Canon PowerShot A640 Digital Camera Review

Model Design / Appearance (6.75)
A look at the A-series lineup shows just how much Canon has tweaked design in the past few years: not much at all. The Canon PowerShot A-series digital cameras have a certain utilitarian aesthetic to them. They all have chunky hand grips, telescoping lenses, optical viewfinders, and thick bodies. Most have folding LCD monitors and similar button and dial layouts. The Canon PowerShot A640 follows these traditional A-series guidelines, but it differs in its body color. Most A-series models – but not all – only come in the typical light silver color. The A640 has a black body that is comprised of plastic and metal panels. There are a few light silver highlights: the lens rim, shutter release button, mode dial, navigational control, etc. The overall appearance of the Canon A640 doesn’t scream “gorgeous,” though consumers after something more stylish and trendy will likely gravitate towards Canon's SD-series; however, the SD-series doesn’t come with the same vast amount of manual controls.

Size / Portability (5.5)
The Canon PowerShot A640 isn’t a waif of a digital camera. It measures 4.31 x 2.6 x 1.93 inches. It has boxy dimensions, but its edges are rounded and the panels match well together. It weighs in at 8.64 oz (245 g), but that’s without the four AA batteries included. The A640 is much too chunky to slide into a pants pocket comfortably, but it can still be transported in a large coat pocket or hand bag. It doesn’t require a separate camera bag, although that never hurts (especially if you invest in the conversion lenses, slave flash, and other accessories). The A640 has a strap eyelet to attach an included wrist band, but this camera is too heavy to dangle from a wrist. Even if your wrists are incredibly strong, I still wouldn’t trust the flimsy wrist strap.

Handling Ability (7.0)
While consumers may curse the A640 for not being as skinny and portable as other digital cameras, they should forgive it when they handle it. The chunky hand grip keeps your palm from cramping permanently, and the placement of the controls and buttons are all within easy reach. There are a few potential problems, however, the metal hand grip material is slick, and the body is quite heavy. The hand grip shouldn’t be a big problem unless the photographer’s palms are sweating profusely or a coating of sun block was just slathered on. As for the weight of the camera, there’s really no way to change it. Users should make sure they have two hands on the A640 at all times, though.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (7.0)
As previously stated, all of the A640’s buttons are nicely placed within easy reach. The zoom ring that surrounds the shutter release button is large, as is the enormous mode dial behind these features. The power switch on the back of the camera is a bit on the small side. The four circular buttons that surround the navigational control are nicely sized and spaced. Everything is properly labeled, although at first glance, the back of the camera looks cluttered because of all the buttons and labels. The navigational control consists of a central Func./Set button with a ring around it. The ring has four dots indicating the directions. When users push on a side, it doesn’t depress as much as one would expect. Still, it did its job and didn’t accidentally navigate to other menus.

Menu (7.0)
This PowerShot has a menu system typical of its relatives. The more frequently used shooting options are located in a menu accessible by the Func./Set button. This menu is loaded with lots of options and a live preview of many of them. The menu is set up so that the items appear on the left edge of the LCD screen, and the options for each item appear to the right along with the live preview.

ISO	Auto, Hi, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800
White Balance	Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Underwater, Custom
Drive Mode	Single, Continuous, 10-sec self-timer, 2-second self-timer, Custom self-timer (Delay 0-30 sec, Shots 1-10)
My Colors	Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom Color (Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, Red, Green, Blue, Skin Tone all with +/- 2 adjustments in full stops)
Flash Exposure Compensation	+/- 2 in 1/3 increments
Metering	Evaluative, Center-weighted Average, Spot
Compression	SuperFine, Fine, Normal
Image Size	Large (3648 x 2736), Medium 1 (2816 x 2112), Medium 2 (2272 x 1704), Medium 3 (1600 x 1200), Small (640 x 480), Postcard (1600 x 1200), Widescreen (3648 x 2048)

Other menus can be accessed via the Menu button (makes sense, right?). A menu system appears with tabs at the top dividing the three sub-menus: Recording, Setup, and Custom. There is a gray background, and the tabs are multicolored. The following is the recording menu.

AF Frame	AiAF, Center, FlexiZone
Digital Zoom	Standard, Off, 1.4x, 2.3x
Flash Sync	1st Curtain, 2nd Curtain
Slow Synchro	On, Off
Red-Eye	On, Off
Spot AE Point	Center, AF Point
MF-Point Zoom	On, Off
AF-Assist Beam	On, Off
Review	Off, Hold, 2-10 sec
Reverse Disp.	On, Off
Disp. Overlay	Off, Grid Lines, 3:2 Guide, Both
Date Stamp (only available with Postcard image size)	Off, Date, Date & Time
Save Settings	OK, Cancel

This is the setup menu on the Canon PowerShot A640.

Mute	On, Off
Volume	Startup, Operation, Self-timer, Shutter, Playback (all with 1-5 levels)
Power Saving	Auto Power Down (On, Off), Display Off (10 sec – 3 min)
Date/Time	Sets date and time
Format	Low Level Format, Normal Format, OK, Cancel
File Numbering	Continuous, Auto Reset
Create Folder	Auto Create (Off, Daily, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monthly), Time (Off, 0-24)
Auto Rotate	On, Off
Distance Units	m/cm, ft/in
Lens Retract	0 sec, 1 min
Language	English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, Romanian, Ukrainian
Video System	NTSC, PAL
Print Method	Auto, PictBridge
Reset All	Cancel, OK