Canon Point & Shoot?

As to the suggestion of an A1000 or A2000, just remember that they don't offer much manual control. If you want to

be able to use shutter-priority, aperture priority, and manual modes, well, you are out of luck with the A1000 and

A2000. On the other hand, the A590 <I>does</I> offer these modes.<P>

 

I got the A590's predecessor, the A570 IS, mainly for my wife, who is strictly a point-and-shooter, but also

secondarily for myself, when I didn't want to carry a DSLR. I like it pretty well. My only question is whether we would

have been happier with the A720 IS, which had a longer zoom that was somewhat faster at the long end (and slightly

slower at the wide end). The 570 and 720 were both discontinued some time ago, and are not available new from

major reputable sellers.<P>

 

On the other hand, a year later when I went to get a camera for our oldest child's ninth birthday present, I got the

A1000. I figured he is much less likely to want to use A, S, or M modes than he is to want to take video and then

play it on a regular television. The A570 has 640x480 video at 30 fps, but inexplicably the A590 only shoots full

resolution at 20 fps, so it probably doesn't look that great on a television. The A1000 does have 640x480 video at 30

fps, for his video use.

Panasonic and Casio also make quality compact compacts.

I have been looking around for a digital compact and the Canon IXUS 90 IS was well received by some reviewers. It doesn't get a mention here, what's wrong it?

Personally I wouldn't buy a P&S that didn't have a viewfinder - however limited that may be. That's the problem with the

IXUS for me, I like holding a camera to my eye to follow action and in very bright sunlight a screen can be hard to see -

holding a camera away from my face to compose on the LCD screen is just not a natural or comfortable thing for me...

 

That was one reason I liked the A590IS at the price.

Thanks John, none of the reviews mentioned the absence of a v/finder. I will not be buying.

SD770, SD890, SD950, SD990, SD1100, A1000, G10 are other Canon models with viewfinder.

The Panasonic LX3 has a detachable viewfinder.

The A590 has an optical viewfinder too.

 

Indeed, I think an optical viewfinder is a must-have, if you ever want to shoot any sort of movement or action or fast-developing scene on a sunny day, when it may be very difficult to see the screen. That's part of the reason I got my son the A1000 instead of the A2000; the former has an optical viewfinder but the latter does not.

I see Amazon has dropped the price on the A590 to under $120.

That is an amazing price for a seriously competent point and shoot - as mentioned I have bought three of them as gifts

paying from $145 to $180. All three people I bought these for love them and all of them rave about the high number of

keepers, the surprisingly good IQ, the compact nature, ease of use and the full feature set. For under $120 it's a steal.

What if someone wants a P&S that is pocketable (for daytime and/or random fun shooting as opposed to my D70) AND can be put in an underwater housing for scuba diving? Is the 1100SD or the A series still recommended? I dive down to about 100ft sometimes. I'm interested in everything in this thread but if a model can't be put in a housing then I'd have to consider something else.

There are lots of underwater housing for an A590 or similar from $19.00 (!) to pretty expensive...

 

Here's a sample of one : http://www.bizrate.com/digitalcameraaccessories/oid806364389.html

Since the OP wanted something that was literally pocketable... the Canon Elph/Ixus range gets my vote here.

 

The compact Sonys (with which I'm not as familiar) aren't bad, but having an A610 myself, I just don't think it's pocketable.

 

I'm about to move to a dSLR and am considering getting rid of the A610 for an Elph -- I, too, will soon begin needing a smaller camera for nights out/places where a big hunk of glass won't be quite appropriate.

<p>as far as G10 in considered, read also this<br>

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong10/page24.asp<br>

cheers, Marco</p>