Canon A720 IS Camera for the Wife ....

[Celestron]

I just bought the Canon A720 IS camera for the wifes christmas present today . Since i've only dealth with the Rebel 300D i was not up on the compact digitals but after checking this one out it seems like i made the right deal . It's 8.0 MP with the 6X optical zoom but haven't seen or found anything out about the digital zoom . Anyone have any info on the digital zoom for the A720 IS ?? The wife has always had a problem taking pictures with looking throught a viewer and always cut somesone head off ( mainly mine ) , but now with a 2.5" viewer this problem should be solved hopefully . Shes' always wanting to take pictures of the grand children but today her batteries were dead so lost a chance for an camera opt :( with a Canon film camera i bought her several yrs ago . It's still a good camera tho , just needs new batteries . I got this one today from Target with a free $30.00 gift card with purchase so i used the gift card and bought a Kodak 2-gig SD card to go with the camera .

So how about it , anyone have any input on the camera they can share with me ?? I appreciate the info . I've read all at the Canons site on this camera and seems like she will definitly like this camera :) !

[thetarget]

What do you want to know about A720IS, i'm using A710IS.
Personally i do not think the pictuers will come about as well as the 300D, but for its compact-ness it is really a good camera.

[Celestron]

Hard to compare DSLRs' to Compact digitals but i've seen some mighty nice images from some C-Ds' . Just wanting to know if anyone else uses the same camera and what their opinion is about it for a second snap and go camera ??

[jrobert]

My wife and I just researched a few cameras for her (early) Christmas present, including the A720 IS (the others were the A560 and one of the Elphs (or would those be Elves? :) ). I dismissed the Elph pretty quickly as too limited. When we went shopping, we each liked the A720, so that's what she got. I haven't used it but for two shots, but she's pretty happy with it. It's compact (smaller even than my A70), easy to use, and with lots of capability for her to grow into. Both of us liked the 6x zoom range and big LCD. I felt the alkaline cell capability was important and was impressed with the live data display.

I'm sure she'll have a blast with it - just make sure she gets to use it!

-jeff-

[JDL7538]

I got the 720 IS in early October after many internet hours reading reviews and comparing its image results with those of comparable P&S cameras. It was a great choice for a lot of reasons---a 6x optical zoom which allows, in effect, cropping images with full resolution even before downloading; very effective optical IS, so that rarely are there blurred shots; Canon color which just slightly enhances and brings to life almost every picture I take; a larger lens than that of a sub-compact, with 8 mp allowing sharp images with fine resolution; and a fairly good flash. It takes beautiful outdoor shots, though sunlight streaking through trees will cause blown-out highlights across people's faces and its upper ISOs are virtually useless. (I have yet to really try its movie mode, though it's reportedly good.) Overall it's a great camera, especially for the price, boasting great professional reviews, though I wish it had a 28 mm, true wide-angle range to its zoom lens and were somewhat more pocket-portable (but then with a smaller lens it would not produce the same high IQ, so what can you do?). John D.

[LindaB]

Hi there.

As it happens, I have this camera as my carry around camera - I also use the Canon 300D and Canon 350D DSLR plus lenses. I bought mine around Sept/Oct time just as a light carry around for every day use.

I havent used it a great deal, but last night I did take a few pics of my cat indoors which were not bad at all and will give you an indication of how good a crop it can produce.

I did use it in Av mode though, which you will get used to, as you can use this camera in Manual mode as well. Forget the digital zoom - I have turned my off - so just use the optical zoom. You can adjust quite a few areas in the camera as you get used to it.

Here is the crop, which I was pleased with the detail showing, especially for a quick snap, with the flash, taken in the kitchen under fluorescent lighting albeit in a darker area.

http://www.pbase.com/lindabuckell/image/90550714.jpg

and here is the full size photo, which is just a snap shot - only resized for uploading to my gallery, slight adjustment to brightness/contrast and then one very simple 'sharpen edges' and thats it. Not such a nice photo in some respects because of his door flap magnet is showing lol, so I did the crop to see how well the detail showed.

http://www.pbase.com/lindabuckell/image/90549258.jpg


Linda

[msowsun]

It's 8.0 MP with the 6X optical zoom but haven't seen or found anything out about the digital zoom . Anyone have any info on the digital zoom for the A720 IS ??

What do you want to know about the digital zoom?

Here is some info from this website:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_a510_a520-review/

A few quick notes on the digital zoom feature. Canon calls the 1.6X and 2.0X options a "digital tele-converter" -- it's basically just fixed digital zoom. The Standard option is what you'll find on every camera -- it just enlarges the center of the frame digitally. The camera's Safety Zoom feature warns you when you pass the point at which image quality is degraded. When you're shooting at the highest resolution that starts as soon as digital zoom kicks in, but if you're using a lower resolution you can use it for a little while before that happens. For example, you can go up to 9.6X total zoom at the M2 (2048 x 1536) resolution.

[Celestron]

Thanks everyone for such good replies , links and images to compare with !! That is just what i'm looking for ! Linda , those picts look good to me and way better than i thought with a quick snap , however i know there is some great cameras out there , just glad i bought a very good one ! It will take some getting use to for the wife but i know she will love it ! Just being able to see her subjects in the LCD viewer will help tremendously cause she won't have to do all that squinting ! She doesn't know about the movie capabilities yet ..... that she will like best ! Thanks again evryone !

[Jon]

Forget the digital zoom - I have turned my off - so just use the optical zoom. You can adjust quite a few areas in the camera as you get used to it.


Linda
I'll echo that. You can get the same thing "digital zoom" does by resizing and cropping in post-processing, and (with a little care) better results.

[danpass]

I recommended to Mom to get herself an A720. I managed to snag it for a few days and took some macro shots with it now, the lens bezel is resting on the object. We're probably looking at a 2cm min focusing distance here, ISO80[eighty], zero post processing other than sizing

(as all good posters, EXIF is included):



f2.8 (max)

http://www.danpassaro.com/img/v3/p691072646.jpg






f8.0 (min)

http://www.danpassaro.com/img/v3/p1040574445.jpg









f2.8

http://www.danpassaro.com/img/v3/p658964618.jpg







f8.0

http://www.danpassaro.com/img/v3/p900164168.jpg

[Celestron]

Thanks again Jon & Dan ! Good examples Dan , thanks !

[Bodryn]

I recently bought an A720 and I have found that the digital zoom seems to come up with disappointing results, but the optical zoom seems to work well. My S5 seems to do better in both departments and I can keep a histogram in the display so the exposure can be predicted. However there is seldom if ever any reason IMHO to use digital zoom. You can crop the image and get essentially the same result.