Canon PowerShot S90 Review
The Canon PowerShot S90 is exclusively made for photographers and it has a huge price for it. The controls are just amazing which is available on a compact camera for semi-manual and manual modes of shooting. It has a superb photo quality and a clear lens. The performance takes a backseat in the camera. The PowerShot looks flat and has its design in circular shape. The body is totally flat and has nothing to hold it for the purpose of a grip. Even the metal casing in black does not offer any support.
The camera’s fine design points feature in the wide angle f2-4.9 lens which is excellent and its two shooting modes. A Control Ring is present surrounding the lens which is used to adjust the changes in the focus, aperture, white balance, shutter speed, zoom, ISO or exposure compensation. The ring revolves when you firmly click and hence it’s simpler to choose the settings correctly which makes the camera fun and enjoyable to use.
A directional pad is available on the back panel which works mutually with the Ring to modify the settings in a quick manner. For almost all shooting modes, the camera by default goes to the exposure compensation mode. But, in Scene mode, the scene is altered from the one that you were using at present. The movement is very smooth resulting in changes that can occur accidentally. Other than that, the union of the two rings is magnificent and enables quick changes.
At the top, a small flash is present that retreats and shoots up when switched off and on. The camera is very compatible with Canon’s add-on flash unit. You can find small USB/AV and HDMI outputs hidden on the right side of the camera. The buttons are even with the camera’s body and all the accessories are held closely to each other, which is not adored by some users. There are totally 25 shooting modes present in the camera. Most of these are scene modes having some specialty, almost 17 of them and the others do not seem to be away from ordinary modes.
An ‘Auto mode’ is available which is very reliable and a smart feature in this camera. A ‘Low Light mode’ is also present which lowers the resolution of the camera from its original value to 1,824×1,368 pixels, that is 2.5 Mega pixels but provides a sensitivity of ISO 12,800. An extra mode called the ‘VGA quality movie mode’ is also present, so all those HD fans will be disappointed. Also, you cannot utilize the optical zoom option while recording.
The shooting modes that are remaining will help you gain control over more of your settings like Aperture priority, Custom, Program AE, Manual and Shutter priority. The ‘Custom’ mode allows you to assign a set of frequently used settings and shooting options to the C position on the dial of the mode. To do this, you have to register atleast 5 menu items that you commonly use in the “My Menu Tab” under the main menu.
The enhanced options available are focus bracketing and exposure bracketing that will capture a single photo in the position of manual focus and one at each preset positions farther and nearer, raw, raw plus JPEG capture or manual white balance correction. 45 shutter speeds are present starting from 15 sec to 1,600th of a second along with 14 values of aperture from f2 to f8. A range of 17 ISO’s can be selected from ISO 80 to ISO 3,200. You can adjust to a great extent here and the control layout is fast and easy to use.
Performance is one of the weak points of this camera. The time it takes to switch on is 1.8 sec and it repeats for the second shot also, when shooting in JPEG of high quality. If the shooting is raw, then it’ll take 3.4 sec. If you are shooting continuously and saving the snaps, this takes place at the rate of 1 frame/second. The camera’ shutter is slow and hence requires 0.5 sec to focus the image/person and click the photo in bright light. Also, it takes 0.6 sec to perform the same in conditions of dim or faint light.
The photo quality is outstanding of the S90. But, ISO 400 is the limit for the camera beyond which images do not appear clearly. The click of the snap is very soft and its colors are vibrant upto ISO 1,600. The lens is sharp and smooth throughout the edges. The S90’s widest disposition at 28mm has barrel distortion in small traces. The zoom option is not great, with the capacity of 3.8x with a slight chromatic aberration and it is clearly seen in prints with resolution, 8×10 inches. The color quality is fantastic. The white balance and exposure are fairly good except the highlight clipping.
The controls, shooting and lens options are excellent for photo enthusiasts. The performance of the S90 is most suitable for landscapes, portraits and similar modes. It does not work well with fast movement of people/objects. Overall, it can be termed as a “Perfect Compact Camera” that can be used for daily purpose.
Related posts:
