Canon PowerShot A650 IS

Value (5.0)
The Canon A650 IS is an excellent all-around camera for taking vacation snapshots and family pictures. How many people actually need 12 megapixels or more? Not many, but it doesn’t hurt too much either, and it provides the flexibility of being able to crop in on images and still keep the quality high. The 6x zoom range is more than offered by its 12-megapixel competitors. It performed well in our color, white balance, and resolution tests.

If you must have a 12-megapixel camera, the Canon PowerShot A650 IS is a good choice. But if zoom is the more important feature, the 8-megapixel Fujifilm S8000fd and Panasonic FZ18 both have 18x optical zoom lenses and sell for the same price.

Who It’s For
Point-and-Shooters - This is squarely the market for this camera. It is the ultimate general-purpose family snapshot and travel camera. It will appeal to people who just want to take fairly decent pictures without having to think too hard about them. It has enough spare pixels that people can be a bit sloppy about framing and cropping.

Budget Consumers - At $399, the A650 IS pushes the high end of the price range for a budget camera. It offers good value for that price, and may appeal to budget-minded consumers who put a premium on value. It will not appeal to those shopping primarily by price.

Gadget Freaks - The 12 megapixels may be enticing, but the rest of this camera’s features are offered by most cameras on the market.

Manual Control Freaks – The PASM modes and manual control options will appeal to this crowd.

Pros / Serious Hobbyists - Pros are not likely to see much in this camera to get excited about. Serious amateurs might consider one as a small, portable alternative to a DSLR for travel. Cumbersome manual controls might prove frustrating to some in this category, though.

Comparisons

Canon PowerShot G9 - Canon's flagship compact has some similarities to the A650 IS, including a 12-megapixel sensor and 6x optical zoom lens. Priced $100 more than the A650 IS, the G9 adds RAW capture, a 3-inch LCD monitor, a more powerful flash, and a hot shoe. The G9 was one of our top performing cameras of the year.






Canon PowerShot A720 IS - This is the step-down model to the A650 IS. The biggest difference between the cameras is resolution; the A650 IS has 12 megapixels and the A720 IS has 8-megapixels. Both have a 6x optically stabilized zoom lens, but the A650 IS adds a ISO 3200 mode and rotating LCD. The A720 IS sells for $249.99.






Fujifilm FinePix F50fd - This is an aggressively priced 12-megapixel camera with some interesting specs and some interesting letdowns. It features Fuji’s second generation of face detection, which enables it to detect faces and angles and in profiles. It’s quite fast, a bit smaller and lighter than the Canon, has a good resolution, and a nice flash. The Achilles’ heel? Poor overall image quality. The F50fd struggles with noise and color and has limited dynamic range. It also has slow processing and is difficult to handle. It does, however, cost $100 less than the Canon.


Kodak Z1275 – Kodak’s 12-megapixel model has a 5x optical zoom lens, slightly shorter than the Kodak’s 6x range. The Z1275 does not have mechanical nor optical image stabilization and a limited aperture range at the telephoto end of the lens.

The Canon has a manual white balance option while the Kodak relies on presets. Both cameras have PASM modes, but the Kodak lacks face detection. The Z1275 is one of a handful of digital cameras on the market that can record high definition (HD) video, but this feature is only really useful if you have an HDTV. It requires the purchase of a $100 HDTV dock. The Kodak Z1275 retails for $229.95.


Nikon P5100 – Priced the same as the Canon, the 12-megapixel Nikon P5100 has a shorter optically stabilized 3.5x optical zoom lens, but a superior 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD monitor. Its ISO range spans 64 to 3200, similar to the Canon’s ISO 80 to 3200 range. Both cameras have PASM modes and face detection. Both have a protruding handgrip, but the Nikon is slightly smaller and lighter than the Canon.





Panasonic FX100 - A 12-megapixel image-stabilized camera with a slightly sharper LCD (207K pixels), a 3.6x zoom lens that has a wider angle of coverage (35mm equivalent of 28mm vs. the A650 IS wide limit of 35mm), a more powerful flash, and a faster 2 fps burst rate. It has some interesting high-resolution video modes, but doesn’t have as many manual exposure modes as the Canon A650 IS. The Panasonic also retails for $399.95.





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