Canon PowerShot A650 IS 12.1 Megapixel Compact Camera - Cameras - Imaging Resource

There's a new 'lady' in my life

Strengths: Image stabilization. Settings for all photographer skill levels. 12 MP! Nice results at every level.

Weakness: On manual settings, it can be tough to sort through all the menu choices to find what you know you need.

I was married to Nikon 35mm as a pro for years. After converting (as a non-pro) to the digital religion -- I found my eyes started wandering over to lovely Miss Canon. I ran a site where people submitted photos. Miss Canon almost always outshined the rest. Usually no color correction had to be done, for one thing. Yup, Miss Canon is, well... easy! I used to have to work for hours on shots from my...
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By jerzee - Jul 9, 2008

A650 IS - Better than average, NOT great!

Strengths: 6x lens equivalent to 200+ mm. Optical Image Stabilization. 12.1 Megapixels! Good battery life as with other A6XX series units.

Weakness: GRAINY output. A tad bit bulky.

This is my third A6XX series camera. My first one was the A620, I moved on to the A640, and now to this A650 IS unit. The A620, and the A650 are great little cameras that produce excellent quality images and very handy in situations where an SLR is just too big. With my primary camera being a Nikon DSLR (D200/D300), image quality has always been a primary requirement. The A620, and then the A640...
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This is my third A6XX series camera. My first one was the A620, I moved on to the A640, and now to this A650 IS unit. The A620, and the A650 are great little cameras that produce excellent quality images and very handy in situations where an SLR is just too big. With my primary camera being a Nikon DSLR (D200/D300), image quality has always been a primary requirement. The A620, and then the A640 excelled in that department. When I saw this A650 IS model come out with added image stabilization and extra resolution in its 12.1 MP output, I was more than thrilled.

It has, however, been a bit of a let down. Though it does have the extra glass stretching out the zoom range to 6x, from the previous 4x of the A620 and A640 along with image stabilization, the overall image output is NOT impressive. There is substantially more grain than its predecessors making the image not much better, and perhaps a bit worse, than its A6XX predecessors. Canon has seemingly let a product into the market without enough work. For people used to buying based on known performance (A620, A630, A640), this is a surprise, and a reminder to do more research without any assumption - good or bad! ... Especially if you're a camera nut like me that goes out and buys a point and shoot every 4 to 6 months. Lesson learned - do your homework without making quality assumptions!

Please note that, While the term grainy may be relative to some, especially point and shoot users, who may not notice much depending on their previous shooting experience/camera, A person upgrading from a previous A6XX series will definitely notice the grain, and highly likely to be disappointed like I was.

In my opinion, Canon needs to update, revise and improve image quality on the A650. I wouldn't mind a 4x lens, as in the previous models, that includes image stabilization, if it meant better image quality (as good or better than A640 for it to be worth anything) than what the A650 IS is outputting!

Though I have always been a Nikon person, the A620 started my point and shoot reliance on canon where compact size matters. This let down with the A650, is definitely making me rethink my point and shoot carry on. The new Nikon P80 looks awfully nice and will have to be looked at!

By jr75 - May 14, 2008

I love this camera! I want to marry it!

Strengths: 12 MP, 6x optical zoom, uses AA batteries, tilt-and-swivel LCD screen

Weakness: Pincushioning, flimsy cover, zoom controls too touchy

The Canon PowerShot A series has been a personal favorite. In the A series, Canon has offered cameras that appeal to both beginners and more advanced users. Beginners can just point and shoot and typically get good pictures while advanced users can take advantage of features and settings typically included only in more expensive models. It's not hard to see why these cameras have been so popular...
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The Canon PowerShot A series has been a personal favorite. In the A series, Canon has offered cameras that appeal to both beginners and more advanced users. Beginners can just point and shoot and typically get good pictures while advanced users can take advantage of features and settings typically included only in more expensive models. It's not hard to see why these cameras have been so popular and highly regarded. Having used the A40 and A95, I can vouch that the excellent reputation this series has is well deserved.

The A650 fortunately continues this trend. In fact, I'd say I am the most satisfied with the A650. Canon has refined the designs over time, adding more features and capabilities, and I think the A650 hits a sweet spot, at least for me. The LCD screen is nice and large, relatively speaking, at 2.5" and 173K pixels, and like with the A95, it tilts and swivels. The A650 generally operates faster. The dead time between consecutive pictures and the lag between pressing the shutter button and capturing the picture are much shorter now. And while the A95 wasn't ugly, I much more prefer the overall look of the A650.

One thing I don't like about the A650, however, is the plastic cover over the USB, A/V, and power connectors. It's really flimsy, and I can easily imagine it breaking off if you're not careful. Also, the zoom control seems a bit too touchy. I keep overshooting the level of zoom I want, and it takes a couple of tries to get it to where I want it. Finally, I noticed a lot of pincushioning when taking pictures for eBay in macro mode.

The A650, like the rest of the A series, is a relatively large camera. If you're looking for a tiny camera you can easily fit into your purse or pocket, the A650 isn't it. On the other hand, it's not difficult to carry around either, and the shape of the camera fits very well into your hand. The A650 uses 4 AA batteries, which is both an advantage and a drawback. By using standard AAs, you can always just buy a pack in the store if your batteries unexpectedly run out, and a set of 4 NiMH rechargeables won't cost anywhere near the price of a camera-specific battery. The drawback is that they make the camera relatively heavy.

By placebo - Apr 11, 2008

Best of Both Worlds Canon A650

Strengths: Major megapixels (12.1) and I just dig that swivel screen.

Weakness: Come on - 12.1mp and all you give me is a 512 mb card?

This camera is the best of both worlds. I'm an old Canon A-1, 35mm professional photog wannabe. Heh, I did pretty good so I love all the manual controls. My wife, whose present it really was, wants to point and shoot, looking at the screen, no view finder please so I don't have to crunch my lashes, forget the settings just show me the on button. She gets what she wants and I get to play in the...
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By RPieszak - Jan 2, 2008

The best A series yet

Strengths: Fantastic lens, image stablization, great LCD screen, Digic III

Weakness: Body feels more plasticy than ever -- a point and shoot Rebel: great features, great price, build quality below par

I'm a long-standing fan of A-series Canons. I started with the A40, went A80, A95, A620, A640, and now this A650 – yes, it’s out there, earlier than expected. They all have excelled in picture quality, but each has brought something new to the game. Most improvements between top end models were marginal. My most recent move from the A620 to A640 was one of the smallest. The A640 had the...
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I'm a long-standing fan of A-series Canons. I started with the A40, went A80, A95, A620, A640, and now this A650 – yes, it’s out there, earlier than expected. They all have excelled in picture quality, but each has brought something new to the game. Most improvements between top end models were marginal. My most recent move from the A620 to A640 was one of the smallest. The A640 had the higher megapixels and a bigger LCD but offered little else besides a black case. Then they went and stuck the SD card in behind the battery door -- a real bummer that’s continued into the A650.

The A650, though, is a major reboot for the series. Improvements from the A640: 12MP; image stabilization; a 6x lens that's much improved from any previous A series glass; a higher resolution LCD (same size as old A640 but much better quality images); a distance sensing flash that won't blow out subjects that are close to the camera (works better than manual method when out of Auto in old A640); the DIGIC III improvements: red eye removal tool, face sensor, better shot-to-shot speed, longer battery life; higher ISO (1600 is there and a 3200 in lower resolution; additionally, in my experience, there’s lower noise in the lower ISOs when compared to the A640 to ISO); a better viewfinder; new interface for picture playback (this will show the grid images but slightly enlarge the chosen picture over the tic-tac-toe grid: a nice improvement). That's a pile of improvements from one camera to the next. The 6X G-series lens and IS are enough to make the jump but packing in all the rest of it, makes this a worthy move for A640 users.

They've changed the button layout a bit, adding a direct ISO button on the back; nice. They've also added a much needed gauge for zoom/wide. You can finally see where you are in the zoom range; very nice and needed. The viewfinder has an expanded reach that's an improvement over the A640 as well, though I rarely compose with the viewfinder since you are still only getting 80% or so of the final image. This machine also has a new sensor, bigger than the A640. A relief, since the print size for a jump from 10-12 wouldn't be huge but squeezing out more MP from that older smaller sensor would have brought noise. Canon did us one better and upped the size of the sensor and the pictures really sing for the improvement.

It maintains the usual A-series pluses: runs on AA batteries, has easy capacity for add-on lenses for telephoto and wide, plus under water cases, and has the same wonderful flip out screen of the top-end A series cameras, this time improving upon with a much needed pixel count increase, there's much better resolution here, also the usual full manual control, the many shooting and ‘scene’ modes (21 of them), and a custom slot for your favorite settings. So far, it seems perfectly in line with the A series pretty consistent reputation for image quality. I always felt the A640 delivered a more contrasty image than the A620. This new A650 produces images more in line with the A620, they feel richer and I feel like the mid-tones are brighter than with the A640 so they don’t have the same contrasty out of camera quality of the A640.

What's the downside? Well, really only one caveat here. The build quality. The A620 was a solid machine. The A640 was nice as well, the black case felt good in the hands. The A650 takes a step back here. The design, with the split silver/black casing already looks cheaper than the old A640. But then, flip the zoom button and you can feel it. The lever is lighter and make a sort of unsatisfying clicking. It doesn't say "quality.” And when the camera body is in your hands, it feels cheaper. It weighs a few ounces more than its predecessor but it's a larger camera. Instead of a 2 oz. bump, you'd expect five or six based on size alone. They obviously didn't skimp on the glass (lens) and the features are well, you'd be hard press to want for anything (aside from RAW support) here. But the body feels truly plastic. Flip the switch on the A640 moving you from playback to record; do the same on the newly redesigned A650. You can feel it. The A650 switch feels light and cheap.

The lack of RAW support may be a non-issue eventually, as free hacked firmware is available to get Digic II cameras to do RAW. Digic III is likely right around the corner. But Canon does so well in the lower ISOs that you get a great image “in camera.” And this new machine has dialed back the NR so that there's more detail in the higher ISOs. I can't imagine using ISO3200 (they've dubbed it 'cellphone') but the usability of ISO 800 is remarkable. This is from someone who hates noise and tends to stick with ISO80 whenever possible. Its not an F-series Fuji, but in some ways, it's better: more detail and depth than Fuji with a bit more noise. But no Fuji takes lower ISO images like a Canon. This A-series takes the best images yet from any A-series camera -- and at 12mp!! That really is the bottom line.

By Anonymous - Sep 14, 2007

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