Canon - PowerShot A590 Digital Camera Review

The college HP digital camera went belly up last year, so I replaced it this year (with a new budget approved) and got the Canon PowerShot A590.

My personal camera is the PowerShot A570, and I bought the same model for my Mom.

The PowerShots are all similar with upgrades on the pixels and zooms for new years. My A570 is 7.1 pixels while this new one is 8 pixels.

The only real difference with this new model from Canon is that the case is a dark color as you can see in the photo rather than the silver on earlier models. I say this is the only real difference, because I can't see any difference in the 7.1 pixels vs. the 8 pixels. In fact, I find the photos a little crisper on my old PowerShot.

The main reason I go with the PowerShots is that they are super easy to use. They have a stabalizer which is not built in on most less expensive point and shoot digital cameras. Yes. That does make a difference. While I'm really steady, many people are not (like my students using my camera and new one for the newspaper staff). This one has a little wiggle room so to speak. Blurry photos are rare other than in low light situations.

There are a variety of settings on the Canon PowerShot. They are easy to use (turn knob on top) though I think my students and my Mom mainly keep it in auto (green setting) and let the camera figure it out. That generally works fine. Sports (distance) and action photos can be a little tricky as can those in low light settings.

PowerShots will also take digital video though I prefer to use The Flip for those with the ease of use and simple editing software. I have made a few videos with the PowerShot, and they come out fine. Quality is close to The Flip. Editing is just more difficult.

This like most Canon cameras I've used does get red eyes from time to time. That's usually when the lighting is low.

This is not a high end SLR digital camera. I use one of those at work too for really crisp photos for publication. The quality is fine on the PowerShot for print, so the pixels are nice on this camera. For online, I like the PowerShot, since it's so easy to use. It's also small (though bigger than many point and shoot digitals). I keep one in my purse every day and take lots of pictures for the paper and for online. I liked the HP we had as well, but it did not hold up as well (maybe 2 years). This camera goes through a lot of hands, and it's sturdy. Mine is in perfect condition - even with sharing it around, and this new PowerShot is working great too.

If you want to go professional, then you'll want to look at SLR digital cameras. For home and general use, it would be hard to beat the PowerShot. It's very easy to use in auto, and you can get fancier with some of the settings.