Canon PowerShot A590 IS
The Best Digital Camera US$ 250
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The LCD’s resolution of 115,000 pixels isn’t great, but this is an entry-level camera after all. There’s a regular auto mode (with limited menu access), as well as numerous scene modes, too.
Camera performance is very good.
The PowerShot A590 is ready to shoot after a 1.2 second delay — pretty snappy. Focus speeds were very good, even in low light situations. The camera can shoot continuously at 1.5 frames/second until your (high speed) memory card is full. The camera supports the USB 2.0 High Speed standard, for fast data transfer to a Mac or PC.
Photo quality was excellent, in most situations. Like most of Canon’s cameras, images have a “smooth” appearance, while still retaining sharpness. In normal lighting, noise isn’t a problem until you pass ISO 400, though noise reduction creeps in sooner (but stays relatively low). Purple fringing wasn’t a major problem, nor was redeye, as the camera removes it automatically.
The only people that I’d caution are those who take a lot of movies or long exposures — you might want to find a camera with a 30 fps frame rate and better low light noise performance (respectively) instead.
Benefit :
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Excellent photo quality in good light
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Slightly more zoom power than typical cameras in this class
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Optical image stabilization
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Snappy performance
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Very good low light focusing and LCD visibility
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Full manual controls, plus plenty of scene modes
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Redeye not a problem, thanks to auto redeye removal tool
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Well-implemented face detection feature
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Supports conversion lenses
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Above average battery life using just two AA batteries
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USB 2.0 High Speed support
Weakness:
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Low light photos have too much noise and noise reduction artifacting
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Movie mode frame rate has dropped to 20 fps since previous model
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Low LCD resolution
- Zoom setting not shown on LCD
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Flash a little slow to charge
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Plastic tripod mount
By Jeff Keller
