Canon Powershot A590IS: Review

Canon Powershot A590IS: Reviews

Molly P.
I purchased this camera as an upgrade/companion to my Canon Powershot S2IS because I needed a smaller camera to carry in my purse, and the A590IS to be very similar to the S2 -- so I thought I wouldn't have to rely too heavily on the owner's manual to learn how to do everything (this has turned out to be mostly true). The A590IS is superior to the S2 in many ways. It's lighter. It's smaller (about 10% smaller in length and height, and half the size of the S2, depth-wise.) It uses 2 AA batteries instead of 4. It has 8 megapixels instead of 5. Best of all, it doesn't have a separate lens cap that likes to fall off all the time! (It has an automatic lens cover instead.) However, the optical zoom is considerably less on this one (4x instead of 12x) and it's a bit more difficult to take videos (you have to put the camera in video mode with the A590, whereas with the S2 you just had to press the record button.) One thing I really miss on the A590 is the rotateable LCD screen that the S2 had; but I guess if this camera had one of those, it couldn't be as small as it is!

One of the reasons I chose this particular camera, as opposed to selecting one of the many other, smaller cameras currently on the market, was that this camera has a viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen. Viewfinders on digital cameras are hard to come by anymore, but they are very useful if you're trying to take a picture when it's bright outside (making the LCD picture almost impossible to see.)

Overall, I am happy with the A590IS. I like the fact that it's small (by no means the smallest camera on the market, but small enough for my purse or even a coat pocket). I like that it can take good photos in many different conditions. I am most impressed with its ability to get good shots outside at night, even without the flash. I took a photo of some friends in front of a Ferris wheel at the fair. The sun had just set, so the sky was dark, and while there were lights around from the rides, the lighting conditions weren't ideal. The photo still came out beautiful and bright, with the lights from the Ferris wheel noticeable, yet my friends weren't washed out or too dark in the photo. I also took "experimental" shots of the different rides at the fair. Depending on which mode I used, I could either get a clean shot of a lit-up ride with the black sky in the background, or I could get an "artsy" shot (while the ride was moving) using a setting where the shutter was a bit slower.

A few cons: The battery life isn't anything to write home about; I had to change the batteries twice during a recent 5-day vacation (to compare, I only had to change the batteries once on a 10-day vacation with the S2 a few years ago.) Also, I still get blurry photos from time to time, for no apparent reason. The subject is still, my hands are steady, and yet photos can still turn out blurry. This can be kind of frustrating. This used to happen with the S2, too, though, so maybe it's just me.

If you want the smallest camera on the market, or one with the most megapixels or zoom capabilities, then the A590 may not be for you. If you want a camera that's kind of in the middle of everything (except picture quality), check this one out. For the amount of features it has and the quality of the photos, I think the price is good.
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Frank L. Morales
So allow me to start by saying i'm just your average "joe-user" who enjoys snapping photos while on vacations and out with friends. Recently i owned an Olympus Stylus 810 and was very, very pleased with it. Unfortunately i dropped it damaging the entire lens assembly and it was going to cost $140 to repair. With a week at the beach coming up i didn't have time to research a lot. On a friends recommendation i made this purchase.

Now my goals are to have a smaller sized camera that will allow nice point and shoot photography but has some manual (even minimal) controls as i do enjoy photography and if i decide to go further, i'll be familiar with the manual controls and such. So after getting this camera i did a few test runs to get it all working w/ my MacBook Pro laptop. Here's my experience thus far:

Install on Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard were both absolutely flawless. Software went right in, once connected downloading the images and viewing them was a one click event. The software bundled is actually quite nice. I no longer have iPhoto (thanks Leopard) so i was unsure what to use for basic photo management. Not to worry Canons bundled software, "ZoomBrowserEX" does a fantastic job of that.

Now as far as options go i'm by no means skilled in the realm of cameras, however from my limited experience i can say this camera packs quite a large array for such a small price tag. The auto modes work very well, not to mention having the ability to just pop it into "Manual" mode and tweak by hand! All it takes is 20-30min of reading on the internet and you can be messing with the settings and taking some great low light, artistic, etc... photographs. I also found it's quite easy to use single handed. A lot of times on my beach trip i was holding onto a rock to balance myself and only had my right hand available. Switching into say "Macro" mode is very simple. Same goes for things like zoom, flash, etc... overall very user friendly design.

Picture quality has been absolutely stunning! I truly did not expect it from a camera under $160. As with most "point and shoot" cameras when upping the ISO level to take dim light shots without a flash it does tend to get grainy. Although this camera does counter balance that a little, and does a good job, it's still noticeable. That's where the "Manual" mode came in for me. Being able to adjust shutter and aperture etc... really allowed me to take some exceptional low light shots that are not grainy at all.

So my overall impression is absolutely pleased! For the money i doubt you'd find a better camera with as many features that can produce the quality of photos this can. I was impressed to see how small it is in person and exactly just how well constructed it feels. Also the thing i loved is there's a huge wealth of accessories like extra lenses such as telephoto, macro, lens filters, etc... Amazon has a "kit" that looks like a fantastic deal that comes with most of those things including a tripod. That is definitely going to be my next purchase.

So if you're looking for a great camera that can "point and shoot" and has the manual controls if you think you may be interested in getting into photography, this is my recommendation hands down. I posted 11 photos in the "Customer Photos" section. Feel free to check them out to hopefully get an idea of what this camera can do with "default" settings, i was blown away. Lastly as i'm finding out photography is all about your "eye" and knowing enough about your hardware to capture what you "see." I'm not much for taking pictures of people i really enjoy closeups and different angles, so that's what i'm learning to capture with this camera. Hopefully my pictures will be a decent display of what this camera can do. Just remember if you don't like your photos it's probably not the cameras fault! There will never be a one stop solution, but overall this one is fantastic!