And the torrent of new products continues. As we hinted early yesterday, we knew that Canon were going to announce the 400D but the sleeping giant has woken up properly now and done one of its trade mark “mega launches”. Four new cameras plus more printers and scanners than you could imagine make it a very busy day here. The launch is so big that we've split it into two parts - printers and scanners are covered in a separate article. This one is just about the cameras - the Powershots A710 IS, A620 and A610 and the big one, the EOS 400D
Canon Powershot A710 IS
First up is the Powershot A710 IS. It won't come as a surprise that this is the replacement fro the A700. This is the first Powershot to feature optical image stabilisation (check out the “What's Hot” feature article for an explanation of the various types of IS). This is the “big boys” IS that lets you shoot pictures up to 3 stops slower than cameras without it. Zoom the lens all the way in to 210mm and with a bit of luck and good technique you should get sharp pictures at an amazing 1/30s (though pay attention to the words “up to” - we find most IS systems are good for about 2 stops rather than the claimed 3. It will be interesting to see how this one holds up on test). There's also a 7.1 MP sensor and the usual large number of scene modes for most users to ignore.
An interesting new feature is the so called “safety zoom”. This “takes advantage of the camera's large resolution to offer extra zoom magnification without affecting image quality”. It appears to be a form of digital zoom that warns you when the shot will give poor quality. A digital zoom works by enlarging the pixels on the image - it's exactly the same as blowing the picture up after the shot in an editor. This tends to lead to poor quality and we always recommend turning the digital zoom off for this reason. However, with 7 million pixels and “safety zoom” it appears that you can use a 12X zoom in conjunction with the 7X optical zoom as long as you limit yourself to 6X4 prints. SPECIFICATION
Canon Powershot A620 and A610
Next off the blocks we have two cameras so similar that they share a press release. The Powershot A640 and A630 replace the Powershot A620 and A610. I've read the whole spec sheet and it looks like the only difference between them is the number of pixels. The Powershot A630 has an impressive 8 million pixels while the A640 has a class leading 10 MP. This is the highest resolution Powershot to date - though that's only to be expected. Camera resolutions are going up and these are the flagship models.
Other than the resolution the cameras are the same and pretty much what you would expect - loads of scene modes, improved LCDs (well, you wouldn't want last year's LCD would you?) and a whole bunch of flexible shooting options. There are also some “artistic” options for editing your pictures in camera. You also get the “safety zoom” function just like on the A710IS so when we figure out exactly what this is and how well it works the same should be true for all three cameras. Lens zoom is slightly more modest than the A710IS at 4X (35 - 140mm) but that should be adequate for most general purpose photography. SPECIFICATION of the A630 and the A640
We like the Powershot range and there's every chance that these three additions will be the best cameras in the range so far.
Canon 400D
And finally, we have the big bad boy of the group - the Canon 400D. This has been anticipated almost since the 350D came out and there have been wild rumours about the spec. We haven't had our hands on one yet but for an entry level camera this looks amazing.
Obviously the camera has 10.1 million pixels (just like the Sony Alpha 100 and Nikon D80). Equally obviously it is compact and lightweight (as you'd expect from what will be there budget offering). It's also nice to see that the 400D is compatible not only with a huge range of accessories, flashguns and lenses in EF and EF-S fittings but also things like the power grip from the 350D. The layout and controls are also very similar. It should be relatively painless to upgrade from a 350D to a 400D or to use both cameras side by side.
What is unexpected is the quality of the components that have found their way into the 400D. There is the DIGIC II image processor which offloads lots of the image calculations to a separate processor. This allows high quality images at high speed and is now used across the EOS range including the might EOS 1 series. The sensor itself is CMOS rather than the more common CCD which means that it uses less power and is said to produce less image noise. The autofocus has been improved a lot and now uses a 9 point system borrowed form the 30D and 5D which should give higher speed and accuracy.
And then there's the anti dust system. Dust is a very hot topic for DSLR owners. Many websites exist that talk about arcane methods of cleaning very expensive sensors and some people even return their cameras to the manufacturer for sensor cleaning. Personally I think this issue is overstated but it was great to see Sony come up with the automatic cleaning system in the Alpha 100. Canon has taken this one step further with a three stage “dust management” system. First of all they have acknowledged that a lot of dust comes from inside the camera and designed a lot of the components to reduce this dust in the first place. Secondly they have adopted a system similar to Sony. Anti static components and a vibrating sensor stop dust settling and remove it when it does. If all this fails and you still have dust on your pictures then clever software in the camera can map the dust and automatically delete it from the images. This last step is similar to the “dust off' facility in Nikon's Capture NX but it works within the camera and should be much easier to use.
All in all the 400D stacks up to a very attractive camera. If everything is as good as they say then this would make a great camera for a serious amateur/semi professional. What is amazing is that it will be Canon's entry level DSLR. No RRP is yet available but guesses seem to place it at around £6 - £700 which would place it in direct competition with the Sony Alpha and the Nikon D80. SPECIFICATION
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