Given that I want to have the best bring-anywhere camera I can get, I got me the new Canon S90, and I've given it a little spin around the block.
Canon's aim seems to have been to put the best enthusiast all-round camera they could, into a breast-pocket-sized shell. And I think they have succeeded.
I would be very surprised to hear of any other camera of similar size which beats it significantly in anything, design, handling, features, image quality...
(The flash is pretty weak though, but that's surely typical.)
One might note that the term "low light" used in the promotion materials for this camera or any other supercompact one, is rather dubious. Up to 400 ISO the quality is wonderful. Best ever. But with this one like all the others, at ISO 800 and over, the quality breaks up very fast.
The thing is you can't actually change the sensitivity of an imaging sensor, you can only amplify the signal, and that also amplifies the noise. And a tiny sensor like this inherently has a weak signal, so...
(If you email me, I can send you the test photos I took via yousendit.com (so it won't clog your email account), it's 50MB zip file. My gmail address is eolake.)
The cool thing is that at f/2, ISO 400 "goes further" since you can take the same shot that an f/2.8 lens would have to take at ISO 800. That's the big advantage to me. Why don't more cameras do this?
I guess it's not trivial to keep the image quality, size, and price going from 2.8 to 2.0. (And indeed those cams are more expensive.)
Also I'll add that the lens is only F:2.0 at 28mm-e. At 35mm-e it's a 2.5, and at 50mm-e it is 3.2. At 105mm-e it is 4.9.
But with a 28mm-e setting (less prone to shake), the stabilisation, and 400 ISO, you can go pretty low-light, should be admitted. (And with the small sensor and at wideangle, even at F:2.0 you get big depth of field (sharpness from front to back).)
... I just tested this, I can take sharp pictures at 1/4th second with these settings! Not dead-tack sharp for huge prints (and not every exposure), but near as damn. (See pic on the right for sample.)
... I just tested this, I can take sharp pictures at 1/4th second with these settings! Not dead-tack sharp for huge prints (and not every exposure), but near as damn. (See pic on the right for sample.)Update:
The handling is as good as anything I've tried in this size of camera. And I like the control ring around the lens, I use it for zoom, and the click-stops at 28, 35, 50, 85, and 105 are very nice to have.
It can also be used for exposure compensation or ISO setting, or manual focus. (The latter displays a rough meter scale and an enlarged patch for focus.)
There's a custom button, which I use for exposure lock (if I want to leave a bright light or the sky out of consideration).
And it has a very thin ring around the button cluster which I would not even have seen if I'd not read about it, but which makes exposure compensation (in program mode) or aperture/shutter setting easy.
The handling is as good as anything I've tried in this size of camera. And I like the control ring around the lens, I use it for zoom, and the click-stops at 28, 35, 50, 85, and 105 are very nice to have.
It can also be used for exposure compensation or ISO setting, or manual focus. (The latter displays a rough meter scale and an enlarged patch for focus.)
There's a custom button, which I use for exposure lock (if I want to leave a bright light or the sky out of consideration).
And it has a very thin ring around the button cluster which I would not even have seen if I'd not read about it, but which makes exposure compensation (in program mode) or aperture/shutter setting easy.
17 comments:
The cool thing is that at f/2, ISO 400 "goes further" since you can take the same shot that an f/2.8 lens would have to take at ISO 800. That's the big advantage to me. Why don't more cameras do this?
I guess it's not trivial to keep the image quality, size, and price going from 2.8 to 2.0. (And indeed those cams are more expensive.)
Also I'll add that the lens is only F:2.0 at 28mm-e. At 35mm-e it's a 2.5, and at 50mm-e it is 3.2. At 105mm-e it is 4.9.
But with a 28mm-e setting (less prone to shake), the stabilisation, and 400 ISO, you can go pretty low-light, should be admitted.
Oh, congrats on your purchase Eolake. I think the S90 is probably as good as it gets for a compact of this type---until the LX4 is released. How're you liking the handling, with the dial and everything?
The handling is as good as anything I've tried in this size. And I really like the control ring around the lens, I use it for zoom, and the click-stops at 28, 35, 50, 85, and 105 are very nice to have.
It can also be used for exposure compensation or ISO setting, or manual focus. (The latter displays a rough meter scale and an enlarged patch for focus.)
There's a custom button, which I use for exposure lock (if I want to leave a bright light or the sky out of consideration).
An it has a very thin ring around the button cluster which I would not even have seen if I'd not read about it, but which makes exposure compensation or aperture/shutter setting easy.
I am so jealous.
I was just at the store, wife and brand new, 100%, fully certified teenage type person were shopping for laptops, and junior VP, bounce dept., and I were looking at cameras.
Really liked the S90, but even more of a surprise, I was really taken with the G11. I have a G9, I love it's long end, and don't care about wide, but the G11 is very much a step up from the G9. The handling is good, no need for custom doowahs, (technical term), the articulating screen is really fun. What a nice combo, big camera and pocket camera, I don't need no stinkin DSLRs.
Enjoy Eolake.
Eolake, glad to see you're enjoying this little camera too.
I'm writing a pretty lengthy 3-part review, which I will shamelessly plug for your enjoyment, and that of your readers:
Part 1: First Impressions
Part 2: Using the Camera
Part 2 contains some very useful info (IMHO) regarding hyperfocal and zone focusing with the S90. I also conducted some home-brew tests of the shutter lag (it's small!).
Part 3 might appear next week, depending on how patient I am with Adobe. Canon's DPP RAW converter is light years behind ACR and I would like to do this camera justice.
The images are impressive, but as a sidekick I'd like a camera that can do video too, YouTube ready. My antique Olympus 3030Z can do that, why not this little shooter? I'm still trying to forgive Canon for not including video in the 50D I bought a year ago, while they had the 7D was in the queue. I think a pocket camera with HD video would be the best revenge.
S90 does do video, just not HD.
There's a link to the pictures download here, until Nov 23, 2009.
Miserere,
Indeed Canon's software is not impressive. Never has been. Too bad when you need it for a new camera. (Camera raw can open them, but does not perform custom corrections like distortion-correction.)
Eolake,
My ACR won't even open these CR2s. Michael Reichmann at the Luminous Landscape showed the colour profiles for the S90 beta support when wrong in the latest Lightroom Beta release.
I'm hoping ACR starts incorporating all these distortion corrections for small cameras, because otherwise we're going to be a bit screwed.
I too think the S90 is a great camera.
But it is also a relatively expensive camera. In Germany, the S90 costs almost 500 EUR.
For quite a bit less, 349 EUR you can get a Sigma Dp2, which has all the controls you wants (incl. manual focus) and which includes a really excellent lens (that doesn't need software correction of distortions, CA etc).
So moneywise I decided to get a DP2. With 280g it is not as light-weigth as the S90, but it is half the weight of EP-1/2 etc.
It is true that the DP2 has a wonderful lens and image quality.
I've decided against that one, though. One reason (though not essential to me) is that it does not have a zoom lens. Another one is that according to all reviews, it's quite slow in operation.
Anyway, are you sure about the prices there? When I look these cameras up on Amazon UK, the DP2 is 100 GBP *more* expensive than the Canon, not less (£470 to £370). It seems odd if the Sigma should be half the price in Germany.
you can get the Dp2 for 349 EUR from one of the larges foto equipment retailers in Germany: Foto Brenner. The catalog says it costs 599, but you get an instant 250 EUR cashback (this is also mentioned online), so in effect it is only 349.
Anyway, back to the DP2 and S90.
The DP2 is not THAT slow. Maybe it was, but we are now at the 3rd firmware iteration, and even autofocus in low light works now quite well (for good light it has always worked).
Cheers, Albin
OK, thanks for info.
Anyway, I'm quite excited about the developments right now in the high-quality compact-camera arena. It took a while, but it's really happening now.
The upcoming Leica compact should be interesting. If it has a similar advantage in image quality as the M9 has over other full-frame cameras, then wow...
there seems to be an interesting comparison of the Leica X1 and the Sigma Dp2 over at Reids Reviews.
The specs of both cameras are pretty similar (36 vs 40mm effective focal length), similar size etc.
see also
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1027&message=33693600
Thanks.
That was soon, I did not think anybody had hold of the X1 yet.
(Fortunately I do have a subscription to Reid, although I don't read it all that often.) (I find it irritating I can't zoom the text.) (And sadly the readability apps don't help. The guy used Flash for the text to hinder piracy. I've pleaded with him...)
Nice review. Canon S90 IS is one of Canon high-end / advanced Canon Powershot compact camera. Its unique characteristics are slim, low profile body with great noise control in high ISO plus 28-105mm f/2-f/4.9 bright zoom lens.
Post a Comment