Canon Powershot S90

Could this be Canon’s coolest PowerShot ever?

 We don’t want to lug a DSLR around with us on every outing, nor a bridge camera that won’t fit conveniently into a pocket. Enter Canon’s S90, heralded by its manufacturer as ‘the return of the pocket powerhouse’ and coming four years after the S80. Filling a hitherto unrealised gap between a bridge model and your humble snapshot, expectations of this little enthusiast camera are high.

First impressions are hopeful. It marries the solid feel of recent semipro compacts with a more user-friendly and accessible feature set. Most prominently featured is a fun-to-use lens ring, which can be attributed to a range of operational functions with a press of a top-mounted button, including manual focus and a stepped zoom.

The S90’s headline feature set is further expanded by a bright f2, 28mm wide-angle lens, image-stabilised 3.8x optical zoom, three-inch, 461k-dot LCD in the absence of its bigger brother’s additional optical viewfinder, plus quick-acting Digic 4 processor and exposure-enhancing iContrast function, the latter both now standard features across the Canon family. This is backed up by a choice of JPEG, RAW capture (the latter only selectable outside of Auto mode) or both together if so enabled via the camera’s menu, plus the fully automatic face detection, motion detection and scene detection technologies regularly found on Canon’s point-and-shoots, as is a side-mounted HDMI port. Bizarrely, then, video resolution is just 640 x 480 pixels with only digital zoom accessible once recording has commenced.

With a press of the Power button recessed into the top plate the S90’s lens extends from within the body to a maximum wide-angle setting, the rear LCD bursting into life with a brief musical and visual flourish. Though the screen image is clear and free from ghosting when panning indoors, despite the claimed high resolution it’s no match for the lifelike clarity of the likes of Panasonic’s new GF1. Still, a half press of the Shutter Release button and the S90 rapidly locks onto target, AF points highlighted in green.

It’s worth mentioning the very cool implementation of the flash, hidden when not in use and which, without a dedicated button, is activated via the settings on the rear Control pad/Scroll wheel. Rather than popping up, the bulb majestically rises from the body with a low mechanical noise, disappearing just as quickly afterwards.

Also supremely satisfying is the aforementioned control ring. Functions are attributed to this with a press of the Ring Function button, recessed into the top plate. From the on-screen toolbar, users can elect to determine focus manually, a distance slider appearing on the right-hand side of the LCD and the central portion of the image enlarged as an aid to accuracy.

If opting for the new Nostalgic effect mode hidden within the scene mode options, a progressive twist of the lens ring will desaturate the colours to

give the effect of ageing, a full twist rendering the shot black and white.

In terms of overall image performance the S90 impresses, if compared against a snapshot or bridge camera rather than a DSLR. Selecting iContrast in strong sunlight gave definition and depth to a shot that could be left looking a little hazy if the camera was left to its own devices.

A lens letting in plenty of light and a sensor not overburdened with pixels also meant that we were able to shoot interior shots handheld without the use of flash and largely avoid softness from camera shake. Moving through the ISO range also finds impressive results at higher settings. At ISO 1600 noise is minimal and at ISO 3200 results would still give images taken at ISO 800 on lesser compacts a run for their money.

The S90 is the rarest of breeds: a camera so fun to use that we don’t want to give it back, but this enjoyment does come at a cost.

Final Verdict When viewed as the only pocket compact you may ever need purchase, the admittedly pricey S90 makes more sense OVERALL

Having trained as a journalist and written about photography since the ‘dawn of digital’ (1998), Gavin’s career has encompassed being deputy editor and editor of more photo titles than he’d care to remember before packing his bags and going freelance in 2004.