I have been using the Canon PowerShot S90 for more than a month already. I must say that with its compact size and features, it is really a good compact camera for almost any situation. Although the price may put off some people, the features that it possesses are worth that amount.
The Overall Look and Feel
It is a very solid and compact 10 MegaPixels camera. It has a big 3-inch LCD screen (not a touch screen). At first look, you may think that it looks plain.
However, when you start to explore, you will realize that it has many features that you can really use. For example, it has a control ring that allows you to program it to zoom, adjust the camera.
If you explore further, you will see that it has a bright lens. The aperture range from 2.0 – 4.9. It is rare to have such big aperture for a compact camera. In fact, if you compare it with Canon’s higher end model, G11, it has a 2.8 – 4.5 aperture range. The optical zoom is not too bad at 3.8X.
If you probe further, you realized that the lens comes with image stabilizer. As you move along the side of the camera, you can see that it has a HMDI input and a Mini USB Port for audio/video out as well as data connection to the computer.
The battery compartment also stores the SD card.
The battery is very small with a capacity of 1000mAh. If you use it sparingly, it is actually quite lasting.
Power On and Features
This Canon PowerShot S90 has a fast power on to ready state. It mere seconds (1 to 2 secs), it is ready to take pictures. Other features that you may not notice is that it has a large CCD sensor (1/1.7″). For typical compact camera that I have seen, their sensors are usually 1/2.3″. Also, it has ISO range of 80 to 3200.
All the controls can be accessed from here (see picture below).
The Control Ring that I mentioned just now can be program using the Ring Func button on top of the camera. You can program it to control the ISO, EV +/- , Focus, White Balance and Zoom.
Sample Pictures
These pictures were resized to fit the screen of this blog. No other touch up were done on them.
Picture taken with Color Accent function
Picture taken with Color Accent function
Picture taken with Nostalgic function.
Here is a video taken using the 640 x 480 30fps settings. Do note that the video is compressed by Youtube during the uploading.
Summary
The compact size of this Canon PowerShot S90 allows you to bring it along to any occasions. Its high ISO range and big aperture of 2.0 allows it to be use in low light condition (without the flash).
It has many scenes that can extend the capability of this camera without using any image editor software. However, one of the lowdown of this camera is that it cannot auto-focus while taking video. This will not pose a big problem if taking pictures is your main purpose.
The Macro mode is good (at 5cm). However, it could be better if it can go closer to the subject.
Pros:
- Compact
- Good Features (scene mode, low light mode)
- Image Stabilizer
- Big Aperture
- High ISO range
- Good optical zoom
- Can shoot RAW
Cons:
- Short Battery life
- Macro Mode is not close enough
- No optical zoom during video taking
- No auto-focus during video taking
Overall, a value for money camera. No wonder Canon labeled it as a Blogger’s Camera.
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