Canon PowerShot A590IS 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
by Canon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon PowerShot A590IS 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Customer Review: Fantastic Camera
Summary: 5 Stars
Canon PowerShot A590IS 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
My one Daughter lost her camera, so I gave her my two year old Kodak point and shoot camera and hit the Internet to find me a replacement for that one. After spending several hours looking and reading reviews, I picked the Cannon A590IS. The things I liked about the camera when I first saw it, was the shape. I don't like those real small flat ones. They are great to stick in your shirt pocket, but are hard to hold steady and shoot. This one had a nice handle like grip where the batteries fit in and you can hold it and shoot with one hand if you want to. It's still small enough to fit into a coat pocket, purse and pants pocket. It had great reviews and the price was great.I sure wasn't disappointed when I got it and got a chance to use it. It was everything people were saying it was. Easy to figure out, took great pictures and had a good zoom.
I wanted a camera that used AA batteries, which you can find anywhere if your batteries die on you. The Cannon had that too. But it had something my Kodak didn't have and that was a view finder. Not many cameras have a view finder anymore. It really comes in handy when the sun is bright and washes out your LCD screen.But I soon discovered another great use for it. The view finder can stretch the life of your batteries a long way. On many shots, I turn the screen off and shoot using the view finder. The screen will light up for a second or two and show me what I shot and turn off again. That really is a great battery saver if used and would take care of most of the complaints about this camera.
There are so many features on this camera, both automatic and adjustable that it's hard to believe it sells for so little. It should satisfy the needs of about anyone, novice or skilled camera user.
A good safety feature you can use, is when putting your camera away, put the switch in (review) mode and not in (shoot)mode. That way if it accidentally gets turned on, the lens won't open up and push against what ever you put it in with and mess up the lens.
I liked this camera so much, I just ordered two more. One for my other Daughter and one for my Son. They should get them this week and I'm sure they will love it as much as I do.
If your looking for a good point and shoot camera with most of the bells and whistles on it and small enough to put in your pocket, but big enough to get a good grip on it, you can't go wrong with this camera. You will love this Cannon.
Customer Review: Ho! Ho! Ho!
Summary: 5 Stars
On the advice of the MIS Honcho at work, because he's so smart most people don't understand what he's saying half the time even though he's speaking English, I decided to abandon my Nikon Coolpix 2100, 2.0 megapixel camera in favor of this model. The spotlight review pushed me over the edge too, and unlike him, I know next to nothing more complicated than a P-38 can opener. (See my review.)
This camera comes with a 79-page software starter guide. (If you go beyond that it will be upside down and in Spanish.) Like a car owner's manual, it will be in my drawer for the next several years, largely unread. It also comes with a 199-page user guide, which like my car owner's manual will be in my drawer for the next several years, largely unread. There is another one that says Guia del usuario del la camera. (I might have a harder time with that one--that is 208 pages.) There is a solution disk. (That word sounds hopeful.) There are two, AA batteries and a puny 32 mb memory card included that might see me through Christmas Day, but I won't take the chance. (I'll replace that with a 4 GB card from Kingston at $8.99 including shipping.) Besides cables whose use I understand about as much as I would a Hindu chant, it comes with a neat little neck strap which I am sure to lose in record time.
I ordered this yesterday, regular shipping, through J & R World where smart New Yorkers shop, which might explain why I got it here today, or just because I live in the same city. It's one of the many discount stores that seems to survive when others go under, and the price was $100 less than the ancient Nikon I thought was such a deal five years ago.
I usually think of products like these using a Blanchard/Hersey Leadership Model. S1 is Ho-No; S2 is Ho-Hum; S3 is Ho-Kay, and S4 is Ho-Ho. This is very Ho-Ho, which is also appropriate for the season. I will try and take a picture of my Christmas tree with it, and post it, before my great nephews and great niece destroy it this Sunday.
Floyd also advised me to spend even more money on better batteries and a recharger that tells you when your batteries are fully charged, and stops charging them, thus saving battery life. (Put a suction attachment to my pockets, will ya?!)
I will add more to this review as time and experience permits.
Merry Christmas!
P. S. On December 11, 2008, The New York Times published an article of the "Best Bets in Cameras for $300 or Less" in their Business section. The Canon Powershot SD880IS "towers above the rest," they said.
Customer Review: Worth the extra $30 over the A570is with mostly same or better features
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros:
The A590IS is the best point and shoot under $200 today (closer to $155 most places). I own an SD600 and my wife, friend, and father (all different people mind you!) own A570IS's. The A590IS is the new version of the A570IS, 2007's best selling camera. Generally, see the rave reviews of the A570IS if you want to know the major pros and cons (in summary: Image Stabilization is amazing, noise is limited, features of all there including manual controls [though no auto-bracketing which no other cameras at this price point have regardless], final picture quality is superior to all other brands at this price point and type, [i.e., point-and-shoot], good size). Rather, here I'll address the main improvements over the A570IS (which is about $30 cheaper):
(1) The A590IS has 8mp vs. 7mp on the A570IS (negligible difference)
(2) The A590IS is slightly faster between non-flash shots BUT slightly SLOWER before the first shot can be taken and slower between shots where flash is used (less than .5 second difference according to CNet)
(3) It's charcoal/gray - minor change from silver, but I like it a lot.
(4) It's "rounder" on the edges but no less stable in your hand, neither camera is too slippery like other overly polished cameras (also, no finger smudges as a result).
(5) There is sometimes increased noise with higher MP cameras, this is NOT the case here - noise levels are similar.
(6) there are some minor additional shooting modes and improvements to other shooting
Cons:
The only change that is not an improvement is the lowering of the frames per second in the video mode.
A570IS: 640x480 = 30fps --- 320x240 = 60fps
A590IS: 640x480 = 20fps --- 320x240 = 30fps
Frankly, this is a bummer and cannon should correct it with firmware ASAP; however, the lower FPS is still quiet good, but this was a pointless change that is not appreciated -- the reality is that most people don't use video often and those who do will see a minimal difference ... if you're paying that much attention to the video you may be more interested in a different camera or a video camera.
Conclusion:
This will be the best selling camera of 2008 and it's a VERY safe purchase you won't regret (unless it gives you such a new found love for photography that suddenly you wish you had a Canon S5 or G7 ... which are more than twice as expensive!).
Customer Review: Great value for the money
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll leave the detailed feature reviews for those who have the time to write for free, but this camera is a great value for the money. It has aperture priority and shutter speed priority settings, as well as a host of scene modes that shift the white balance to the lighting for various scenes. There's even an aquarium mode, which I've tested and found to be very useful.
There are so many features that one might feel overwhelmed, but you can start taking pictures immediately with the easy mode or the auto mode and let the camera take care of things for you. You can disable flash in all modes, so if you are using easy mode in a museum where you aren't permitted to take flash pictures, you can turn it off.
Battery life is much better than the last camera I had (a Fuji Finepix 1300), and it takes 1/2 as many batteries (2 versus 4) also. I use the Duracell 2650 ma/hr rechargeable NiMH batteries, the highest capacity I could find locally, and keep 2 spares freshly charged. I haven't tried this camera on alkaline batteries but I would expect shorter battery life, though probably better than in most cameras.
Zoom works well. It stops at 4x optical when you zoom but it can go further with digital zoom (with some picture degradation, of course), up to 16x. I like the fact that it stops you from going beyond the maximum optical zoom before you enter the digital zoom, and beyond 4x it changes the magnification factor number to blue characters, so 5.5x would be blue, to warn you that you are beyond the optical zoom's capabilities. It's easy to mute the camera when you turn it on if you need to be quiet when you take a snapshot, as in some nature photography. You just have to hold one button on while you turn the camera on and it puts it in mute mode so the camera doesn't beep every time you push a button to change some setting.
Great camera, great price at $109, and you can find it in the Amazon Marketplace for about $10 less right now from Adorama Camera as a refurbished unit if you don't mind that. I would have bought one of those refurbs from them but at the time there were none for sale below $109 anywhere else.
If you need more features and greater zoom range, consider the 10x model, but this one got the greatest overall reviews everywhere (not just on Amazon) and that was a major decider for me.
Customer Review: A nice point and shoot
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros: Compact:fits in pocket; Uses standard AA batteries; viewfinder; Image Stabilized; Good sharpness; Ability to control exposure; comfortable in hand; price
Cons: Slow flash recycle; battery life may be so-so
As an advanced amateur I wanted a point and shoot camera that I could keep with me that was compact yet allowed me to control the exposure if I wanted to. My DSLR is just to bulky to carry with me and too expensive to just leave laying around. This camera meets my needs perfectly as it is compact and is one of the few Canon point and shoots that allows you to control exposure by aperture, shutter speed or manually. This is handy when in difficult light situations, portraiture, and especially in landscape shooting. Although the ability to use a histogram (a graph that tells you about the details of exposure) may not be used by many folks in everyday photography, it is available on this camera.
The viewfinder allows you to hold the camera up to your face instead of having use the LCD screen by holding the camera away from you. This allows you to hold the camera steadier and makes it easier to use the zoom controls. I find it unbelievable that so few point and shoots have this what I consider to be necessary feature. The view finder adjusts as you zoom the lens so you can see what you are shooting.
When you have too many megapixels in a small camera, you really don't gain anything useful, but you do loose picture quality, especially color quality. This camera is just about right in that you should be able to make about a 16x20 inch print (or do some cropping)while still have good sharpness and quality. The picture, compared to the 10 or more megapixel cameras, has bright colors and good sharpness.
The shape has a nice feel to it and it fits in my hand nicely. The controls are easy to get to and the menus are fairly intuitive.
Since I carry it in my brief case, I first used it at an office party and the pictures came out great. The 8X10 group portrait was sharp with good colors and contrast. Canon makes a great camera and this one is no exception. What I don't understand is why it is so inexpensive compared with others in its class, yet has so many features. I strongly recommend it for the person looking for a good point and shoot.
Enjoy it and take some good pictures.