A650 IS: Rising the bar for the class "A" standards

Massive recall

It is not the latest action movie, it's a terror film that Canon faced. This particular model faced a light leak that provoked a recall. We had to wait many weeks before buying one and in many photo sharing sites the number of photos taken with this camera are lower than other Canon cameras launched at the same time, so it is obvious that the defect did hurt Canon sales big time for this particular model.

For any company the recall of a brand new product is a disastrous moment. The worst possible scenario is to lie or not to recognize that there is a problem. Fortunately Canon acknowledge that there was a situation and provided the current owners -as well as the potential buyers- with enough information to identify the cameras with this defect.

We still remember when Intel launched the Pentium Processor and had to face a historic recall. When companies react in a positive way recognizing the facts of the problem and providing enough information for the consumer then a bumpy start tends to be forgiven.

When we received our A650 we immediately checked the serial number to find if it had the malicious "0" in the fifth digit, but we were very relieved when we find a "1" instead of a "0". In our case the wait is over and we can report our results with this camera.

An A camera with a high end quality built

The A650 IS seems to repeat the success of the A640 with some welcomed improvements: image stabilizer, better design and improved quality. This particular camera is the closest alternative to the costly G9 and, in some cases, shares the same specifications.

(Some parts of this A650 IS review were previously published in the G9 review due to the similarities of some features and specifications in both cameras)

There are many indications of the "A" category: simplified set of buttons, more plastic than metal construction, plastic tripod mount, made in China instead of Japan, record and play mode switch, etc. But the he A650 IS is a surprisingly good looking camera. The camera has three parts: the front is made of metal, the back is made of plastic and the black battery grip. The gray is much warmer and sophisticate than the average silver digicam and the semi-matte black plastic of the grip is surprisingly impressive. The overall feel of a high quality camera. The construction is definitely way better than the average A camera and, although it is not in the G9 league, is a really attractive camera.

Ergonomics and usability

This good-looking camera is also very comfortable. The battery compartment provides very good grip that is enhanced by a texture for the thumb in the back. This camera is very comfortable and very easy to use with a single hand.

The usability of the A650 IS is good but not excellent since many important settings (such as white balance or drive mode) are inside menus. This camera lacks of some user interface enhancements such as live histogram, analog-like exposure visual aids or battery meter. It seems like the A650 should be stripped of such nice touches because is in the "A" category.

Optical performance

We don't know for sure, but the lens and sensor of the A650 IS seems to be same as the G9. The 6x lens is quite good with an unsurprising focal length of 35-210mm (equivalence to 35mm). 28mm at the wide end would be great, but the wide and tele converters may enhance the focal length with practically no optical loss. Although there is some barrel distortion at the wide end, it's moderate. The chromatic aberrations are under control although visible to pixel peepers. With a maximum aperture of f/2.8 you won't write home about the maximum lens aperture, but the Image Stabilizer works very good and has a panning option for horizontally moving subjects. The IS feature compensates the lack of fast lenses and it is very good to have it . The zoom is fast and quiet.

The vari-angle LCD is one strong feature. It used to be a G series signature until the G7. Now this top A camera sports this extremely useful movable CD, although the resolution isn't great with 173,000px instead of the 230,000 of higher end Canon cameras. The A650 has an optical viewfinder too; it's small, the lens barrel obstructs when the wide end is in use but is usable and a great option to improve the battery life.

Digital tele-converter

We all know how nasty are the results of digital zoom. Canon created a concept called "digital tele-converter". It isn't new, but with A650 IS's 12.1 mega pixels it is now finally usable. If you choose a lower resolution, you can use digital zoom without degrading the final output up to some degree.

Features

If you dig into the Record menu, you'll find nice surprises:

-Flash output control
-Self timer allows setting the delay time but also the number of shots
-You can opt in the review info from a detailed view or a very useful focus check view
-Shortcut button setting
-One custom settings on the mode dial

The A650 IS has a safety manual focus feature for the best of both worlds: you choose manual focus and the camera performs a fine tuning with auto focus.

The auto ISO shift feature is handy: you can let the camera tell you if you may improve image sharpness by pumping up the ISO levels and you can choose to do it automatically or the direct-print button will lit. If you press the button the ISO setting will be increased.

This camera is powered by four AA batteries that provide an excellent battery life. With NiMh rechargeable the A650 IS provides 400 shots with the LCD turned on and 1,200 pictures when used with the optical zoom exclusively. The choose of AA batteries is pretty good for travelers and although it consumes alkaline batteries much faster they are widely available.

Performance

Continuous shooting is not bad considering the large 12.1 mega pixels resolution although the A650 IS is not a suitable camera for sport shooting or very fast moving subjects. That said, the startup is reasonable quick with snappy auto focus.

Image quality

The A650 IS image quality is very good and highly detailed. It's a shame that Canon decided to allow the capture of RAW files with the G9 only. Although the A650 IS images are very good, the noise issues are easier to fix in post production with RAW files. That said, this camera has a top of the line image quality in the compact cameras arena. The exposure is very accurate and the dynamic range is surprisingly good in highly contrasted scenes. The color rendition is very good.

ISO sensitivities and noise issues

ISO behavior is not better than any other PowerShot. Those 12.1 million pixels stuffed in 1/1.7" sensor produce image noise. Above ISO 400 noise is awful and at ISO 1600 all the details have been lost. Even at ISO 80 you’ll find both chroma and luminance noise when pixel peeping. In the real life you can use up to ISO 400 with moderate noise. The good news are the Image Stabilization that will allow you to set a lower ISO speed reducing the blur due to camera shake. These means that the A650 IS is not a good camera for low light situations, but you can expect a reasonable performance at low ISO levels.

Canon PowerShot A650 IS (100% crops)
ISO 80	ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800	ISO 1600

That’s it for the techno babble. How does the A650 IS feel?

The A650 IS is not a cheap camera: the powerful S5 is about $20 cheaper and the comparable SX100 has a 10x optical zoom for $30 less. Yet, this is the closest camera in resolution, image quality to the G9 and in some cases it is better (e.g. the vari-angle LCD monitor or the improved grip). Without any comparison to the Canon's flagship, the A650 stands out as an extremely capable camera with full manual control and a very good set of features. There are cheaper A cameras such as the very capable A720 IS, but none has the construction quality, design or resolution of this top of the line camera that deserves a place in the high end class.

The bottom line