Canon PowerShot A590 IS review

Canon PowerShot A590 IS Review

Reviewed by: Will Greenwald

Reviewed on: 14 March 2008

While noise remains extremely low from ISO 80 to 200, we did see some noise even at the camera's lowest sensitivity setting. Still, at these lower ISOs, pictures look very good for a camera of this price, and fine textures such as fabric and fur appear consistently crisp.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (low-contrast)

Shutter lag (high-contrast)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W130

1.4

1.8

1

0.4

Canon PowerShot A590 IS

2.3

1.8

0.7

0.5

Fujifilm FinePix F40fd

2.5

1.1

0.9

0.5

Samsung S850

2.1

2.1

1

0.5

Canon PowerShot A570 IS

1.8

1.8

1.3

0.6

Noise becomes prominent at ISO 400, though details still come through clearly. Like most compact cameras, the A590 IS produces significant grain at ISO 800 and its maximum of ISO 1,600, covering the picture and damaging details with a fuzzy sheen. Overall, the A590 IS produces very nice images and can even yield usable small prints at ISO 800, which is impressive for a camera of its class.

Conclusion
Whether you're just looking for an inexpensive, flexible camera or a secondary shooter for when you're not schlepping around your dSLR, the Canon PowerShot A590 IS is a great choice. Its high image quality, broad feature set and fast shutter help ensure that you'll get the shots you want, and that they'll look good. It's not the prettiest or slimmest camera on the market and it takes far too long to recycle the onboard flash, but this sub-£150 shooter will still generally serve you well. You'd be hard pressed to find better pictures for the price.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday