Superb mid level camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: Versatile unit with lots of bells and whistles for the price

Cons: Bulky, flash recycle times a bit long

The Bottom Line: 
Great point-and-shoot and simple to use but also gives the option to control nearly every advanced feature if desired.

Author's Review
Overview

This is an 8 megapixel unit with a 4x optical zoom. The camera uses AA batteries and uses SD cards for storage. It comes with a carrying strap.

Batteries

A particularly attractive feature of this camera is it's use of standard AA batteries. For me, this is critical. When I'm out and about I just slip in another pair of AA batteries, or buy some alkalines if I'm in a bind. Nothing beats the tried and true AA. A standard set of Nickel Metal Hydride batteries will get you 200-300 shots easily, or shoot about 30-60 minutes of video. On an average outing, I rarely have to change freshly charged batteries.


Flexibility

I personally think this unit should seriously be considered a very affordable alternative to a very low end DSLR. So if you are thinking about dabbling in photography and the price of even the lowest end DSLR is too much for you, this camera might be perfect way to get your feet wet without dropping 500+ dollars. The A590 will allow you to start fiddling around with aperature, exposure settings, and ISO settings.

Like previous Canon "A" models (of which I am a huge fan), this camera gives a myriad of configurable options not available in many digital cameras. In addition to the 'easy' and 'auto' modes which require almost no user input, there are the highly user configurable Aperture and Shutter priority modes, and a Program mode that allows you to configure everything possible to get the shot. There are also about half a dozen pre-configured specialty configurations for common pictures like portraits, landscapes, indoor, kids and pets, etc.

If you tinker with low light photography, long exposures, or want to take a picture in a less than ideal lighting situation, there is a good chance one this camera will let you manually set criteria to get the shot. I've used extended exposure (combined with custom ISO settings) times to grab shots of the last lunar eclipse with the help of a telescope, grabbed a shot of the International Space station, and I've taken some pretty neat lightning shots as well. I've also snapped some high speed roller coaster shots that required some custom settings to remove blur. ISO settings are configurable from 80 to 1600.

Despite this camera's versatility, don't expect perfection. You won't be taking crystal clear moonlit or candle-lit shots. And I do have some difficulty with some high action shots in less than lighting conditions. But I think you'll find this camera will beat the pants off most other point-and-clicks if you are willing to take the time to experiment with it.

Auto Focus

Auto focus is pretty smart. You get three options, Center, Face Detect, and Canon's AiAF (Artificial Intelligent Auto-Focus). The AiAF works well for most applications. In certain scenarios, if one of the AF modes can't clear things up for you, there is the option to manually focus. Manual focus works well for extreme close ups. I've taken shots as close as 2-3 cm away.

Shutter Lag

Shutter lag is hardly noticeable, especially when you pre-focus the shot. Obviously not the lightning fast times you'll see in a DSLR, but I couldn't detect any lag when taking shots that I pre-focused. I've read the actual figure from more professional reviews giving a figure of a tenth of a second for the A590. So, no more missing those cute smiles. I've find the camera is so fast, I'll usually snap 3-4 pictures in about 4 seconds, just to make sure I got the best possible smile from everyone. Time to power up is about 1-2 seconds. Not lightning fast, but acceptable.

Flash

Flash recycle times are a bit laggy, but that is not uncommon in 2 AA battery units from what I've read. If you are shooting a series of indoor portrait shots with the flash, you might get annoyed. The flash output has three settings, min, med, and max.

Image Stabilization

The image stabilization is a pretty neat feature. The IS feature of the camera is accomplished with a floating lens element and it's pretty good. The IS feature will clean up a lot of low light/no flash shots. They won't be crystal clear, but they clean them up to make them presentable.

Display

The 2.5 inch LCD display isn't anything to write home about, it is adequate and somewhat readable in direct sunlight. The camera comes with a zoomable viewfinder.

Video

The camera shoots pretty good video in three formats, 640x480 20fps, 640x480 20 fps LP, and 320x240 at 30 fps. You can get about 30 minutes of video on a 2GB flash card. It outputs mjpeg in an avi container.

Biggest problem with the video is image stabilization. The IS on the A590 is good, but it is not nearly as advanced as even lower level camcorders. Despite this, I've found myself far more willing to shoot casual video with this camera that dragging out my camcorder. Unfortunately it only captures 320x240 at 30 fps, if you do the captures at the higher resolution with 20 fps, the video isn't so great.

Look and Feel

Ergonomics on the camera are good. The AA battery compartment kind of functions like a handle. I personally don't like the ultra small toy cameras out there, it's hard to get your hand wrapped around them.

The buttons on this camera are good. The mode selection dial on the camera is stiff enough to prevent accidental turning when taking the camera in and out of a pocket or camera bag.

The battery compartment door is a bit tough to work with, replacing the batteries and SD card does take a bit of effort and it can be a big hassle if you are changing batteries in a non ideal situation.