Canon PowerShot S90 Preview

by Shawn Barnett

Long a leader in the digital cameras, Canon has been playing catchup of late, moving swiftly to match other manufacturers' recent moves in the digital camera space. It used to be that they grappled primarily with the electronics powerhouse Sony, but that's changed to the massive electronics manufacturer, Pansonic, a company whose digital cameras are in such high demand that people are paying full price and more for cameras like the LX3, TS1, and ZS3, even months after their introduction.

But that's good news for us, the consumer, because Canon's also a massive company capable of turning on a dime to introduce an array of cameras to answer any challenge, giving us more choices. Today's announcement of the PowerShot G11 should by no means detract from the Canon PowerShot S90, a camera whose features read like a laundry list of demands from technology editors like myself, cleanly wrapped into a small, pocketable format.

The S designation marks the return of the semi-pro moniker, last used by the S5 IS, but more importantly by the S80, and before that, the S100, all legendary, extremely popular digital cameras in their day.

More remarkable than that, though, is that Canon, the digital camera marketplace leader, is the first to take a step back in the megapixel race with both the G11 and Canon S90. Did they blink? I don't think so. We've all watched with concern as megapixel counts continued to rise in even the smallest cameras -- driven by perceived consumer demand. Our tests show quite clearly, though, that most of these cameras have more trouble with blurring that comes from the noise suppression necessary at such small pixel sizes. Worse, these lovely high-resolution sensors reveal more flaws in the optics, which requires camera companies to somehow mass-produce very high quality glass to go with these tell-all sensors, encased in cameras whose prices continue to fall. In short, the digital camera industry has fallen prey to the law of diminishing returns.

Thank goodness.

Now we can get back to the pursuit of photographic excellence, rather than the continued "bigger is better" contest. In theory, the Canon S90's specs should deliver better image quality in low light. We'll let you know more about that when we get a sample into the lab. Meanwhile, let's go over why the S90 should be better.

Walkaround. To quite a few of us, an everywhere camera should be small. Hence the very positive response to the Olympus E-P1. Of course, I still carry a pocket digital camera for everywhere photography, and the Canon S90's major competition looks more like the Panasonic LX3 than the E-P1. The Canon S90 seems to answer the call quite well, with an all-black body evoking the spirit of the company's EOS cameras, combined with a relatively pocketable profile.

Though it looks positively pocket-sized, the Canon S90 is a little thicker, coming in at 1.2 inches thick, compared to the LX3's 1.1-inch thickness (this doesn't seem right to us, we'll have to get back to this statistic, as the LX3's lens base seems to stick out further than the S90's). Weight, too is a little higher on the S90, at 6.2 ounces (175g) compared to the LX3's 5.6 ounces, both without card and battery (we'll have to wait for the shipping version to make that comparison too).

The Canon S90's lens reminds us of one feature that hasn't come back to the Canon G-series, because its maximum aperture is f/2.0. This changes to f/4.9 as you zoom (a little less than the old G6's f/2.0-3.0 range). Equivalent to a 28-105mm lens, the lens covers 3.8x range, and can focus as close as two inches.

This time, the ring around the front lens element isn't just for decoration, it's a moving ring that you can program to perform one of several functions: Focus, ISO, Exposure, White Balance, and Zoom. It's important to note that there's no optical viewfinder on the Canon S90, so all adjustments will need to be made via the LCD.

The Canon S90 still uses the ring around the shutter button for zoom control, only this time it's somewhat recessed into the camera's top deck. You can also see the Ring Function button that allows quick changes to what the front ring does. The pop-up flash is also strangely reminiscent of the Panasonic LX3. Noticably lacking is a flash hot shoe, which could also serve to hold an optical viewfinder; something of a missed opportunity there, though it's not something I'd miss.

The Mode dial includes the full complement of manual and semi-auto exposure modes, plus Auto, a high ISO mode marked by a candle, Scene, and Movie modes, and a user-programmable Custom mode.

I really like the minimalist appearance from this angle.

The Canon S90's back, too, is no-nonsense, all emphasis on the 461,000-dot, 3-inch LCD, which Canon is calling a PureColor System LCD.

A fairly standard, if slightly tight, cluster of buttons lines the right side, and a control ring surrounds the nav cluster. Because the Canon S90 uses a mode dial in combination with a Playback button, it's a shooting priority camera, ready to leave Playback mode with a half-press on the shutter button, much preferred among photographers who want their camera ready at a moment's notice.

Just beneath the mode dial is a raised section with a small cutout to serve as a thumbgrip.

Movies. The Canon S90 also captures movies, only they're in VGA resolution at 30 frames per second, rather than the increasingly common HD format. Others have reported that the S90 has an HDMI port, but according to our USA sources, it's a standard NTSC/PAL A/V connector, not an HDMI port.

Stills. More important than its video capability, though, is the Canon S90's still photographic performance. How well will the new 10-megapixel "High Sensitivity System" handle low light? This is truly where the Canon S90 has an opportunity to take on the Panasonic LX3. The sensor outputs a 3,648 x 2,736 image in both JPEG and RAW formats, including the ability to shoot JPEG+RAW, another nod to the enthusiast photographer.

ISO range is from 80 to 3,200 for full resolution shots, while Low Light mode offers 2.5-megapixel images up to ISO 12,800.

Battery life is expected to be a little lower than average, at approximately 220 shots, and 300 minutes of LCD on-time in Playback mode. Memory storage is via SD/SDHC, MMC, MMCplus, and HC MMCplus cards.

Analysis. The big story with the Canon S90 is the emphasis on a lower resolution sensor and a faster lens than is normally included on a small camera. Most serious enthusiast photographers would trade megapixels and zoom range for better image quality in low light, because it better avails us of the light all around us. That makes for better, more natural photographs. So many photographers I know prefer cameras like this, and finally the industry is listening.

The Canon S90 looks very promising, and has many of us here wondering if there's space in one of our many camera bags or pockets for a camera like the Canon S90. Sure looks like it would fit nicely into a Christmas stocking.