Canon Powershot S90 Features

The Canon Powershot S90 is an advanced digital camera. Headline features include manual exposure controls, a 3.8x wide angle lens with a maximum aperture of f/2, the ability to capture photos in RAW and servo AF for tracking moving subjects.

Other features include 10 megapixels, a 3 inch LCD screen and image stabilisation. The focal length of the lens is equivalent to 28 - 105mm in 35mm format. 4x digital zoom is also available.

Basics

Sensor Size: 1/1.7 inches
Macro Mode: 5cm
Colour Effects: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom Color
Special resolution for widescreen television playback
Red-Eye Correction
Image Stabilisation
Self Timer: 2 or 10 second delay

LCD Screen

The LCD monitor is 3 inches in size. The screen is made up of around 461,000 dots. I found the screen to have excellent definition and was very easy to see.

Flash

Canon have built in a flash unit that pops up on the top of the Powershot S90 when required.

The Powershot S90 gives you a number of options for controlling flash. These include modes of Auto, Manual Flash On / Off , slow sync speed (Fastest speed 1/500 sec.) Red-Eye Reduction, Flash Exposure Compensation (+/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments) Face Detection FE, Safety FE and Flash Exposure Lock.

The power of the flash can be manually adjusted and Second Curtain Synchronisation is available too.

The range of the flash unit is 6.5m. This falls to 2.5m when the lens is zoomed in. You can increase flash power by buying an external flash unit (Canon High Power Flash HF-DC1).

Scene Modes

There are a number of preset scene modes. These are: Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, Indoor, Sunset, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, Color Accent, Color Swap, Nostalgic and Stitch Assist.

Movies

You can shoot short, TV quality movies with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The top recording speed is 30 frames per second. Sound can be recorded and zoom can be applied before shooting.

Advanced Features

Among the more advanced features are:

Maximum Aperture: f/2.0 - f/4.9
Metering Modes: Evaluative (linked to Face Detection AF frame), Centre-weighted average, Spot (Centre)
AE Lock
ISO Sensitivity: Auto, 80, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 2000, 2500, 3200
Exposure Compensation: +/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments
Shutter Speeds: 15 - 1/1600 seconds
White Balance: Auto (including Face Detection WB), Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash, Underwater, Custom. White Balance Correction
Continuous Shooting: Approx. 0.9 shots/sec until card full
Auto Exposure Bracketing: 1/3 - 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments
Full Manual Exposure
Shutter Priority
Aperture Priority
Manual Focus
Focus Bracketing