Canon PowerShot A590IS 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (OLD MODEL)

Never thought i'd be so happy having this camera. With $100 tag, i was never expect this such of quality, features and ability. I was actually waiting for my decision whether getting G10, LX3, or SD990 (more compact) .. all of those has manuals to control. Then i heard that Fuji has new sensor coming, and so the waiting process extended (cos i need camera good for concert : low light, and i'm curious of what fuji would bring to the table this time). I know that i'm not gonna make any decision in this few months and so i purchased this hundred bucks camera cos it has manuals.And i was very happy i bought this one as a tweener as i need to have smaller camera at the moment (i have sony dsc-h5 which i love so much but cannot slip to my pocket), and believe it or not it fits my skinny jeans pocket, just need a little extra slip then it's good (though it will make a little bump on your pocket more than smaller compact, but still fits comfortably as long as you don't sit with it inside your pocket).The manual control is amazing in this camera. You can control aperture shutter, exposure, flash level (i love this one!), and manual focus (and this one also). Amazingly, the pics i took with this camera looks really great .. not great great but .. REALLY GREAT! I've had SD1000 before and the pics looked horrible! Noise and unacceptable noise in every inch of the pictures when i crop it 100%, grainy and it doesn't have ability of taking pic indoor (at least that's my experience .. on lots of occasions, enough for me to give conclusion that it's more like a toy, anyway i loved the shape a lot!).Never liked the shape of A series until now, it feels more secure in my hand, and it's not as big as i was expected (in a good way), i still consider it small (look at G9 or A650, now that's big! .. for pocket) and some people complains about battery life, i don't have that problem since i charge my eneloop batteries right.Cos :- Constructions, plastic all around. I bet that's why canon made this very affordable, yet the quality of the camera exceeds other compacts in it's class (our advantage in my opinion, to fight the price), though i'd prefer rugged material for me i have no problem, since i found the plastic body is quite cute and pretty as long as you don't let it fall. Not a problem.- Video quality is to be honest .. ugly (20fps)! Mic is pretty good except the picture .. even only play it on my computer. Then when i plug it to my hdtv and tube tv .. DISASTER! don't expect any quality video out of this camera. But since i'm not into video anyway so .. Not a problem- Slow flash recycle when you set it on full/strongest level. But i'm using manual setting, and set the flash output to the lowest most of the time, so the recycle time is not that slow (about 2 or 3 seconds total after each snaps, and remember .. that after each snap we will have a preview of what we just took, so for me, i didn't feel like i was waiting). But if you're into action picture with flash, don't complain .. just don't buy this camera cos this camera is fully loaded for it's price! I see the reason people had a it very very slow because most of them are using Auto mode, which is using the max flash output most of the time, causing the flash recycle to be very slow, i mean REALLY SLOW like about 10 seconds total including preview. While the medium takes about 5 seconds total (hey i just counted it by my sense, didn't do the exact timing with stop watch, sorry if i'm not that accurate, that's why i typed : ..about)- Auto mode is horrible! get ready to be washed out by the flash and very often set to high ISO automatically. But i found out that the easy mode works way better for this purpose. So take easy mode instead i you need to take a quick snap.- I wish this one has the famous canon's color accent, but it's doesn't !Now this one is a problem for me cos i loved it, shoot!- LCD resolution is a little low. Not that good. It's become a problem for me sometimes since i use manual focus very often, so it's a bit difficult to see whether it's focused or not cos the pic on LCD isn't sharp and that clear (doesn't affect the result at all if you got it right, it's just the LCD). A little bugger on this one.Well overall i am very very happy to have this camera. Heck ! for 100 bucks i buried all the cons far away of my thoughts cos the pros outweighs everything. Glad i didn't get other budget class camera, cos though it's the same price range (under $200) it's gonna be lower class instead of this one.Oh yeah, i've always put something in front of the flash as a diffuser so i don't have a harsh flash light (but this camera has great flash anyway, you'll be okay without anything, just set the level and watch for the distance) i even stick the toilet paper (this one was the best) on the clear tape and stick it on the flash. But now i have a better and dedicated flash diffuser for point and shoot camera that spreads out the light evenly and nicely without giving a harsh spot flash light causing the washed out picture. Especially for portrait pics. I have attached some pictures of it, so check it out!Now i can see what's the hype about canon's. But as long as you able to control your camera of what it could brings to the picture and not the other way around, any camera with a decent quality would be fine. Depends on what your needs, any brands has their good and bad ones (i love my SONY DSC-H5, but i hate my nikon P5100's pic quality). Don't let biased people become a judge to your decision.Give this cute little camera a chance, i bet you're gonna love of what you spend! Good luck!

I purchased this camera about 3 months ago from Amazon, which had the best price. I spent a bit of time learning about the features, trying them out, testing the camera, and finally, USING the camera.All in all I am mostly pleased with this camera. My previous digital camera was an Olympus D550 zoom, which took great pictures and was very easy to use. The Canon camera is also easy to use, if you want to keep it in AUTO mode, which I often do. If you want to use a different mode or change one of the settings, there are so many different combinations and possibilities that I find it can be a bit overwhelming. I think I just need to get used to it more. I thought I was pretty proficient with it at first, but if I don't use it frequently and consistently, I tend to forget which menu the feature I'm looking for is on.One thing I really like about this camera is the feel of it in my hands. I was torn between one of the smaller Camera SD models and this one, but the A590 felt so good and comfortable in my hand, I figured it would be easier to hold it steady. (My sister has a Canon SD camera and it is so small, her pictures often come out blurry because she has difficulty holding it steady when she takes a shot.) My old Olympus was much bigger than either camera, so I figured the A590 would be an improvement over it and I shouldn't worry so much about the size. I also liked the idea of having it use AA batteries, vs. the Canon rechargable one in the smaller cameras. (While on vacation, my sister would go to take a picture and lament that her battery needed charging. With AA batteries, if you run out of power, just go buy more.)I am pleased with the photos I have taken so far, for the most part. It does not do well outdoors at dusk, but my Olympus didn't, either, and I suspect more savy users would know what to set to make these kinds of photos come out better. One thing I noticed in a lot of my photos is that if there is a lamp or light near the subject, or if the subject is near a window letting in bright light, you'll get a bright, overexposed area in the photo. I never noticed this problem with my Olympus, and friends/relatives who have taken shots of the same subject with their cameras did not have this problem. For this reason I am taking away one star.One thing I was concerned about after reading a lot of the reviews here was bettery life. I preferred a camera that ran on AA batteries, but not if it was going to eat up batteries. My Olympus ran on 4 AA batteries, so I bought rechargeable ones. The A590 only uses 2 AA batteries, so I figured I'd be changing batteries often. Not so! I started off using the 2 Panasonic batteries that came with the camera. I figured I'd use them up just playing with the camera. I kept turning it on and off as I was reading the manual, trying the different menus and features. Surely they'd be dead in a couple of days. Nope. I took many test shots in different lighting, with different settings, and downloaded them to my laptop. Still the batteries continued working. I took a LOT of photos at my and my husband's anniversary party, when all our relatives came in from out of town, but still the batteries lasted. Then I took the camera on a trip and took many more photos, then a couple of birthdays, then my son's college apartment and STILL the batteries lasted. (I must've taken over 100 photos, not to mention my training sessions). It's been a month since I've used the camera and just now I noticed the low battery warning is coming on, so I replaced the Panasonics with 2 rechargeable batteries.I am happy with my purchase. When I compared photos that I took with my camera with the same photos my relatives took with their digital cameras, many of them much more expensive than my A590, I generally preferred my photos, and at the very least my photos were equally as good. As I mentioned above, the only photos that weren't as good was when there was bright light from a window or lamp near (though not necessarily behind) the subject.UPDATE 12/15/08:The first time I reviewed this camera, I had only used it on a few occasions. I was pretty happy with it at the time. However, it's been six months and the more I use it, the unhappier I become with it. It's enough to make me consider buying a new, different camera. I wonder if it's too late to return it to Amazon.Yes it's easy to use and yes, it has a lot of nice features. But generally it doesn't take very good pictures. Some shots come out very nice - especially ones taken outdoors in full light. But there are too many problems with pictures taken if the light isn't just so. If there is a light on in the background, you get bright halos around the light source. If you use natural light on indoor shots, the colors look washed out. Even indoor shots taken with the flash look washed out.Then there's the problem with batteries. If I buy regular batteries, they seem to last pretty well. If I use chargeable batteries, I get about 2 or 3 shots before the low battery light comes on, and maybe 2 or 3 after that before they need to be replaced. Someone suggested that maybe the problem was with the batteries or my charger, but I didn't have this problem with my old camera, which used the same batteries/charger. The fact that regular batteries last much longer does give merit to this theory.I now give this camera 2.5 stars because of the so-so photos it takes, and the somewhat faded looking colors. If I had to do it again, I would buy a different camera.