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Canon Powershot S90 Review Summary
10 Megapixels
Stabilization: Compensates for tiny involuntary movements of the camera.
VGA Video: 640 x 480 or more but less than 1280 x 720.
Manual Controls: Both fully-manual (M) and semi-automatic modes (T and V).
Custom White-Balance: Specifies exactly what should be white to the camera.
Action Photography: Shutter speeds of 1/1500 or more.
Night Photography: Reaches shutter-speeds longer than 4 seconds.
Spot Metering
Accepts Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) and SD memory.
Neocamera detailed review
Discontinued: No longer produced by the manufacturer. May still be in stock or found used.Canon Powershot S90 Assessment
The Canon Powershot S90 is a unique ultra-compact to feature a full-range of manual controls including manual focusing, a bright stabilized wide-angle F2 lens and two control wheels for efficient controls. One control wheel is mounted around the 4-way control and the other is found around the lens. The behavior of the lens ring is highly customizable and can make the S90 the most efficient ultra-compact ever produced.
Clearly the S90 is built for the purpose of making digital photography enjoyable, but Canon did not forget about image quality either. The S90 is equipped with a larger 10 megapixels sensor than most ultra-compacts and performs remarkably well, with just the Fuji Finepix F-series generally performing better at the same ISO.
Choosing the S90 is easy. Even the G11 is considerably trumped by its lighter and slimsibling, particularly when considering that the G11's lens is a full-stop slower. This leaves the Fuji Finepix F200EXR, still the best fixed-lens camera in terms of image quality both because of its low noise sensor and extra dynamic range. Using the F200 though is far from being as efficient as the S90.
Neocamera detailed review Read the full Canon Powershot S90 review.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Better image noise than most ultra-compacts | Slightly below average speed of operation |
| Fast F2 wide-angle lens | Tendency to overexpose |
| Effective stabilization | Auto-focus not so fast |
| Generally good lens sharpness | Focus misses more frequent than average |
| Low optical distortion at telephoto | Slight edge softness and more corner softness |
| Good automatic white-balance | Noticeable distortion at wide-angle |
| Good color accuracy | Limited dynamic range |
| Very efficient interface | Short battery life |
| Highly customizable interface | Difficult to hold securely and to use with gloves |
| Good LCD details and visibility | Low-contrast display, prone to fingerprints |
 Excellent Excellent |
|
Recent Similar Cameras
Related Information
| Sister Models |
|---|
| Canon Powershot G11 - 5X zoom with one-stop slower lens, Heavier and bulkier, Hot-shoe |
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Canon S90 Facts
Compact digital camera| 10 Megapixels Fixed Lens | ISO 80-3200 |
| 3.8X Wide Optical Zoom | Shutter 1/1600-15s |
| Built-in Stabilization | Full manual controls, including Manual Focus |
| 0.9 FPS Drive, Unlimited Images | Custom white-balance with 2 axis fine-tuning |
| 640x480 @ 30 FPS Video Recording | Spot-Metering |
| 3" LCD 460K Pixels | Lithium-Ion |
| Secure Digital High Capacity |
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