The Canon PowerShot A630 has an 8 megapixel resolution sensor with a 4x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 35-140mm on a 35mm camera) and has good high ISO performance. The start-up time is 1.3 seconds, the pre-focus shutter lag (half press to full press of the shutter button) is less than 0.05 seconds, and the full-press shutter lag (without pre-focusing) is around 0.6 seconds. In the Continuous Shooting Mode, the camera can take 1.8 pictures/second until the memory card fills up. It also has an optical viewfinder (useful for tracking subjects in real-time), Swivel LCD (like that on camcorders), Manual Modes (Aperture/Shutter Priority, etc.) and runs on four AA Batteries. The battery life is around 500 shots/charge. It supports wide-angle and tele-photo conversion lenses (available separately as accessories).

The camera received high praises from Steve’s Digicams & Digital Photography Review (popular camera review sites).

The Lumix DMC-LZ7 is the latest big zoom budget offering (1.3” thick) from Panasonic. This camera has a 7 megapixel resolution sensor and a 6x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 37-222mm on a 35mm camera). The camera has an Image Stabilization feature to help avoid blurry pictures because of camera shake. The camera is powered by 2 AA Batteries. First-Impressions and user opinions of the camera have been good. The shot-to-shot speed is around 1.5 seconds. Its predecessor, the LZ5 that has the same lens but less resolution (6MP), received good editors’ reviews (e.g. at Imaging-Resource).