Canon Ixus 90 IS - Expert Reviews

Review summary: The Canon Powershot SD790 IS finds itself among a too crowded market of ultra-compact digital cameras which produce better images than this one. It seems like in its quest for producing a tiny low-cost digital camera, Canon compromised too much on ...

Pros: Nicely saturated colors, Accurate exposure, Good white-balance, Good overall image sharpness, Quick focus in good light, Fast and responsive, Quick flash recycling, Excellent LCD visibility, Decent battery life for a recent ultra-compact

Cons: High loss of details in long exposures, Quite noisy from ISO 800, Sacry vignetting visible, Mild barrel distortion at wide-angle, Some corner softness, Chromatic aberrations, Slow but accurate focus in low light, Difficult to hold securely, Buttons ...

Review summary: Canon's 'IXUS' camera line has a long and distinguished past and the 90 IS camera is one of the newer models that was launched alongside the IXUS 85 IS and IXUS 970 IS (the latter of which is the top-end model).

Verdict: If you can deal with the camera's wheel and can stomach its price, the IXUS is one of the top performers here in terms of photo quality.

Review summary: Superb, stylish, solid... but sabotaged by poor controls

Verdict: This new model certainly looks like a fresh approach – gone is the original boxy shape and, indeed, Canon's more recent trend for curvy edges. In is a very tasty and unique bevelled edge and, thankfully, the 90 IS feels like a premium camera. No ...

Pros: LCD is large and bright ; Relatively simple and intuitive means to get to the common settings, including some custom button setup capability ; Fast start-up and continuous mode ; Optical image stabilization

Cons: Control layout odd, not always well thought-out ; AF fussiness ; Noisy digital zoom ; No optical viewfinder

Verdict: But beyond this straightforward specs sheet, the SD790 does have some features implemented in highly usable ways and feels well-built

Review summary: The 10-megapixel IXUS 90 IS is another design-driven compact digital camera from the IXUS range.

Pros: Design, LCD, speed in use, interface

Cons: Slight noise at high ISOs, may be a touch large for some

Verdict: A stunning compact with a striking LCD screen - and a pleasure to use.