Canon PowerShot S90IS 10MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD
Posted by admin | Posted in Canon Powershot | Posted on 19-10-2009-05-2008
5
- New 10-megapixel High Sensitivity System; DIGIC 4 Image Processor
- Improved low-light image performance, plus a Low Light scene mode for ISO settings up to 12,800
- Customizable control ring for easy access and operation of manual or other creative shooting settings
- Wide-angle 3.8x optical zoom with Canon’s Optical Image Stabilizer; bright f/2.0 lens
- RAW + JPEG shooting and recording modes; capture images to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
Product Description
Canon’s storied S Series gets a revitalized new leader in the slimmer, lighter, new PowerShot S90, the perfect everyday camera for people who are serious about great photography. Image quality is superb thanks to the new High Sensitivity System and higher ISO speeds, plus an exceptionally bright f/2.0 lens that makes portraits and low-light shots come to life. Photography enthusiasts will love the new control ring at the base of the lens barrel, designed for intuiti… More >>
Yes. Its a keeper. Easy to use, portable, some nice features, low light performance is amazing (tested ISO 400 and 800 mostly). Zoom is abit on a short side, but thats understandable. Love the front and rear rings and custom button. Waited a few years for this to come out. LX3 is also a great camera but zoom range and size killed it for me.
Rating: 5 / 5
Took this out with my girls for an afternoon at the park yesterday. The ability to carry this in your pocket so easily is soooooo awesome. The quality I’m seeing so far has been great. Haven’t read the manual yet, and haven’t come close to denting what this camera seems able to do. It won’t replace my DSLR, nor did I intend for it to, but having caught the photo bug, this is an awesome tool to be able to carry with you wherever you are so you won’t be caught saying, “man I wish I had my camera with me”.
This camera is not for those who want an all in one. It takes video, but not HD. There are cheaper cameras that can take nice shots. If you want the ability to shoot RAW though, and really enjoy still photography, and never want to be caught without your camera….buy this. By the time I’ve actually played with this enough to know what all it can do, my 5 stars will be 5 stars with emphasis.
Rating: 5 / 5
Yes. Its a keeper. Easy to use, portable, some nice features, low light performance is amazing (tested ISO 400 and 800 mostly). Zoom is abit on a short side, but thats understandable. Love the front and rear rings and custom button. Waited a few years for this to come out. LX3 is also a great camera but zoom range and size killed it for me.
Rating: 5 / 5
The S90 continues the Canon tradition of “S” series high quality cameras, featuring advanced creative controls, in a pleasing, pocketable, package.
Pros:
- Good build quality, feel, and ergonomics
- Small and lightweight
- Very fast startup and overall responsiveness
- Fast lens over a useful zoom range
- Extremely good low light performance for its class
- Full creative control over focus, aperture, shutter speed, sensitivity, and exposure
Cons:
- Modist battery life
- Modist flash range
- Quirky scene selection in Auto mode
- No “shift” in program mode
So for photographers looking for a pocket camera with much of the creative control of their DSLR, and (Compact) class leading responsiveness and low light performance, the S90 is definitely work looking at. It has many of the capabilities of its larger brother the G11 in a very small, pocketable package.
Rating: 5 / 5
My first impressions of the Canon S90 Compact Camera are quite good although I do have a few nits:
Some functions should be easier to set. For example, Canon requires you to go into the menus to format the SD card. I would prefer to do that with buttons like I can on a DSLR. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t set more functions in the custom menu (only five custom items can be set at one time.) It’s really easy to smudge the LCD because it takes up almost the entire camera back. And the manual setting of aperture is backwards. Canon set the lens dial to turn like you are looking at the camera, but it needs to be reversed because you are setting it from the back of the camera. It’s counter intuitive–and there’s no way to change the dial rotation to match what comes naturally.
Post processing tests show that the S90 takes RAW shots that easy to manipulate. The biggest drawback are with marginal photos (extremely underexposed, for example.) I can bring back mistakes in poorly executed shots taken with my DSLR. With the S90, however, the photos blow out and become surrealistic looking when I try to recover them. But in fairness, we are talking about shots that should really be greeted by the delete key.
I shot some low light photos at ISO 2000 and 3200. These are ridiculously high settings to demand of a digital camera. I was impressed! This camera handles noise extremely well. Sure, noise is there at high ISO settings. If you look closely enough you will see it, but it’s not objectionable.
The image quality and detail are quite good. Focusing, even in low light, is fast and on the mark. There is almost no delay from the time I press the shutter button to the time the camera takes the photo. The camera does well in write speed to the SD card as well. Plus, I love being able to manually set aperture and shutter speed without using menus. That’s a terrific feature! And I haven’t missed an optical viewfinder.
The Canon PowerShot S90 is a well designed, solid camera. The build quality is excellent. It’s small, but easy to handle. It has features that aren’t on my DSLR and is quite capable. All-in-all, a very good camera and well worth the money.
Rating: 5 / 5