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

After 4 happy hardworking years with a fab Fuji digital camera, when it died I did a little research and purchased this Canon camera at a great price via Amazon.

Absolutely delighted with it! Wish I had upgraded sooner. It has cut my camera work time in half. The anti shake system means I no longer have to take 2 or more shots of the same item in case when they have uploaded you find one is slighly blurry - crisp shots first time every time!

I use the macro feature indoors most of the time and it's much quicker to select this option than on my previous camera. The only niggle I have is as a previous reviewer stated that the auto flash has to be turned off for most of my shots rather than turned on.

Big screen - geat clarity.

I wanted something to grab hold of - great design.

Overall a very impressive piece of kit.

My ageing Fuji E550 gave out on me, so I looked for a replacement point and shoot digital with a viewfinder. I settled on the A590IS after quite a lot of online research.
It's now 3 months since I bought it and to be honest I wish I'd chosen something else.
Overall I can't say that there is that much wrong with the handling etc of the A590IS.
But I really don't like the picture quality. Exposure is almost always OK, but the images are never as clear and colours never as vibrant as they were on my Fuji (or as they are on my Nikon D50). I am now getting really fed up with continually having to put my photographs through the Photoshop mill on my PC in order to get what I would consider to be reasonable results.
I'm not a perfectionist by any means - I have been a competent amateur photographer for years and have a couple of certificates to prove it. But for me this camera doesn't live up to its billing, In fact it doesn't impress me at all so I'm now looking to replace it.
Without any discount the price of this camera is way over the top. If you can find a reasonably cheap one and just want a little point and shoot with a viewfinder to use in Auto mode, I'd say go for it.
If you have loftier ambitions, look elsewhere.

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.

Having had the Canon A590IS for 9 months, it has performed perfectly in almost every situation. This is an amazing camera for the price. If you want a very good compact camera that you can easily fit in your pocket and that you can rely upon for great photos and ease of use, this the camera for you.

This camera has survived 6 months in my pocket around the back and beyond in India. It has been smashed, bumped, scratched, smeared with mud and sand, dropped on hard floors many times, and subjected to extremes of temperatures. It still functions perfectly, and wears the scars well! You can be reasonably sure that this camera will survive anything you can, and still take photos like it did on the first day.

Most of the weight seems to come from the batteries (which are two AA batteries), so it is pretty light. It is reasonably slim, and can still fit in a tight pocket along with your wallet/phone/etc. It sits well in the hand, and all the functions can be easily accessed one-handed. It takes less than 2 seconds to turn on and be ready to shoot, and so you will hardly ever miss a shot. The battery life is very good, and most importantly, it uses removable AA batteries - so you don't have to buy expensive spare batteries. You can have as many batteries as you like, or even buy them in a local shop wherever you are if they run down. Also, you never get caught out waiting for you main battery to recharge before you can use the camera!

The picture quality is better than you are ever going to need - it really is remarkably clear and crisp. You can zoom in and out just about as much as you need as well. There is a x4 optical zoom, and x4 digital zoom on the video mode. I think there is an additional digital zoom which kicks in after the optical zoom, but I've never needed to use it. It has all the features to be able to change aperture and shutter speed, in quite a few different modes (which makes it easy to use, as well as providing more detailed custom modes). It is great if you know nothing about setting up a shot, or even if you know all the tricks - you can get the best out of this camera either way.

The video mode is also surprisingly high quality. If you didn't know in advance, you would think the video had been taken by a dedicated video camera. The sound quality is good too. This camera also has a good macro version which won't let you down. Images are saved in jpeg format, so they are easy to load onto most computers.

There are a few small problems I have found, but they are not significant enough to detract from the overall quality of the camera:

1) Occasionally, even though it is very small, you can accidentally press the on button in your pocket, which can run down the battery (but this doesn't happen very often).

2) If you zoom in whilst in video mode, the video seems to loose all quality very fast. So you need to be standing less than 10m away to use video.

3) There is no default mode for turning flash off, so you have to turn it off every time you turn the camera off and on if you don't want a flash.

4) There is a vertical slide button which activates the photo preview function. This displays the photos on the view screen at the back (in a very intuitive and versatile manner), and disables your ability to take photos at the same time. This slide button gets a little bit easier to move after much use, and so can be accidentally activated. This is irritating if you need to whip your camera out and take a photo fast - leading to much frustration!

5) The bulge on the right side, which makes the camera easier to hold and use one-handed, feels a little bulky in your pocket. I felt a slightly uncomfortable and bulky pocket was worth all the other good aspects of this camera - but you may prefer a slimmer camera if you really want a small compact.

If you choose the Canon A590IS you might want to get a high quality 4GB memory card (to keep transfer times high) and some powerful rechargeable batteries (and charger if needed!).