First efforts with the A640

I've enjoyed my P4 and it's produced some great results but I've never been totally happy with the often slightly soft and noisy images. It never quite matched the macro perfomance of the 995 it replaced either. With these in mind I've invested in a Canon A640, mainly on the strength of the close-focussing capability (down to 1cm). So far I've been very happy. It is much sharper, less noisy and a bit faster than the P4. The rotating screen is handy and really bright and clear. I do miss the image stabilisation but on the whole this is a big improvement.

The pollen grains on the passion flower shot show something of the macro capability. I didn't even go in as close as I could here so maybe better to come.

The grasshopper shot is shown full frame and then cropped without any post-processing and shows just how sharp and fine the results are. Check out the antennae.

After a bit of modification to my 'roll of tape' digiscoping method the camera is working fine with the Leica scope. The Blackbird shots below were taken in the garden at 400 ISO as the light was so poor. The images have been run through Neat Image to reduce noise then sharpened a bit.

Click on any of the shots for larger, more detailed images.

Passion Flower



Xanthogramma pedisequum


Fly (Diptera)


The Cinnabar Tyria jacobaeae, larvae



Grashopper sp. (Orthoptera), nymph



Dunnock Prunella modularis


Blackbird Turdus merula, male and juvenile



Canon A640, final two digiscoped handheld to Leica APO77 x20