We used the built-in lenses at their widest and longest focal lengths with the apertures wide open. The crops are taken from the upper left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.

In this particular test, the Canon A640 performed similarly to the Fujifilm F30 and Sony N2, with all three exhibiting roughly similar degrees of coloured fringing at their focal extremes; note the Panasonic TZ1 is impressively bereft of almost any fringing.

To measure and compare the Canon PowerShot A640’s macro performance we photographed a custom chart using it and a number of rival models with their bundled lenses.

Each camera was positioned at a distance and set to a focal length which delivered the maximum possible reproduction.

The dark lines are 10mm apart and the result is not cropped. Smaller areas are preferred in this test.

The image left was taken with the Canon PowerShot A640 in its Macro mode.

Switch the Canon A640 to its macro mode and you can focus as close as 1cm with the lens zoomed-out to wide angle. This allows it to capture areas as small as 24x18mm which is noticeably superior to any other compact we’ve tested. While there’s inevitably some geometric distortion at close range and also the risk of casting shadows on your subject, the A640 allows for some impressive close-up photography. See our Gallery for an example.