I've been using a Canon A620 for the last year. Really enjoyed the camera, loved the manual controls and that it used AA batteries, but I dropped it and it became a hassle to keep the battery door shut without using tape. Since I don't have the money to get a DSLR. I went with another Canon, because of the AA batteries, controls, and additional lenses that can be attached. Picked up the camera last night, it came with a gig SD card for free, and ordered a lens package off eBay. Here are my first two shots, done macro style with no flash in my office. The image stabilization really helps the pictures. Can't wait to back these, the lenses, and a bunch of batteries in the bag I got thanks to this board's recommendations, and take it all to Disneyland! [This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
Enjoy it! It does allow you to take control manually so you can experiment with it! I'd like to hear your feelings on the noise though. My wife has a 530? and it seems to have excessive noise.
I did notice a fair amount of noise on my A620. Half was my fault, since I kept the ISO high on manual settings and normally forgot to change it when shooting. For some reason, the noise doesn't jump out to me as much, so I'm curious to see if I notice it anymore on the new camera.
