Canon IXUS 990 IS Review

The Canon IXUS 990 IS is a 12 megapixel digital camera with a 5x optical zoom lens. It will fit into larger pockets although it is a bit larger than a lot of true pocket cameras. Features include High Definition movies, a 3 inch LCD screen and image stabilisation.

The IXUS 990 IS is an excellent all round camera. It has an extra touch of class when it comes to looks, build quality and picture quality.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The IXUS 990 IS is off to a good start. The picture is crisp and colourful. I like the greens in the foliage. There is a slight softening towards the edges, but you are unlikely to notice this unless you are making poster sized prints. There are a couple of blue lines on the boats that have taken on a purple tinge.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This is the test shot that digital cameras find the toughest. After all, the scene is somewhat distant. In terms of sharpness the IXUS 990 IS does very well indeed. This shot is sharper than the vast majority of digital cameras manage.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
As with my other outdoor shots I like the colours, brightness and overall impression that this picture gives. You should be able to make large prints and still find plenty of clarity and definition.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
The brickwork really stands out in this shot if you make a larger print. There is a very slight softening again as you move out to the edges, but overall you will struggle to find a compact digital camera that is able to take sharper photos at distance than the IXUS 990 IS.

Outdoor Portrait
Almost all digital cameras can take a decent portrait shot as long as you have good light. So there is not that much to report here. There are no problems and you should be able to produce plenty of pleasing portraits.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
I think Canon digital cameras tend to handle flash better than any other brand. In this example there is about the right amount of brightness. The brightness is spread throughout the picture and does not fall away once you move away from the centre. The light is also subtle enough to leave plenty of colour in the photo.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
Without flash the IXUS 990 IS still manages to produce a bright photo. There is a small amount of noise showing and this just takes the edge off the crispness of the shot. As with most digital cameras it is best to use flash when the light falls in most situations, but you should be able to produce window light portraits when good light is available.

Colours
As digital camera technology has progressed I find less difference between the brands when it comes to colours. Most digital cameras now offer natural looking colours with a good balance. This camera ticks all the right boxes for me when it comes to colour and brightness.

Macro
There is a problem when taking close up shots of reflective objects. Owing to the shiny silver section around the lens it can be difficult to avoid a reflection of the camera showing in the macro shot. This is quite a common problem as many digital cameras are designed in this way. This does not affect non reflective subjects such as you find with nature photography. Otherwise you should be able to take high quality macro shots with the IXUS 990 IS.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
There will always be noise when shooting at higher ISO levels, but this camera handles noise fairly well. One of the reasons for this is that the colours remain true and only start to breakdown in darker areas of a shot.

Overall
As I would expect from what is a highly priced compact camera, the picture quality is very good indeed. You will struggle to find much better than this with a smaller compact digital camera.

Without flash the IXUS 990 IS posts quick times. These are 0.25 seconds for a single photo and 9.79 seconds for five. It is a bit of a different story when flash is turned on and the camera slows down considerably. The times with flash were 1.95 seconds for one shot and 21.95 for five photos.

It is one of the fastest cameras around to turn on and take the first photo. I managed to take the first shot in 2.42 seconds.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

Canon have added a number of subtle curves and soft edges to the design. I think this contributes to a clean, yet stylish design.

94.8 x 56.8 x 26.3mm

160g

Lithium ion (NB-5L). Canon suggests you should be able to take around 270 shots in between charges.

The IXUS 990 IS is compatible with SD and SDHC memory cards. No card is supplied with the camera and no memory is built in.

Click here to save money on SD cards..

Good. The reason this camera does not get a very good rating is down to the extra features and controls on offer. If you choose to you can ignore all the various controls and then it becomes as straightforward as any other digital camera. Canon has changed the design of their menu system. I think the new design is much better and is very easy to read.

Picture quality, style, build quality, LCD screen quality, turn on times

It does not come cheap

As I mentioned above the IXUS 990 IS does not come cheap. If you would like to consider a much cheaper option take a look at the Olympus MJU 5000. It does not really match up to this camera, but it offers fair value for money.

A shade expensive for what you get, but if you are looking for all round quality then the Canon IXUS 990 IS scores highly in just about every key area. I would be delighted to own one.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Click a flag for prices from other countries:

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Canon IXUS 990 IS