Canon knows how to make excellent compact cameras, and the PowerShot A590 IS is another winner from the maker. We stopped in Hong Kong a couple of times in 2008, and put the camera through a bit of cityscape photography.

The A590 IS is lighter than it looks, thanks - or due to its plastic shell. The camera handles very well, controls and buttons are where they suppose to be. The menu is Canon standard: clear and easy to use.

Image quality is very good. We snap many pictures during the course of a day so we can appreciate the A590 IS's use of standard AA batteries - plus, spare rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries are outrageously expensive. It's also refreshing to see a camera in this price range having full and easy manual exposure control. In future iterations of this camera, we'd like to see built-in distortion reduction.

 

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HIGH

• very good image quality
• easy to use controls and buttons
• optical image stabilization
• good 2.5 inch LCD
• full manual control mode
• use readily available AA batteries
• great value

MIND

• image distortion at wide angle

WISE

• great-value budget camera