Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PowerShot A590 IS Digital Camera (8.0 MP, 4xOptical Zoom) 2.5" LCD

This is a good no-frills 8 Megapixel camera with the benefit of a viewfinder - invaluable in sunny conditions.
It is fast (doesn't take ages to take a photo and be ready to take another)and accuracy of focussing is about average.
It looks a bit plasticky so won't impress your friends.
Would have preferred the lens to be a bit more wide screen.

I got this camera as a present, and have been really pleased with it. It's not too big (though big enough that you won't lose it in your bag!), fairly light, and has a good-sized screen as well as a viewfinder (the viewfinder also zooms when you zoom the lens, which is really handy). The only downside in the 'look and feel' section is that the battery/memory card compartment feels a wee bit fragile, although it works fine.

There is an excellent range of shooting options, from 'Easy' mode, where you just point and shoot, and 'Auto' where you have a little more control, but basically still just take the picture and let the camera do the work, up to full control of shutter speed etc. It also has a range of built-in scenes, allowing you to photograph snow, fireworks, kids & pets, sunsets and various other things, with the camera doing the thinking. I can vouch for the quality of the 'foliage', 'sunset' and 'kids & pets' settings, but the 'snow' will have to wait a while!

The time taken to start up is impressive - from pressing 'on' to taking the photo is a matter of a couple of seconds; the time between shots is also good.

Battery life seems good as well - the first batteries I had lasted for a couple of hundred shots (including some movies, and having the camera on to play around with it). It also takes rechargeables, and so far I've had no trouble with it running out of power. The 'battery low' indicator gives you good warning that you'll need to replace them soon.

Picture quality has been good - although I admit I'm not a photographer, I just like taking photos on holiday! But so far I've had no problem with the quality, and 8MP is easily big enough to allow for cropping and zooming before printing.

The only downside is that I would have liked a printed manual, because I enjoy trying out all the features on a new camera, and for that I need the instructions! Having said that, the manual which comes on the CD is good, and I guess I could print it off myself if I wanted to!

Finally, I was impressed to discover that I can change the lens on this camera - the one which comes with it comes off and you can attach others - I haven't tried this, but it's a good feature and I hadn't realised it was included.

Overall, a great camera which works well for both 'point and shoot' snaps and more professional-looking photos. Looks good, feels good, and does the job well.

cant review product as it was never received and took some time to get money refunded

After seeing it as a Which? "best buy" bought this Canon Powershot A590 on Amazon for a staggering £78 because it had a proper viewfinder. However, the viewfinder is extremely poor. Decent pictures but extremely complicated menu system. This was bought as a pocket camera to carry around rather than lug the much bigger Nikon 8800 I have. But this Nikon and a previous Nikon Coolpix pocket digital are much more user friendly. Recording captions on the 8800 is simplicity itself, but a nightmare with the Canon. This is my first Canon camera; it will also be the last.