Canon PowerShot S90: The Photographer's P&S

[Jeremy Z]

My S90 just arrived yesterday. I spent a couple hours going through all the capabilities, and here are the main points that led me to make the claim in this thread's title:

- 10 MP: enough for enlargements, but not so big as to be super noisy at higher ISO sensitivity settings.

- 28-105 equiv. zoom: A proper wide angle, and a short but useful telephoto

- Full manual control capability with two programmable dials: It isn't always necessary to dig in menus

- Lens is f/2.0 max. aperture at 28mm, and 4.9 at 105mm. It is optically stabilized. There is very little reason to use flash indoors. Hand-holding shots at 1/6 sec. shutter speeds is fine.

- Shoots in RAW

- For the Mac users, the RAW format is supported by iPhoto. I installed the Canon software, but haven't tried it yet.

Here's the top deck. The middle button opens a quick button to program the function assigned to the dial around the lens. I leave it on exposure compensation:

Here's the front view. The flash pops up from the left top side. Some folks will have to get used to not using the pinch hold if they're going to let the flash pop up automatically. You can also see the click-stopped control ring around the lens:

Here's the rear view. The LCD is beautiful and is 3" diagonally. No optical viewfinder, but I don't miss it on a point & shoot. If you look closely, you can see the control ring around the main set of function buttons. This one rotates smoothly instead of having click stops. It can also be pushed down directionally. I have this ring programmed to change ISO sensitivity. There isn't a huge area in which to put my thumb, but it goes under the mode wheel easily enough, and I didn't find myself accidentally changing settings.

Lastly, here's a sample shot of our dining room lamp. This was shot at ISO 400, 1/10 sec., f/4.9 (maximum) at full 105mm zoom. The lamp is not very bright, hehehe. I didn't even see the spider web until I took this pic.

Yesterday night, I just ordered a Lowepro Apex 20 AW case for it from amazon.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000L45DRA/ref=oss_product]Amazon.com: Lowepro Apex 20 AW (Black): Camera & Photo[/ame]

I also ordered two Lenmar brand spare batteries.

Video fans will lament the lack of HD video capabilities, but that is a limitation of this camera's sensor. (the same sensor used by the Canon G11) The sensor is larger than the typical point & shoot's sensor, for less noise.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm taking this to Europe next month instead of my SLR. I think it is going to work out very well.

I'll add more to this as I go and use the camera more.

 

[usayit]

Congrats. It will work out well... Enjoy Europe!! (I'm jealous)

I'd seriously consider bringing along a flash (optical slave) which should add to the enjoyment with little extra space/weight.

My LX3 sees daily use.... simply because if its size (well.. and having to lug around stuff for my 3 year old. lol).

 

[Jeremy Z]

Haha, traded the camera bag for a diaper bag. My time will come.

I thought hard about the LX3. The 24mm Leica lens was very tempting, but 60mm on the other end and the larger size was what did it for me. Some compromises have to be made for that optical quality in a compact lens.

Well, if you're ever coming to my neck of the woods, drop me a line. We'll go downtown Chicago and maybe do some street shooting. We'll swap cameras for a bit. (Same holds true for anyone else in or passing through Chicagoland)

 

[Big Mike]

Interesting, thanks for the review.

So how does this compare to the G11, besides having the same sensor? I notice that it doesn't have a hot shoe, which is fine if you know you won't need it.

 

[JimmyO]

Good stuff, ive always been impressed with Canon P&S's

 

[Jeremy Z]

Interesting, thanks for the review.

So how does this compare to the G11, besides having the same sensor? I notice that it doesn't have a hot shoe, which is fine if you know you won't need it.

It has all the same capabilities, its just that with the G11, there's more direct-access dials instead of menus. The G11 has a 28-140 lens, which, at 140 is the same maximum aperture as the S90s at 105.

You're right, no hot shoe. But this camera is not really about flash. It is about not needing a flash.

Around here, it seems like folks carry their SLRs everywhere. Maybe it's just because I'm honeymooning, but I know I will carry this a lot more often than my SLR.

I thought about the G11 too, as it was only $50 more than this one. But then I figured if I'm going to carry a camera as big as a G11, I may as well just carry the SLR. As soon as I take some more pix worth posting, I will.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Took the S90 with me while I was walking the dog yesterday and took a few shots. I love the image stabilizer; don't know how I went so long without it.

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[gsgary]

It's not a camera i could use,no veiw finder, if i want to travel light i use my Leica 111

 

[cfusionpm]

I've honestly never used a viewfinder in a P&S. Despite not showing live updated data on exposure, it's not an accurate representation of what you're framing. But I rarely use my P&S anyway.

 

[FrankLamont]

A viewfinder in a P&S is honestly pathetic anyway...

I would say the G11 probably claims this, being 10MP (now reduced from G10's 12) as well, and with the hotshoe and simply awesome wheels, but... for portability's sake - the point of a point-and-shoot - the S90.

 

[Jeremy Z]

More pix here:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-sharing-some-vacation-pix-krakow-poland.html

 

[whoopingchow]

Beautiful photos!

I know you were deciding between the LX3 and the S90, and you went with the S90. Did you ever use the 3.8x zoom on your S90, or did you ever find yourself wishing you had the 24mm lenses?

 

[Jeremy Z]

Yes, I use the "105mm" zoom all the time. I have also missed the 24mm on occasion, but I think I made the right choice. Small size was also paramount, and the LX3 is considerably larger than the S90.

Once it gets larger than I would consider "pocket sized" I have to think whether I wouldn't just rather have the SLR.

 

[Fedaykin]

I would pick this over the G11 only if it had a viewfinder and better controls.

 

[Jeremy Z]

I would pick this over the G11 only if it had a viewfinder and better controls.

I was concerned with the lack of an optical viewfinder too. But all the reviews on Amazon & dpreview convinced me that it is not an issue. I never had the LCD brightness above 50%, but never had a problem seeing it outside. Also, the framing is MUCH more accurate with the LCD. I bought my previous Canon SD600 Elph because it had an optical viewfinder. It was much better in theory than it was in practice. Every time I shot with it, I got about 20% more around the edges than I bargained for. (it was inaccurate)

Regarding the controls, it is a trade-off. The G11 has dedicated control knobs for certain things. It is very nice. The S90 though, has two programmable analog dials and one programmable button. I don't find myself going into menus that often. The extra 35mm worth of telephoto zoom would have been handy a couple times. You can see in some of the photos in the other thread that I had zoom all the way in, at full resolution, and just crop later. (the Blue Madonna and the arm)

To me, the main advantage of the G11 is that the lens stays close to f/2.8 across its entire range, whereas the S90 is f/2 at 28mm, but quickly gets slower until it is only f/4.9 at 105mm. However, I did shoot an awful lot of photos inside dimly lit churches at 28mm and f/2, so maybe Canon knew what they were doing...

I thought about getting a G11 just for fun some day, (they're more fun to play with and hold) but I think the money would be better put towards a proper wide angle zoom [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Pentax-12-24mm-Lens-Samsung-Digital/dp/B000B8AF9W/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1F8A59CWL6D0G&colid=28I78N2NAL6TG]Pentax 12-24mm lens[/ame] for the SLR.