Extra 2 MP worth the money?

[Roger Bunting]

Ok, I\'ve come a little further in my decision on which camera I may buy (when I finally have the funds). At the moment it\'s between the Canon Powershot A630 and A640 (8 MP and 10 MP respectively). Now my question is whether the extra 2 MP of the 640 is worth the extra £55. Prices I\'m taking are from Amazon.co.uk. £139.99 to £194.99. Apart from the MP there doesn\'t seem to be much difference between the two.

 

[matty1001]

No really unless you are blowing the photos up to monumental size.

Its more down to the features than how many MP it has.

My main camera has 5MP, and my mates has 10MP. But mine totally outshines his under different circumstances. E.g his is utter rubbish in dark lighting.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Thanks, Matty. I kinda thought that would be the case. The money I\'ll save will go towards the etxra gubbins like a larger capacity card and a tripod.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Hmm, as I\'m still waiting to get the cash together for a camera, Canon announce they\'re replacing the A640 with the new A650 IS. Now, I wasn\'t going to buy the 640 over the 630 as it pretty much just had the 2mp over the cheaper model; but the 650 has has some other big upgrades. I shall have to wait until I read some reviews, and probably until the price comes down a bit. I\'m a blackbelt 5th dan in Indecisionjutsu.

 

[Bestrafer]

That\'s the pace of today\'s hardware, Roger.

I was keeping my pennies together for a Canon 5??. When it was phased out, I still had not all together. Waiting a bit longer I finally bought a A610 with 5MP last christmas for a good price of 199 Euros. Needless to say, the 610 has since been phased out ...

Have to say however the wait was worth it and I love this camera.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Not sure whether the 630 is being replaced as the press release doesn\'t say anything about it one way or the other, although it\'s not on the list of products on Canon\'s website.

This is all academic at the moment as I don\'t have the money to buy any camera just yet.

 

[War Griffon]

What do the reviews say about them 630 REVIEW
640 REVIEW

Also try googling the camera you might get a better price than on Amazon.

Personally I would go for a camera that allows me to use a cable release but then that is me

 

[Roger Bunting]

Read those reviews amongst others, though as I said, the 640, at least is being replaced in september. Sure, I would like a cable release but you can\'t have everything without spending more money that I will have. I briefly thought about a dslr, but then I thought, it\'s no good me getting an expensive camera if I cannot afford any more minis to photograph.

The A series have excellent macro and the new 650 IS has the a better sensor which amongst other things means better quality at higher ISO settings, not that that particular thing would matter for the macro if I have a decent light setup but it may be good for general purpose stuff.

EDIT: Of course, if you can recommend a camera with as good a macro setting that also has a cable release, please do so.

 

[War Griffon]

Can\'t really help you on that one I\'m affrain I bought my camera a while ago and I am perfectly happy with it but as they do not make it anymore it is not much point in recommending it.

For the record though I use the Fuji Finepix S602Zoom. I think it got replaced with the 700 but that has also been replaced now.

 

[Bill]

Extra MP is generally not worth it, and even whether extra features are worth it depends - think how much you\'ll use any of them. If you\'re buying a camera mainly for mini photography, for instance, you won\'t want to pay more for a camera that has a good feature for landscapes. I use a Sony DSC-W70, thoroughly mid-range, and that works great for macro stuff and for other things. I don\'t even use half the setting on that! I think it all depends on your priorities as a photographer.

Just my experience - you sound like you know more about cameras than me anyway (what\'s a cable release? ???).

 

[Roger Bunting]

It\'s one of those cables that you can plug into the camera (usually in the middle of the shoot button and has a plunger type thing at the other end. It means you don\'t have to touch the camera to take the photo and don\'t have to wait for a timer. Last time I used one was over 10 years ago on a 35mm slr at college.

I don\'t think the A630 or 640 have all that many things I wouldn\'t use at some point. The 650 has a better processor, the DIGIC III instead of the DIGIC II that the previous versions use. It has better noise reduction, improved white balance, face recognition, image stablization, 6x optical zoom (the 630 and 640 have 4x). Those are the extra or improves things I was talking about, not things like scene modes or whatever.

EDIT: Do you mean this one is what you use, War Griffon? Fujifilm FinePix S602Z

I think this one is the latest in the S Zoom series. Fujifilm FinePix S5700 Zoom

Or for the more expensive one in the line: the S9100

 

[War Griffon]

Your link isn\'t working you have too many http:// in it.

It is close to mine, I have the S602Z Pro that is all black in colour and has the cable release connection and I use a microdive as well/instead of the smart card.

S602Z Pro Review not the review I used for when I bought the camera but not a lot on this now as it is no longer in production. The review also says nothing about the macro and super macro modes.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Err, thanks for informing me about the links. See, I used to just type them in but starting with those I used the shortcut button for adding links. That\'ll teach me to do things the easy way.

Ah, the fancier version, eh? S602Z Pro

That\'s the specs though they don\'t have a review. The non pro version\'s conclusion for macro is \"Relatively good macro ability (although super-macro suffers from barrel distortion)\". Don\'t know if that improved but it was in the pros list, not the cons.