Canon PowerShot A590 IS Digital Camera

I have owned five different point and shoot digital cameras over the past years, beginning with a 640x480 monstrosity and moving slowly forward from there. As with most "new" technology, digital cameras continue to get better and the prices continue to drop. They have now reached the point where you can actually get a good quality digital camera for little more than $100. A few years back if someone told you you could get a Canon brand digital camera with an 8 megapixel sensor and a 4x optical zoom with image stabilization, you would probably have thought they were crazy. Well, now you can get a camera with these features for right around a hundred bucks. That camera is the Canon PowerShot A590IS digital camera.

The highlights of the Canon A590IS camera include an 8 megapixel sensor with a 4x optical zoom and an optical image stabilizer for sharp, high resolution images. The camera uses a large 2.5" LCD screen for a bright view of your subjects. The Powershot A590IS camera has an all new Easy Mode to greatly simplify operation, as well as 19 different shooting models and seven special scene modes so you can get the best shot in all situations. It also uses a DIGIC III Image Processor to provide incredible new technologies such as face detection mode and automatic red-eye correction. Canon's A590 IS Powershot also features motion detection technology to automatically reduce blur with moving subjects. Finally, the camera also accepts both wide angle and telephoto lenses to expand your abilities.

The Canon PowerShot A590IS digital camera gets excellent ratings from customers. On Amazon, there are nearly 600 reviews of the camera with the average review being 4.5 stars out of 5. Not too bad for a $100 digital camera! Is this camera going to compete with the more expensive cameras on the market? Not quite, but it is an excellent starter digital camera and also is a great backup camera. So if you are heading out somewhere and do not want to risk your more expensive camera, the Canon A590IS is a perfect substitute and will provide you with great images. So if you are looking for an inexpensive camera that will still perform admirably, then check out this camera!

Nikon D90 Digital SLR camera

I have shot a number of Nikon cameras over the years, both film and digital and both point and shoot and SLR. So I have a bit of experience with the Nikon line of products. As with my prior experiences with Nikon products, I came away extremely pleased with the overall product, yet there were (and usually are with most things in life!) a few things that disappointed. Here is my basic impression of the Nikon D90 digital SLR camera.

I took home the D90 with the basic kit lens, the 18mm to 105mm Nikkor zoom lens. The first thing I did was pull off the lens to get a feel for the body. The body has a nice heft to it, but is light weight and compact as well. It is heavier than some of the the other Nikon cameras like the D60, but not by too much. So it has a solid, substantial feel that is usually indicative of good chassis materials. That is something I like to see in a digital SLR camera body. There is no weatherproofing in the D90, which is a bit of a negative, but then again this is usually seen on higher level cameras.

I reattached the lens and turned on the camera to get a feel for the various function buttons on the camera. At the top of the camera are the basic mode control wheel, the basic readout screen, the on-off switch and a few focus and exposure buttons. On the back of the camera are the large 3" screen and some additional menu and camera control buttons. The menus and settings are straight forward and intuitive. So right off of the bat I was happy with the controls on the camera. The screen on the Nikon D90 was also bright and could even be seen fairly well under bright sunlight... the bane of LCD monitors! The camera also sports a Live View mode, which is great for difficult angles where you cannot get to the viewfinder.

Okay, so now it was time to get shooting! The Nikon D90 digital SLR handled a number of lighting situations quite well. In particular, I was impressed with how well it performed in low light conditions without even using a flash. It has a large range in the ISO settings from 200 to 3200 and you can manually or automatically set the ISO. I was also pleased with how well the D90 did capturing fast action. I tried some action shots in continuous shooting and really enjoyed the quick 4.5 FPS shooting speed. The shooting lag was almost imperceptible.

So how did all of the pictures turn out? While the kit lens is not exactly a high end Nikkor lens, it did a decent job of producing sharp, well corrected images. Yet anyone serious about their imaging will quickly upgrade this lens. Regardless of the lens, however, the camera body did a great job with exposure and focus control. With the Nikon 3D color matrix metering, scene recognition system and auto Active D-Lighting, the D90 body did an excellent job taking my images.

I played around a bit with the video mode, as Nikon really advertised the 720p HD video mode for the D90 camera. The first problem is that there is no autofocus in the video mode. The second problem is that the audio is not very good. Finally, you are limited in how long you can record video. Yet you know what? The Nikon D90 is NOT a video camera! So for me I think the video functions are a bonus. If you can better video, then go pure video.

Another feature is the image sensor cleaning built into the camera body. I was using a pretty new body, so this was not really able to be tested. However it is a feature on other Nikon SLR cameras and is known to work well in keeping the sensor clean.

So overall I was very pleased with the Nikon D90 digital SLR and think it is probably the best camera in its price class. Lots of features, great images and a reasonable price tag for a camera that has more similarities than differences compared to some of the pro cameras on the market.

Like what you have heard about the D90 camera? Then go get the Nikon D90 digital SLR camera!

Welcome to the BeeHawk Digital Camera Review

Hello and welcome to the BeeHawk Digital Camera Review! I am a big fan of consumer electronics and I love photography, so I figure this is the perfect place for me to talk about some of the cameras I have used or reviewed. Some of the cameras I own and some I borrow, but I do try and get my hands on every single one so I can write a good review on it.

Anyways, I hope that you enjoy the blog and come back often!