Canon A640 vs SX120 - question about focus

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JohnH

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Hi everyone. I had a Canon Powershot A640 for a while that worked wonderfully for what I used it for. I take a lot of close-up shots of action figures ranging from 4" to 12". The A640 had the "Flexizone" option that allowed me to designate one of nine areas to focus on. Worked great because I would generally focus on the face of the item.

My A640 started having some issues so I decided to get a new camera. The SX120 seemed like the logical choice - it appeared to have the options of the A640. Overall it's been OK and still takes good pics, but I'm having issues with the focus features. The SX120 has the "Face Detect", which quite frankly has been worthless. It rarely detects the face of the item I'm photographing and defaults to a center focus. The bigger problem is that I can't find a way to override the center focus.

I guess my question is two parts then:

1) Am I missing the option on the SX120 that allows me to move the point of focus the way the A640's Flexizone did?

2) If there is no way to select my own focus zone with the SX120, is there a camera out there that might better suit me? I get the colors just right with the Evaluative White Balance option and the Vivid color setting of the SX120 (and previously the A640) and don't want to lose that.

Sorry if these are stupid questions - I'm far from a camera expert. :) Thanks in advance for the help!

John
 
JohnH said:
..........The bigger problem is that I can't find a way to override the center focus.

I guess my question is two parts then:

1) Am I missing the option on the SX120 that allows me to move the point of focus the way the A640's Flexizone did?

2) If there is no way to select my own focus zone with the SX120, is there a camera out there that might better suit me? I get the colors just right with the Evaluative White Balance option and the Vivid color setting of the SX120 (and previously the A640) and don't want to lose that.

Sorry if these are stupid questions - I'm far from a camera expert. :) Thanks in advance for the help!

John
Click to expand...

1: no you cant. the sx120 has only 1point AF center focus.

2. if you only plan to do figure shoots, i 'm sure any entry level dslr will give you better options than a point and shoot. i collect figures and have a sx100is. i use the macro mode to shoot my figures.

for face detect you can press the [:-)] button besides the menu on the camera to select face.
 
6pack said:
1: no you cant. the sx120 has only 1point AF center focus.

2. if you only plan to do figure shoots, i 'm sure any entry level dslr will give you better options than a point and shoot. i collect figures and have a sx100is. i use the macro mode to shoot my figures.

for face detect you can press the [:-)] button besides the menu on the camera to select face.
Click to expand...

either select the face... or trick the camera...
get the face in the center, half-press the shutter release, and move the camera back down
 
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