I've had the Canon PowerShot A720 IS for about a month now and took a few hundred pictures in various conditions. So I feel ready to write a detailed review of this (great) camera. I'm an engineer by profession and am starting out in amateur photography. I wanted something with enough manual controls so that I can apply what I've learned in photography theory. But I wasn't willing to spend too much on a full dSLR + lenses (yet). Plus I like the portability of a compact camera. I've read a lot of published online reviews on this camera & a few others in its class at the time of purchase. Here are some of my thoughts on each area of this camera that other reviewers may not have covered.

Size & Looks:
Not as small as the ultra compacts, but it's very hard to find one smaller with all the manual controls that Canon A series P&S cameras offer. Having aperture and shutter priority modes and a wide enough ISO range (80 1600) is a must for more creative shooting. If all you shoot is in auto mode (& occasional scene mode), then there are other cameras that are sleeker & smaller (such as the SD series). I personally prefer a darker color, silver on an obviously plastic body is a pet peeve of mine in all electronics these days. Just a matter of personal taste. I wished the camera was slightly lighter & smaller. The main weight should just be a high quality glass lens, everything else can be electronics & plastic. A lot of pros like the Canon G series because of the solid metal frames. But that's mainly because in the dSLR world, everything weighs a lot more. In a portable camera I want portability. Unlike shrinking cellphones & MP3 players these days, the big lens (& preferably bigger sensor size) should be the limiting factor for cameras. I want lenses big enough to let in enough light at the largest zoom and also not suffer from barrel distortion & other abnormalities. Another reason why I didn't go with ultra compacts that have prizm folding optics.

8 Megapixels:
This is on the low end for currently introduced new cameras. But it's more than I (or most people) need. 8MP is enough for all but poster sized enlargements. Higher megapixels have problems such as denser sensors that have more noise and less dynamic range, and requiring more memory/disk space for storage. More camera buyers should be informed that high megapixels does not mean better image quality, and actually introduces new problems.

Zoom:
This camera has 6x Optical zoom. I was tempted to get the new SX100 with 10x optical zoom. But I would have to sacrifice the A720's optical viewfinder and slightly smaller size. Also from an earlier Kodak Z712 (12x optical zoom) I owned and sold, the higher zoom was not as appealing as it seemed at first due to a number of reasons such as hand shake (even with IS), slightly less optical sharpness at all zoom levels, and the added bulk. 6x optical zoom is good enough for 90% of the shooting I do without sacrificing size and image quality. A wider wideangle would also be more beneficial than a longer reach (28mm at the wide end instead of 36mm).

Optical Image Stabilization:
A very important feature in cameras these days, especially with a small lens that could always use more light. I can take hand held pictures about 2 3 stops slower than without, which means the shutter speed can go as low as 1/10 sec in wide angle without blurring the pictures (while keeping ISO low for less noise). IS is even more important when zoomed in at 6x in all but the sunniest outdoor conditiions, again this is limited by the small optical lens. The more zoomed in, the smaller the aperture, and less light hitting the sensor, so the camera needs a slower shutter speed to expose the picture properly (which means steady hands or tripod), this is compounded by the higher sensitivity to hand shake when zoomed in.

Optical Viewfinder:
Optical viewfinders are rare among cameras in this class from other brands. Kudos to Canon for including it. The benefits of a viewfinder include being able frame & shoot in sunny conditions that would wash out the LCD display. Also once I have the settings set, I can just turn off the LCD & shoot through the viewfinder for framing to conserve battery power (up to 4x as many pictures taken per set of batteries, 900+ on NiMH) The viewfinder is about 80% of the full image frame, so there's enough buffer for framing error so you can crop digitally later on a computer. The viewfinder is slightly offset from the sensor so it's less reliable for close shooting and definitely not recommended for macro shooting. The A720 IS doesn't have a swivel LCD display, but I prefer it since it only adds cost & bulk to a camera. LCDs today have enough wide angle viewing so they're still usable if I want to shoot from way above or below eye level.

AA Batteries:
This was a very important factor in my decision when shopping for a digital camera. I preferred standard batteries because I can find them when I'm traveling at any convenient store. The A720 also takes rechargeable NiMH AA cells for everyday use (more environmental, and also more capacity than AA alkalines). The CIPA rating for battery use is about 140 pictures on alkalines and 400 with NiMH. You may get more if you don't use flash & zoom every other shot. I seem to get a lot more shots since I shoot using just the optical viewfinder often, and not much flash. Some cameras (such as my former Kodak Z712 IS) may imply on paper that it can use AA alkaline & NiMH batteries, but they weren't really designed to conserve power. Faster performance usually means having motors and electronics that run at higher power, thus depleting batteries quicker. The A720 actually can use AA alkalines efficiently.

Macro:
The A720 is way ahead of the competition in that you can focus on objects as close as 1cm (that's less than half an inch in front of the lens!). Also one of the few benefits of having a smaller CCD sensor is that you get more Depth of View (DOF) for macro subjects compared to dSLRs.)

Fine tuning:
Custom white balance for odd indoor lighting conditions. In camera adjustment to contrast, sharpness, and noise reduction. I prefer to keep these settings at a minimum so that the original image is captured with the most detail (in camera contrast & sharpness boosting actually destroys detail). If need to, I can always adjust the image on a computer afterwards, but the more detail I can capture in the beginning, the more I have to work with in post processing.


Some of the issues with this camera that I didn't like are:

Small sensor & noise:
This is probably the biggest shortcoming that I see in the Canon A720 IS. But the only other viable option is to go the dSLR route and that means spending at least 3x as much (not including additional lenses and associated equipment.) The CCD sensor is only 1/2.5 inch diagonal, this is a very small area for 8 Megapixels. Basically at this point in digital sensor technology, cramming more megapixels into a small area results in less dynamic range (difference between lightest and darkest colors), and noise at anything higher than ISO 200 (which is needed for low light shooting). I would've preferred a 1/1.8 inch sensor or larger. I get around it by shooting ISO 1600 when I absolutely need to (very dim scenes where flash washes out the background, or the subjects are beyond the reach of flash) and using computer software to reduce the noise afterwards. The results are usable for small prints. Also noteworthy is Canon uses little on camera noise reduction compared to other manufacturers (a user selectable setting would be nicer). Which is good, because noise reduction is a fine delicate process that must balance reducing noise at the expense of reducing clarity too. A process that I would much prefer to do on a full computer with more processing power & updated software than the one included in a camera that has less processing power and is not easily updated.

Flash recycle times:
Some other people have complained about how long it takes for the flash to recycle after use (it's about 4 6 secs). The main problem I see here is that the LCD goes blank during this time, and I would've preferred that the the LCD be in review mode or something useful so it doesn't SEEM as long. From a technical point of view, I can see how this could be due to using alkaline batteries that provide low power, and to charge the flash safely without depleting the battery too fast with high current. Think of sipping water through a small straw versus a fat pipe. My previous Kodak Z712 had fast recharge time, but it ate batteries like crazy. So I prefer Canon's approach, with some slight tweaking.

Actually a better workaround to this is to use off camera flash. On camera flash is bad because it dulls & flattens pictures, produces red eye, and makes the background too dim. I ordered a cheap wireless optically triggered slave flash (around $20). (Canon makes a more expensive one that's more compatible in auto modes). Basically it's a wireless flash that fires when another camera flashes in the vicinity. One caveat is that most slave flashes (unless specifically stated) will trigger with digital camera's auto exposure & red eye pre flashes. These flashes confuse the slave flashes to fire prematurely. The A720's manual mode comes to the rescue again. In manual mode, I can turn down the on camera flash and the pre flash off, relying on one or more off camera flashes to light the subject and give depth to my pictures. So for me the on camera flash gets very little use.

Histogram not live:
The histogram (and flashing blown highlights) is a very important feature for setting the proper exposure manually in the digital world. It allows consistent picture to... Read moreʉۼ