Electronics : Canon PowerShot A590 IS Digital Camera (8.0 MP, 4xOptical Zoom) 2.5" LCD

Rating: - Canon PowerShot A590 IS
I have now been using this camera for 6 months and find it easy to operate.Like all technology you just have to make yourself aware of the contents of the user guide which is comprehensive.
The still and video results are very good both in detail and colour.I always use large or widescreen for stills and highest resolution for video.Get a couple of large capacity SD cards, I am using 2GB but think a 4GB would be useful.
You only get the one chance for some of those perfect shots so why spoil quality by using a lower resolution.
I have used the lower settings for E bay pics.only.
My only disappointment is that I cannot crop pictures within the camera (yes I can do it on my computer) or use optical zoom while taking video, unlike my wife who can with her Nikon coolpix, of which I am regulary reminded!
Stephen

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Rating: - Point and Shoot Heaven
This is a great little point and shoot camera and really well suited to less experienced photographers. I did plenty of research on the subject with specific requirements as follows:

Optical Viewfinder - This has several advantages, it dramatically improves battery life by enabling the camera to be used without the 2.5" LCD screen and it allows the camera to be used more traditionally (and intuitively) by putting it up to the eye. The image in the optical viewfinder does zoom in and out with the lens, so you take what you see.

High ISO - The camera goes up to 1600 ASA which means that it can be used to take pictures in very low light conditions without using a flash. This is really useful at concerts where it is undesirable to use a flash.

AA Batteries - Rechargeable camera batteries are really good if you have a PC or USB type charger, but these aren't always available. Using standard AA batteries make this camera slightly larger than the average (which is no bad thing) and with a more usable power source in an emergency. I also bought some re-chargeable batteries and a charger.

X4 Optical Zoom - This zoom is really useful, the norm on this type of camera is X3 but again at concerts a x4 allows you to get closer. Digital zooms are hopeless and simply degrade the image quality to achieve dubious zoom results.

Easy Mode - For people that neither know or want to know about aperture and shutter priority, ISO speed settings etc. and that want a simple point and click camera, the Canon easy mode is a real boon.

The picture quality is excellent as you would expect from a Canon camera, and the camera refresh speed (the time it takes the camera to store the last picture and be ready to take a second) is less than 2 seconds.

The camera will also take movies at 20 frames per second (enough for most applications) but be aware, the zoom doesn't work in movie mode, but this is a trivial point.

If what you're looking for is an easy to use, point and click camera that is robust, well thought through and that takes excellent pictures, then this is it. At 8m pixels, the images can be blown up to larger than A4 size, which is usually enough. The charcoal case also makes it look classy. I would strongly recommend buying the additional Canon Powershot case (it doesn't come with a case) and a 2GB SD card (it comes with a 32MB card, enough for about 12 pictures only) for it.

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Rating: - Absolute bargain for the price
Just bought this camera in the US taking advantage of the exchange rate (about £85!). Its great, my old Fuji was sadly left on a bus in Denver Airport so I needed a replacement, and this unit has everything my old Fuji had and about a million more improvements. Picture quality is great and its easy to use if like me you have no idea on most of the settings. Best of all the unit takes AA and I have a stack of rechargable ones available, cameras with the bespoke LI-ion batteries never charge properly outside of the country they are bought in so its much better to get AA which work worldwide. Cannot recommend this unit enough.

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Rating: - Pretty good
First, the camera colour is sort of tungsteny (it looks a weird brown colour in the Amazon pics) which makes it look very classy in the flesh.

It's *very* well thought out in terms of how it works.

It's an SLR in all but actually being an SLR so if you want to go fully manual as well as Program, Aperture and Shutter priorities, you can do so. It also has an Easy mode and an Auto mode, if you don't want to do much thinking.

It has an amazing amount of functionality if you do want to do some thinking.

It does have a little purple fringing at times but I guess that's par for the course.

It is a tad barrel-ly at the wide end of the lens and pictures can be a little soft at times.

Colours are good.

Apart from that it's very nice indeed and for the price is just fine. It's got me in the mood for a DSLR... must resist, must resist...

You get a printed Getting Started guide (which is no more than that) and a CD with the full manual on (200 pages) which its best to print out and read (not as daunting as it looks and this will pay back in spades).

The software with it is pretty good too (there are more manuals for this...!)

So, one star off for not giving us a full printed manual then.

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Rating: - A great camera for the money
I am so impressed, great quality pictures, easy to use, and lots of fetures if you want to use something other than auto mode"

If you are unsure of what to go for, you will not go wrong with one of these.