T CARE FOR:
- IS (Image Stabilization). This camera doesn't have IS, maybe in the future it will but I really don't care about it.
- No Wi-Fi connection. But I think a Bluetooth option could be an excellent thing for this camera.

I purchased the 10MP Canon A640 camera in December 2006 to replace my 2MP Canon A40. I originally bought (and returned) a 6MP Canon A540 but it made noisy movies (i.e. you could hear the aperture and/or focusing mechanisms making clicking sounds when playing back the movies on a computer.)

Unfortunately, my A640 suffers from a different problem with the movie mode: the movies have a high-pitched whine during playback on a computer. Also the sound is muffled. In contrast, my older A40 has a wonderful microphone that records very clear sound (but the movies are low-resolution, and can only be about 15 seconds.) On the A640, the movies can be up to 1GB in length, which is around 7 or 8 minutes for 640x480 at 30 frames/sec. That's plenty of time to make little snippets that can be assembled later into a longer video.

Overall, I like the A640 well enough to keep it in spite of the sound issues. The design is good, the flip-out screen is handy, and the pictures are detailed. However, because it has such a large number of pixels, it is easy to get slightly blurred images (though not all that noticeable) due to the lack of an image stabilizer. You may be interested in the A710 IS instead of the A640 if you need that feature.

This camera has fulfilled my expectations. Its ease of operation, general all round ability and quality of pictures taken can be recommended as a top point and shoot camera.

I purchased this digital camera when it was reasonably priced, just
before Christmas in 2006. My Vivitar 5MP had finally died after dropping
it during our summer vacation so I was looking for something quick to
have in time for the holidays. I got online to look at camera reviews and
this model had excellent reviews from professionals, novices, and even
beginners. I liked the fact that I was upgrading from 5MP to 10MP, but
was still amazed at how much more quality I actually get from this camera
vs. my old one. The pictures are clear and bright with almost every
function. The brighter the room, the better, but not as much light needed
as other cameras I have used. I have not had any luck with the landscape
function, as the pictures are quite blurry, but I may just need to read
up more on what I might be doing wrong. Otherwise, it is very easy to use
right out of the box. The fact that it takes regular AA batteries is a
plus, as they are easily replaceable wherever I might be. I have taken
over 600 pictures and have not had to change the batteries yet. Amazon
had the best price online at the time, and the camera came with an extra
512MB SD card for free. Local stores couldn't even come close to
competing with the price. It is the best digital camera investment I have
made thus far.

Not for beginners, but a good intermediate camara. READ THE BOOK/MANUAL. Batteries last awhile, even with video.

Please don't misinterpret the brevity of my "review" as a poor reflection on the Canon A640. The simple fact is that this is a beautiful, easy to use device. I find the audible shutter sound very pleasing. And yes, the software connecting the camera to the computer is easy to install and actually works nicely without an enormous instruction manual.

Please don't misinterpret the brevity of my "review" as a poor reflection on the Canon A640. The simple fact is that this is a beautiful, easy to use device. I find the audible shutter sound very pleasing. And yes, the software connecting the camera to the computer is easy to install and actually works nicely without an enormous instruction manual.

Amazing little camera. For the price, it's packed full of stuff! Unbelievable. 10mp is huge. The images come out sharp and clear. Love looking at hair shafts, pimples, pores, eye lashes. Make sure your subjects clean their nose and teeth because this camera will reveal EVERYTHING. Lots of room to crop. Very fast focusing.

It takes tons of pictures on a set of nickel metal hydride batteries. 300-400 shots. That's amazing. That's more than any other camera on the market. The camera has a real solid grip system. Dropping your camera is a horrible thing to do. With this camera's grip, you would be able to access every feature with just one hand. And that swivel screen... amazing! You can stand in a crowd, raise the camera above everybody, focus, using the swivel screen, and take your shot. You wouldn't be able to do that without the swivel screen. You can take perfectly framed pictures of yourself. You can jump in and actually tell if you are in the picture frame when you set the camera up for auto shutter release.

As with all point and shoot cameras, I would recommend getting a external flash for anything beyond 12' in low light. The Phoenix D91-BZS 4-Stop Digital Slave is very good, powerful and inexpensive, but big. Canon makes the Canon HF-DC1 High Power Flash for about $100. It's tiny and can easily fit in your pocket.

Wish they had a provision for installing a lens filter. Almost no manufacturer makes this feature. All cameras should have a lens filter to protect the camera's lens. Avoid cleaning the camera's lens to prevent lens scratches. Guess they rather have you replace the camera rather than a cheap filter.

Point and shoot digital cameras have come a long way and this camera leads the way! Canon Rocks!!!

I use the camera on almost a daily basis. The 10 megapixels produce excellent pictures and prints. Pictures that I have downloaded for training come out perfect. I would reccomend this camera to anyone that wants an easy camera from taking the picture to processing it.

This camera takes awesome pictures and adequate videos. Prior to the Canon A640 I had a Kodak that gave me more problems than I care to discuss here. I decided to get this camera because of its compactness and versatility. I've had it for 5 months and have used it quite a bit, including on a 21-day expedition to Aconcagua in South America, and it has worked beautifully. The one problem that I've had with it is sometimes the shutter don't open fully, otherwise it works great and takes awesome pictures.

Coming from the Canon A80 from a few years ago... The A80 was a similar shape, size, and feature set but with only 4.0 megapixals, 3x lens, and a much smaller swivel viewing screen. Good Canon software has gotten better.

What's better with the A640:

It has similar features and body but a bigger screen and it is lighter.
The screen is much bigger.
The screen brightens nicely in dim and dark conditions.
The flash works better and the flash assist lamp works MUCH better. (A relief from the worthless A80 lamp).
It is a bit faster with less shutter lag.
It has more manual settings, many of which can be very useful.
It has a 4x lens (A80 had 3x)

Disappointments:

The screen is very grainy compared to the A80's sharp screen. So grainy that you have to trust the pictures are sharp and rich (which they usually are) because they look very grainy and muted on the screen.
Would like even less shutter lag.
Some of the huge number of settings are not intuitive or easy to find and use (though many are).
They wasted a button (valuable real estate) as a dedicated "print to printer" button.

Overall:

Love the camera, am getting used to the grainy but bright screen, will use if for a few years and look forward to what Canon has done by then.

It's not really clear as it says in the ads. My 4.00 MP seems to be clearer than my new 10.0 MP.

Prior to buying the A640, my wife & I had been long time users of the Sony Mavica. The A640 was our first new camera purchase in quite some time, so we had expected a product advanced well beyond what we had.

In many respects, our expectations were met. The A640 takes excellent pictures at distance and in less lighting than the Mavica required. At distance, the high resolution photos are quite crisp and well detailed. The light weight of the camera is also convenient.

However, there are some areas in which Canon seems to have stumbled.

For fans of taking close-ups, the major problem area is the focus mechanism. At very close distances, the A640 will frequently focus in crisply -- then zip back out to a completely unusable setting. The "manual" focus is no help, as it is a digital mecahnism that will not take the lens out to the point where the item of interest comes into focus. The only solution is to move the item further away and use the zoom mechanism to compensate. As the digital zoom jumps in very discrete steps once you go beyond the 4x lens capability, this can be quite challenging.

Again, with close-ups, the focus area selected by the camera in auto mode is frequently baffling. Quite often I feel as if I am struggling against some odd sort of random number generator, as the camera selects spot after spot around the periphery of my item of interest without locking on to the center of the item itself.

Dealing with the volatile nature of camera settings is often painful as well. Unless one wishes to use the Custom mode, one's settings will only last so long as the camera does not go back from picture taking mode to play mode. If you take too long setting up a shot, the power save will take the camera out of its picture-ready state -- wiping out your flash and macro settings in the process. By contrast, the Mavica always remembered the last settings used as long as it had a good battery in it -- and even slightly beyond, as I could swap batteries on that and still retain our camera settings.

Photo deletion also seems to be surprisingly primitive for the state of the art. On the A640, if you are using the camera only (i.e., not tied directly to a computer), the options are limited to deleting photos one at a time and confirm each one or to delete all photos at once. Again, the Mavica had an overview mode by which one could select photos for deletion and then remove the selected photos with a single confirmation. This is a surprising deficiency for a camera that has so much more image storage potential than the Mavica, though one may overcome it to a large extent by using a much higher capacity flash card than the 32Mb baseline one provided.

Two other areas of concern are the computer interface door and the battery chamber door. The door protecting the computer interface slots feels like a soft plastic; flimsy and delicate and seemingly unlikely to remain for long on the camera. The battery chamber door is not much better, as the batteries have to be jiggled and gently worked into place before the battery door will close -- again in contrast to the Mavica's battery door, which was firm enough and secure enough to push the battery down into its proper place.

Despite its shortcomings, the A640 remains an overall improvement over our original Mavica. But it is surprisingly cumbersome to use for close-up photography. It leaves one feeling that, aside from pixel resolution and its ability to focus at distance, the A640 has taken a few steps backwards from older cameras.

Before buying this camera, I did a great deal of comparison shopping carefully weighing my options. I originally thought I'd opt for some type of SLR or another high end camera for optimal quality portraits and scenic shots. I'm not a professional, but I wanted a high quality digital since I don't do film any longer and I wish to preserve my children's memorable events for years to come and I'm very glad I chose the canon a640. I love the versatile LCD that allows me to take shots myself with my kids. It gives excellent print quality at even close-up range, and the night photos are pretty impressive. The battery life is great for a digital camera, and a 1 GB memory card holds around 600 photos. Overall, I'm very VERY pleased with my purchase. A few of my friends have even bought their own a640 once they tried mine out. Most of all, I can't imagine needing to "upgrade" for many years to come. The camera is sturdy yet compact enough to keep in my purse.

Nice camera, but the quality is not as good as my fathers Canon Rebel that has 7MP. Anyway, still good for the money.

There are still many functions I have yet to explore on this camera since I only own it for less than month. Had a 4yr old 4MP Kodak Easy Share with similar characteristics, but this one is much better. However, here are some pros and cons about it.

Pros:
-The capability to change lenses
-High resolution photos. Good for people that deals with graphics.
-The AA batteries. No worry about charging while traveling
-Easy upload to PC. No need to install software, which enables it to upload to any PC with a USB port and windows XP.
-The view finder. Good for those who want to shoot the old fashion way and saves battery life.
-Manual functions. Works like a SLR in a compact size.

Cons:
-Heavier than most of the other cameras due to the AA batteries
-It's bulky, so it won't fit in a pocket
-Night shots are a little noisy
-Battery compartment and memory card slot are at the same location. Needs to be careful when taking the card in and out.

Overall, I am happy with what I got, but would like it to be a little lighter and smaller.

I've had this camera for over 2 months and I really enjoy using it. It's the compact camera available for serious photographers looking for advance features. The pics come out good and sharp, very big and with little noise if you shoot at 100 ASA. It's got all the necessary features including manual control...however the manual focus a bit cumbersome but available if nesecessary. The best feature is the rotating LCD screen witch allows you to shoot in many interesting and different angles will still having access to the LCD screen to view your framing. It has made all my friends envious cause their cameras have fixed LCDs.

However it is not without some major problems The flash can be very bright and you have to adjust it to the environment. The shutter lag is very slow sometimes 2 sec. so don't always expect to catch the moment...this can be very frustating at times...if you need something fast just get an SLR. Also the Autofocus can be slow in lowlight areas and take a few sec. to adjust and thus you can't take your pic and miss a great moment, just as equally frustrating.

Perhaps My biggest gripe with the camera is that for a compact it's still a bit bulky it doesn't fit in a pants pocket so if you need something you can slip in your jeans this is not it.

Otherwise is a solid camera that will produce expectional pics in the hands of good photographers just snap and enjoy.

The picture quality of this PowerShot is great, and if you take your time to teach yourself about it, you will see the difference. You can make really nice pics from this Canon. I own a Canon 30D, and it is one of the best cameras I've had, but when fast shooting is the goal, I take the A640.

I bought this camera because it fit my needs perfectly. I was looking for:

A high megapixel camera
A large rotatable LCD
A full range of manual features
A Canon - my previous experience with them has been great
Decent Zoom
Ability to use standard AA batteries in a pinch

When I saw this camera, I knew I had found what I was looking for. Image quality is fantastic. Another feature I love that I didn't know I was looking for was loadup time. It is so nice to be able to turn a camera on and immediately be able to take a shot. This camera is small enough to fit in my every day bag, but full featured enough to take more sophisticated "photographic" shots. As other reviewers have mentioned, it has a couple small downsides:

Plastic tripod mount
No image stabalization
Slightly noisy in low light and high ISO

I haven't found any of these to be terribly problematic under most of the conditions I use the camera in. If you haven't tried a 10 megapixel camera, it makes a huge difference. Even though this camera has great macro features, you don't even need them with 10 MPX - just get as close as you can with good focus, snap the shot, and then zoom and crop on the PC. Pictures are sharp and bold. If you have a wish list similar to mine, look no further, you have found your camera.

This is an excellent camera for the price. Takes great pictures, has continuous shooting mode, has both manual/full auto modes, well built, takes regular batteries. A bit big, but other than that, can't complain about anything with this camera. If I regret anything about this camera, it's the size--but that's because it takes regular batteries, and not some small proprietary (i.e. expensive) battery. Trade-offs!

very comfort and highend camera
when i brought this camera my friends love to take pic with A640 cannon rather than their camera. :)
overall really nice

This camera has the feel of a sturdy and well-built instrument that you don't mind taking into the field. It offers sufficient control--aperature, shutter speed, iso, exposure comp, file size, etc. --to make it a versatile companion and "spare camera" for pros and primary camera for most photo needs. Reasonable image quality (compared to my 5D) combined with great macro capacity, without OVER sharpening. (Canon could add/use a control here..) Surprisingly long life from the four AA batteries.

This is not a tiny "tuck in your shirt pocket" camera, but it has become my reliable companion on hikes and drives just so I don't miss anything. Also use it to teach basics of photography.

Only complaint--Rinky-dink "leaves" for lens protection when the camera is turned off. I find myself pushing the "protecting" slats together fairly often, and fully anticipate that they will break one of these days. Canon SHOULD do better--the camera deserves pro-sumer-level lens protection!

Upon purchasing this digicam I was very excited. This was my first digital camera and I read many very positive reviews and was confident in my purchase due to those reviews and the Canon name. Not wanting to get ahead of myself, I perused the manuals first wanting to make sure I was familiar with the basic operation of the camera before using it for the first time. At last, I was ready to use it for the first time so I opened up the batteries included with the unit and followed the instructions on how to insert the batteries. This is where my relationship with Canon ends.

The instructions require you to slide a latch sideways and hold it in order to open up the battery/memory card hatch which is apparently hinged. This is about as far as I got. It's awkward enough to have to hold a spring-loaded switch in one position while trying to open up the door in a different direction but the operation simply did not work. I fiddled with the thing for over 15 minutes and never managed to get the door open. I even attempted to use a small mini screwdriver to help but to no avail. The plastic the hatch and unit are made of seems rather brittle and delicate so I decided not to continue with it and risk breakage. After all, an operation such as inserting batteries and memory cards should be simple. I proceeded to box the thing back up to ship it back and exchange it for another brand.

Simply put, I attribute this issue not to a defect but to poor design which is a shame since I was really excited to use this camera. Not only will I not exchange this for the same thing but not even for the same brand. This Canon product boasts many features and high quality that I didn't even get a chance to test.

I will never again purchase a Canon product and warn potential buyers that the physical structure and operation of this unit are of poor quality.

Big thumbs down.

I bought this camera to get more megapixels. My old camera had 4.1 mpx.
I have had no complaints with the A640. It is easy to use. So far has been simple to figure out (bear in mind I am basically an amateur, and the software has been straightforward as well. It does not seem to eat batteries . I have printed several pictures myself and the increase in mpx has been wonderful. Videos do tend to fill up your card even with a 2G card.
I thought about getting a 7 mpx camera with image stabilization, but went with this one and have no regrets.

Yes the camera has excellent image quality under 400 iso...above that it's wayyyy too noisy. Controls and menus are easy enough.

But I have had the camera only 3 months and today it fell out of my hand dropping only 2 feet. The flimsy, hard to use battery door is now broken and will not stay closed. There are two pieces of thin plastic that were part of the body inside the door that snapped off. I will have to keep very strong tape on it if I plan on using it. Since the batteries are spring loaded, they want to push the door open, so keeping it closed with tape is not easy.
I have had two Olypus digicams over the years that never broke from dropping.

I use very long lasting 2700 Maha Powerex batteries, so at least I won't have to open it much.
Oh well another $300... next time I will look closer at the build qualty before I buy.

Very pleased with the detail and the size of the sharp pictures. The panorama feature is also great. The auto setting does most of what I need to do but there is lots of manual control if I want it.

I got this camera a couple of weeks ago. It is amazing.the picture quality is very good. So far all has been good but to be honest i have had one glitch. It seems that when i take photos on low resolution they keep coming blury, this is due ot that this cam is sooo sensitive, at that resolution , to vibrations. How ever when i bump the resolution up all that is gone.
i do recomend this cam. i still have not explored all the options :) but the potential seems very very tempting.

Has lot of standard options. Stedyshot is missing. But overall the cam is
Excellent. Worth the money you pay. Runs on normal AA batteries, thatz really qool.

My wife and I recently had a child and needed to take pictures to send to relatives so knowing nothing about cameras I shopped around and this one had the most mega pixels for the money so I bought it. Mostly we keep it on auto pilot for quick take a shot anywhere pictures, but occasionally I use the panoramic sticher or the portrait feature. High quality photo's made easy for the non photographer

There was a mix-up in my order, but Amazon graciously fixed the problem. I love the camera and have no regrets. There's a lot to learn about it yet, but it is fairly easy to use.

After much research, I settled on the Canon A640 as my first digital camera after many years using Nikon SLRs. Taking the advise of techy friends, I took the camera out of the box, put the manuals aside for later and began taking pictures. LOVE THIS CAMERA! The size is perfect for me -- large enough for a good, secure grip; small enough to carry in my pocket, backpack or purse. The camera is easy enough to satisfy someone new to photography and challenging enough to keep me browsing the manuals for a long time learning the many features of this camera.

I have loved this camera since I got it. Extremely impressive zoom and very easy to use.

Canon 640 10mpxl PowerShot: Good all around camera, some limitations but a great value.

Was dead out of the box.

Returned and got the money back.

Went with Fuji F40.

I just bought this camera to replace my Canon A60, which is a 2 megapixel model. I think the A640 is a direct descendant of the A60, so I expected it to be of similar quality.

I just want to say that my first impression was that they have cut back a lot on quality of materials since my A60 was made. The A640 has a MUCH cheaper feel to it than the older A60.

It's almost a guarantee that the A640 takes great pictures. But it feels like a toy compared to the A60.

The camera was everything I expected of it... I was looking for a camera that was better than your usual point and click and that was the step before buying an SLR camera so this was the perfect fit. It has enough controls that I can start playing with some features and start creating interesting pictures. At the same time its very easy to point and click and just snap pictures during a special event. I would definately recommend it as an easy transportable and flexible camera.

I purchased this camera recently and am blown away by its quality and the great pix it takes. Granted we had a cheap 3.1mp Kodak with no Zoom prior to this one, but I can tell this one takes amazing pictures..It was actually recommended to me by a photographer friend and I am happy I listened. The screen come out and everything so you can see at different angles.

I bought this camera recently. I like this camera for the picture quality, 2.5-inch vari-angle LCD display(rotates and swivels LCD) with 10 Mega Pixels - which is really useful for varied angle pictures with high resolution quality. Easy to hold and it's a perfect powershot camera.

I really like this camera and it's lcd screen. The biggest thing is that I can't keep it steady very well so unless I have it set to pets and kids most of the pictures come up fuzzy, but that is my fault not the cameras. The other thing I really don't like is memory card is in the compartment with the batteries so I have to open up the battery area every time I want to take the card out to load them in to the computer.

The memory card is pretty much the only reason I don't give it 5 stars.

I really like the quality. All the options that the camera has to offer is great for me to dink around with.

design: i would give it 3rd rank after samsung nv series and olympus sp-350
picture quality: great
menus: very intuitive
performance issues: noisy zoom, overheats, extremely fragile shutter/zoom button.
plastic construction, feels cheap.
heavy, but this is a good thing for me
no image stabilization of any kind - optical or electronic. this is the biggest FLAW!
only digital zoom during movie recording.
slow continuous shoot mode (more than 1sec/image)
no auto bracketing.

While it is not much of an improvement over my A620, it would be the best choice for your first point and shoot. Canon defintely makes the best and affordable PS camera. Can't go wrong.

Only had a few days playing around, super simple and great pics even on auto. Like the rotating screen and easy function settings.Needs some type of lense cap. Over all, very kool .

I have had this camera for about 6 months and I think I made the right choice. I was either going to buy this camera, or the A710 IS. I tested both of them at a camera store, then decided to buy the A640 based on battery life, features, and flash.

I have taken a digital photography class and am pretty artsy, so I wanted something that would last, would take amazing pictures, and I would be able to carry it around with me. Both the cameras would have done the job, but when you take a picture with a flash (and sometimes even without a flash), it takes the A710 a decent amount of time before you can take another picture (usually between 5-10 seconds). Because the A640 has 4 batteries, you can take one picture after the other without ever having to wait for the camera to be ready.

Also, I have taken several thousand pictures in 6 months and have only had to change the batteries once- and they were just regular energizer batteries, nothing special.

The one downfall I have with the camera is the weight. Because of the four batteries, it does weigh a little bit more (obviously), and if you want a pocket camera, this is not the one. However, I have no problem fitting it in my purse.

I was also nervous that it had a flip screen. However, it surprised me how much I use it! (It makes those shots where you hold out the camera in front of you a whole lot better and easier) And, I have never had any problems, and it seems very sturdy. I do not even notice that it is a flip screen until I use it- in other words, it does not get in the way or cause problems. It is also nice to flip the screen around to protect it if I will not be using the camera for a while.

10 mega pixels seems excessive- the average person does not ever need this many probably. I have found the "program" function useful, in which everything is set to auto, and my file size is set to Medium (about 7 MP) instead of the full 10 MP (Large). It serves as my Auto when I am just taking everyday shots. But, I love that 10 MP is very crop-able, meaning that if I am zoomed in all the way optically, I can still crop in even further to get a good picture of that far away object. (However, if you have only a small amount of space on your computer, 10 MP pictures will fill that space fast. I can easily take a couple of gigs worth of pictures on a vacation using the 10MP file size. I also have a 2GB SD memory card for the camera and have never filled it, but a 1 GB wouldn't be quite enough space for me.)

All in all, a good choice for me! Hope this helped somewhat!

What a great little digital camera. Compact. Easy to use. Choice of using the viewfinder or the panel display. Multiple options for transferring the pics onto your computer. Large number of megapixels. Sips power from the batteries. Excellent price.

Closest thing to a negative is the fact that picture quality will vary significantly depending on which setting you use (indoor, portrait, landscape, that sort of stuff). So that means you spend five minutes reading the beginner manual and you're set.

I just bought this camera instead of a film camera because of a friends advice. Nothing can or will replace the beauty of film but this is a great camera. I haven't learned all the tricks yet but I have been having fun doing so. You need to get a memory card with this because the one that cames with doesn't hold much. LOVE the camera.

These PowerShot "A" cameras are Canon's attempt to deliver the quality and features of its more expensive PowerShot "G" and PowerShot Pro "S" lines (such as full zoom lenses) at a budget price. The results, though, are a mixed bag. The entry-level A460 is lousy, but the rest of the line gives you a lot for the money. (How do I know all this? Because I've actually gotten to use all of these cameras. I earn my living shooting photos at Walt Disney World for a travel guidebook, and nearly every day guests ask me to take photos of them with their own cameras, which most often are Canon PowerShots.)

Here's my opinion of the "A" series line:

Canon PowerShot A460 5.0MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom (Silver)
Yuck! This 5MP camera is like a relic from five years ago: the simple but poorly designed controls -- a little joy pad surrounded by four buttons -- make it far too easy to do things like change the zoom setting when you set the flash. I have fat fingers and I mess things up almost every time! Also, I've seen photos taken with this camera, and they often have that purple fringe around their highlights, which are typically blown out. On the plus side, the camera does have an optical viewfinder.

Canon PowerShot A540 6MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
RECOMMENDED. Looking for a good bargain camera? Take a look at this one. It's a 2006 model, but it works just fine. You get 20 shooting modes, a full set of manual controls and can record low-res sound video at 60 frames per second. Before you buy it, however, check Amazon's price of the better, and newer, A560. It may be cheaper.

Canon PowerShot A550 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
This basic camera isn't that bad, but there's no reason to buy it. For about $25 more you can step up to the PowerShot A560 (see below), which has the same body, sensor and lens but Canon's much better Digic III processor. Buy this one and, yes, you'll save a few bucks, but your photos won't look as good.

Canon PowerShot A560 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
RECOMMENDED. Here is a nice camera! Featuring Canon's acclaimed Digic III processor, it includes the company's face-detection metering system and a decent red-eye removal.

Canon PowerShot A570IS 7.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
RECOMMENDED. Same as the A560 but with optical image stabilization and the ability to shoot manually.

Canon PowerShot A630 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
RECOMMENDED. You can do a lot with this sweet little camera. It has a flip-out LCD panel and lots of manual controls. The shots I've seen from this model look great. Keep your ISO under 800 and you won't get any noise.

Canon PowerShot A640 10MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom
Same as the A630 except 10MP.

Canon PowerShot A710 IS 7.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom
RECOMMENDED. This fully-loaded model has all the toys, including a full-range zoom (35mm film equivalent of 35-210mm), adjustable flash power and optional second-curtain flash. This last features means you can make the flash fire at the end of a long exposure, instead of the beginning, so moving subjects streak into focus instead of out. Much more for your money than the A640.

By Mike Neal, author of The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World.

I recently ordered this item from one of the "newly launched" sellers under the "Used and New" link. I e-mailed the seller after purchasing the item asking when I would receive it. After three e-mails I still have not received my product nor a response from the seller. Now I am stuck waiting until July 3rd (as my little one grows older, without a decent camera to take pictures with) until I can file a claim under Amazon's "A-Z Guarantee" to get my money back. Do not make the same mistake I did and ONLY BUY FROM REPUTABLE SELLERS WITH POSITIVE FEEDBACK, no matter how great the price seems to be.

I am a Canon Freak. Not gunna lie.
I'm also an aspiring photographer...
I owned a 5 mgp Canon Powershot a few years back,
sold it to buy a Canon Powershot Pro1 8 mgp 35mm
and now I just bought this A640.
It takes amazing pictures, and keeps up well with my Pro1.
I highly recommend this camera.
Easy to use, great pictures, amazing quality, and you defiantly get a large bang for your buck!
I just ordered one for my mom...who's very technology illiterate...
Not to mention...its very sexy looking :)

looks like a great product once you figure out all the bells and whistles

I've owned two digital camera so far, a Nikon Coolpix and a Sony Cybershot, but Canon's little creation simply outclasses them all. The interface on the back is simple and easy to read and it's hard to press the wrong button. The LCD is big, and the ability for it to swivel makes it easy to get the angle you want (Combine that ability with a Gorillapod to get some interesting perspectives). All in all, an excellent point and shoot camera that uses AAA batteries AND its 10 MP to boot.

The adjustable display can be tucked in protected from damage or folded out, then rotated to give you the lens view even when the camera is at belt level or overhead. Shots are quicker than my last camera, and the first set of batteries has not run down yet. This is a ringading deal.