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| Brand: Canon
Category: Photography
List Price: $149.99
Buy New: $110.95
You Save: $39.04 (26%)
New (99)
Avg. Customer Rating:  295 reviews
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 4
Digital Zoom: 4
Connectivity: AV
Display Size: 2.5
Battery: aa size alkoline
Maximum Focal Length: 23.2
Minimum Focal Length: 5.8
Maximum Resolution: 8
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 3.7 x 1.6 x 2.5
MPN: A590IS
Model: A590IS
UPC: 013803089325
EAN: 0013803089325
Release Date: February 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not great, not bad May 19, 2008
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
I read reviews on quite a few cameras before purchasing this one, so I had high hopes that it would live up to my expectations. My usual camera of choice is a Canon digital SLR, but I wanted a small point-and-shoot digital for times when I can't carry my big camera around.
This camera is okay. The photos taken indoors with flash are often dark and a bit grainy, especially if the zoom is used at all. I'm rarely happy with the way my indoor shots turn out. It does best outdoors - those photos have much better color and brightness. However, in auto mode it does a poor job with moving objects - they always blur. I have to play around a bit with the other modes to see if I can get better action shots with it.
In summary, this camera isn't as good as I hoped, but it's better that having no camera at all.
 I'm Happy August 25, 2008
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I purchased this camera as an upgrade/companion to my Canon Powershot S2IS because I needed a smaller camera to carry in my purse, and the A590IS to be very similar to the S2 -- so I thought I wouldn't have to rely too heavily on the owner's manual to learn how to do everything (this has turned out to be mostly true). The A590IS is superior to the S2 in many ways. It's lighter. It's smaller (about 10% smaller in length and height, and half the size of the S2, depth-wise.) It uses 2 AA batteries instead of 4. It has 8 megapixels instead of 5. Best of all, it doesn't have a separate lens cap that likes to fall off all the time! (It has an automatic lens cover instead.) However, the optical zoom is considerably less on this one (4x instead of 12x) and it's a bit more difficult to take videos (you have to put the camera in video mode with the A590, whereas with the S2 you just had to press the record button.) One thing I really miss on the A590 is the rotateable LCD screen that the S2 had; but I guess if this camera had one of those, it couldn't be as small as it is!
One of the reasons I chose this particular camera, as opposed to selecting one of the many other, smaller cameras currently on the market, was that this camera has a viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen. Viewfinders on digital cameras are hard to come by anymore, but they are very useful if you're trying to take a picture when it's bright outside (making the LCD picture almost impossible to see.)
Overall, I am happy with the A590IS. I like the fact that it's small (by no means the smallest camera on the market, but small enough for my purse or even a coat pocket). I like that it can take good photos in many different conditions. I am most impressed with its ability to get good shots outside at night, even without the flash. I took a photo of some friends in front of a Ferris wheel at the fair. The sun had just set, so the sky was dark, and while there were lights around from the rides, the lighting conditions weren't ideal. The photo still came out beautiful and bright, with the lights from the Ferris wheel noticeable, yet my friends weren't washed out or too dark in the photo. I also took "experimental" shots of the different rides at the fair. Depending on which mode I used, I could either get a clean shot of a lit-up ride with the black sky in the background, or I could get an "artsy" shot (while the ride was moving) using a setting where the shutter was a bit slower.
A few cons: The battery life isn't anything to write home about; I had to change the batteries twice during a recent 5-day vacation (to compare, I only had to change the batteries once on a 10-day vacation with the S2 a few years ago.) Also, I still get blurry photos from time to time, for no apparent reason. The subject is still, my hands are steady, and yet photos can still turn out blurry. This can be kind of frustrating. This used to happen with the S2, too, though, so maybe it's just me.
If you want the smallest camera on the market, or one with the most megapixels or zoom capabilities, then the A590 may not be for you. If you want a camera that's kind of in the middle of everything (except picture quality), check this one out. For the amount of features it has and the quality of the photos, I think the price is good.
 point-and-click simplicity June 2, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
LOVE this camera! I'd never even held a digital camera in my hand before purchasing the 590IS in April '08 for a May Mediterranean cruise. This wonderful piece of technology produced amazing shots, many postcard-perfect. There are so many settings that I have yet to learn about but in the meantime, the "Auto" setting works just fine for me in any photo situation. No disappointments there. Great price, great product.
Canon Powershot A590IS July 2, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Fourth digital camera I've owned and one of the best. I'm not into a lot of gadgetry so I haven't used all the features but for a quick point and shoot it's a nice piece. Upgraded to 2GB SD memory card and that gives me plenty of space for over 500 photos even at the highest resolution.
Good Camera - Good snapshots July 22, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I bought this camera to take with me when my DLSR or my super zoom is just too heavy or too bulky to take along. The old saying is that the best camera for the job, is the camera you have!! I did not wish to spend a lot of money but wanted to still have image stablization, control over exposure and aperture, and decent image quality, all while using SD memory cards since I have many. This camera is a reasonable compromise. The images are acceptably crisp and can be made even sharper in post processing, the manual controls work great, and the size certainly allows me to put it into my pocket. If you are looking for a snapshot camera the Canon A590 can certainly produce the goods. I haven't found the slow recycle time of the flash to be a problem and and the rechargeable NiMH batteries I'm using are still going strong after a couple of hundred pictures with about a third being taken with flash. You can adjust the vividness of the color along with the sharpness and the contrast to taste. The exposures seem accurate and exposure conpensation can be used to help with "blown" skies, a problem with many digital cameras, it seems.
Having the memory card located with the batteries certainly saves in manufacturing cost (only a single door) but when I remove the card, sometimes the batteries also fall out, but this isn't really a serious issue - I just have to be careful.
I do wish that this camera had a wider angle lens (maybe 24 mm equivalent in 35 mm camera terms) since there are times I want effects that these wide angle lenses produce. Of course I knew that the camera did not do this when I bought it and many casual users would probably not miss this feature unless they previously had a camera that a lens of this type.
In summary, given this camera's price point, it's an excellent value.
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