Which will it be? The 710IS or 630/640

[CaliBuceo]

Folks,

I'm in a bit of a quandry. I'm getting rid of my A70 (FINALLY!) that has been causing problems underwater. It's served me well, I've gone through a couple of them and been to Tahiti, Roatan, Conzumel, La Paz and Belize with the same Canon Housing.
It has served me well. I have also used the camera on land. That is why I am not leaning toward a Sealife- Sea and Sea camera. Oh yeah, I do have a SeaLife SL960D strobe with the camera.

Basically my interest in U/W photography is to take and keep memories.

Time to upgrade... Mind you I'm going from an A70 (3 mp) camera with a 1.8 inch lcd on the back and after reading all the posts on this forum I am vacilating between the 710IS and the 630/640.

The difference in street price of the cameras is about $70.00.
A710 $252; A630 $ 225; A640 $290

All three cameras have an underwater scene setting which I will suppose is for auto use only. Since you probably can't keep the setting if you are manually adjusting underwater that is really a non-issue.

The A710 has the Image stabilization feature which I find intriguing. In quite a few pictures with the A70 there was a shutter lag which resulted in blurred pictures. Will that feature help in UW photography?

I have found in researching the cameras on the web that there is also a long recycle time with the flash (10 sec?). Does this have anything to do with the 2 batteries rather than 4 in the A630/640?

The A710 can take 360 pictures on 2 Batteries; the A630/640 with 4 Batteries can take 500 pictures. I'm not sure if that is calculated with or without flash.

What I really find interesting with the A630/640 is the ability to rotate the LCD. Since I will also be using the camera on land, it is an option that 's worth considering. It also serves to protect the LCD while its being 'stored' or other wise justling in a backpack or suitcase.

As far as Megapixels- I've been on 3.0 for the past four or five years and taken some very good pictures. The A630 is 8 MP; A710IS, 7.1 MP; A640, 10MP.

It may be the decision breaker will revolve on which is more important- Image Stabilization or Rotated LCD.

I will be interested in reading your comments and thoughts.

John

 

[Willar]

I have the S3IS for shooting the kids in sports and general land use. Unfortunately there is no Canon case for this camera so I am shopping those same cameras for my travel and dive camera.

The tilt and swivel screen is nice on land but not a deal breaker for me. It is handy in certain situations but just not that important in getting good shots. The IS function is awesome. It really works great and makes long zoom shots much better. With IS you can use a higher shutter speed, usually 2 clicks, or improve the aperature 2 clicks. In macro shots I don't see much usefulness in IS.

So my dilema... is IS benefitial underwater or not? For macro, no. But it will give me a little better shutter or aperature setting for many shots, especially important since I don't use a strobe (I like to keep things compact).

The 2 batteries vs. 4 doesn't bother me since 2 good 2700 batteries will do the job just fine.

I'm not worried about the extra megapixels of the 6xx series.

My pick is the A710IS, but I haven't bought it yet.

 

[rcagar]

i just got the a710 and housing, so far i am very impressed although i havent used it yet

 

[Brookieman10]

I've got the canon 630 and it has served me well. We to migrated from A70 with no adjustment and loved the improvements. Here in Canada we had to buy the u/w case from Canon Canada so it cost as much as the camera.
I not sure that a 10 mp vs the 630's 8 mp is really noticeable.
The 640/630 u/w case is large and works well but will not accept different lenses

Underwater I would not expect 100 pics + as the flash and the camera's lcd eat batteries. I would get ~1.5 dives on a set 4 AA rechargeable. I'm not sure how a single pair of AA would do on 60 minute dive?
The underwater setting, manual focus, diffuser over the flash worked great for me. Did not have a chance to try the white balance adjustment but didn't seem to need it.

I wouldn't change my rig but this was my first u/w setup

Cheers

 

[ca1badptc]

I also Just got my First underwater camera A710IS. Just went to a local pool and put 2lbs of soft weight in it. then lowered it in to the pool. I am glad to say no leaks. I Will be putting the Camera to the test on Wednesday in Grand Cayman. Going to be using 2650 mAh Energizers.

 

[hashbrown]

I'm not sure if it's the IS or my shooting technique, but I recently got the a710 and seems like I have fewer blurry pictures than my friends that don't have IS. For video, it definitely makes a difference.

Be sure to budget in some good rechargeables. I got a duracell 15min bundle (6AA, 2AAA) for $30. And in my external strobe and camera, seems to last just fine.

 

[gt3073b]

I got my wife the 710is instead of the 640 for 2 main reasons. The first and hardest to find difference is that the CCD on the 710is is larger than the 640 even though the 640 has more pixels on it. This difference is roughly equivalent to going with a larger format film with a lower ISO number. Since the sensor is larger, it doesn't have to have the sensitivity cranked to get a decent image in low light. Therefore the images are less noisy. Also, the image stabilizer allows the camera to use longer shutter times without blurring (within reason). There are a few websites that show side-by-side images pointing out the noise issues.

The extra pixels on the 640 would have been nice if the CCD was larger. After seeing the side-by-side images, we felt the 710is was a better deal. We've taken about 200 shots with it and absolutely love it.

 

[Tom Winters]

You could also just get another A70 off Ebay. I upgraded to an A620 in an Ikelite case, but I still keep the A70 in the Canon housing handy.

 

[dhokens]

gt3073b, You have it backwards on the CCD sizes between the A710IS and the A640/A630. The A710IS has a 1/2.5" (5.760mm x 4.290mm) CCD and the A640/A630 have a 1/1.8" (7.176mm x 5.319mm) CCD. An explanation of the whole screwy sensor size designations used can be found here: http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/sensor_sizes_01.htm

I can't comment on the noise issues or comparisons as I haven't checked them out. I just wanted to clarify the CCD size on these cameras.

 

[gt3073b]

Dhokens,

Thanks for setting the record straight. I'm not sure how I got that backwards, but I did see some convincing noise comparisons between the two. I'll try and find a reference and post the link.