Canon can do so much better than SD990!!!

I have been a true CANON enthusiast as long as I can remember. Started with S series (S100, S200, S320, S400) I went through most of SD series (SD550, SD800 (my favorite), SD890), and G-series (G9) & Rebels (XSi/405D). I finally got to have SD990! I took all those cameras for travels to many parts of the world.

Since I had a great experience with G9 (due to manual controls), I thought that the progressive SD990 would be a great travel camera for my purposes. It is a lot smaller and lighter than G9, it has promising manual controls (Time/Aperture/Focus), it had a great smooth shiny black casing, and it just seemed to be great travel companion.

So, I went ahead and ordered SD990 to take all over South America as a travel companion. Too bad I didnot spend much time on actually testing this PowerShot prior to my trip, as this camera is definetely not my favorite out of the PowerShot line.

Manual Controls

One of the reasons I bought SD990 was for the manual controls.  Canon must have been kidding when they said this tiny camera is capable with manual controls. The manual controls were a mere imitation those of G9 or Rebels. This camera works like any other small PowerShot.. (the best with Auto / pre-defined setting). I also played with ISO settings. I chose a constant of ISO 80 with different light conditions. The quality was very poor at 80% of the time even with bright sun. Pretty dissapointing for Canon. I used Canon G9 with the same constant ISO80 setting in different situations and the quality was simply outstanding especially in a bright day light. I cannot even compare those G9 to SD990 quality given the same manual settings. I would give SD990 2 out of 10 and G9 8 out of 10.

Movie Mode

Movie mode is probably my favorite function of this camera.  Even though the highest movie resolution was only 640 X 480 (30fps), it still came out really nice and clear.


Canon Improvements

- QuickShot

Canon incorporated a brand new feature in this PowerShot - QuickShot. This mode is supposed to be used for faster shutter speeds. When choosing to use this mode, LCD does not reflect the picture, it shows the settings (similar to dSLRs). I used this mode on both moving and non-moving objects, pictures came out a lot sharper than taking without this mode.

- DIGIC 4

Canon strives to always put new features in their cameras. SD990 features upgraded DIGIC 4 image processor which is supposed to account for the camera's higher performance level and image quality. Canon claimes that DIGIC 4 contributes to sharper photographs and noise reduction.

I cannot say anything against Canon quality as SD990 is part of Canon's PowerShot family. It is still a Canon! I am not saying SD990 is bad, i am just saying that is not what I expected from the latest from Canon. Inspite of Digic 4 claimed benefits, I did not notice a whole lot in sharpness over the previous powershots. G9 totally outbids this camera in sharpness and overall performance. In addition, Canon promotes its Servo AF (continuous focus tracking for moving objects made possible by DIGIC 4 processor). I have not tried this function so cannot comment on that.

- i-CONTRAST

Canon sports its new featurem i-Contrast, as a function to automatically improve image quality in high contrast shooting situations. Personally, I did not see the big difference when shooting in different contrast situations between SD990 and any other previous model of PowerShot (SD890, SD800).  It is important to set this function on from the menus, as the camera does not come with i-Contrast turned on straight from the box

Not only i did not see a good impact of i-Contrast, I also found the overall picture quality not up to Canon stardard. Pictures were not as crisp as I am used to, IS did not work as I expected (many blurry images).


Things I like:

- 14.7 megapixels
- Great looking body
- Sporty shiny black color
- Compact
- Face detection
- Great movie mode


Things I do not like


- Picture quality at lower ISOs could be better
- Small zoom (3.7x optical)
- Image Stabilization could be improved
- Small screen (2.5")
- No wide angle (starts with 36mm (35mm equivalent))



Even though SD990 features all the things below, it didn't do the job for me. I sold it right after a trip. I would not recommend it to anyone.