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I'm looking for another compact digi to carry around at all times in my
pocket. One that has caught my
eye is this Canon A590 IS. I have looked at reviews here and there it it
seems OK but all the things on
my want list are not mentioned in some reviews.

-----------------------
When it comes to the viewfinder (this is a MUST ... I *want* a viewfinder as
trying to use the screen on
sunny days or when panning is not great. I did read about this camera......

You can frame your pictures with the color LCD or to save precious battery
power you can use the optical viewfinder. This is a "coupled" viewfinder
with approximately 80% to 85% coverage and has no dioptic adjustment.
------------------------

Yeah, right! What exactly am I getting here then ? Does this mean that if
I frame using the viewfinder I could cut the edges
off the subject because the result is bigger ? OR is it the other way
round, the result is smaller then what I see, in which case
the end result may be smaller but it won't have bits cut off ? The camera I
need to replace is an old Olympus C350Z which
has done me very well until the results with flash are stopping the aperture
down and making the shots dark ... no control
over this. With THIS camera's viewfinder the final image is smaller than
what I see. I really want what I see to be what I
get but if this is not the case with compact digis then I'd rather have that
than end result hanging out of the frame.

Another very important annoyance with my camera is that when you replace the
AA batteries it loses date and time !!! This
is a REAL pain. I do need to be able to use AAs as I don't want to be stuck
in a situation where I can't pop into a local shop
and get a handful of batteries to keep me going when I'm out and about.

I also want to be able to get in close to shoot at close range
(close-up/macro .... shooting insects and the likes).

Can anyone who has used the A590 comment on the above, or if anyone has a
camera in a similar price range which has
the features I need and produces good quality shots.

Cheers,


Woody

On Mon, 2 Jun 2008 16:31:22 +0100, "Ian Woodrow"
<> wrote:

> Does this mean that if
>I frame using the viewfinder I could cut the edges
>off the subject because the result is bigger ?

Yes. The viewfinder will display approximately 85% of the captured
image. In other words, the actual image will cover 15% greater area
than the optical viewfinder displayed.

>Another very important annoyance with my camera is that when you replace the
>AA batteries it loses date and time !!!

The A590 has a separate lithium button battery that maintains
settings. You can leave the AAs out for months and not lose the date.
>
>I also want to be able to get in close to shoot at close range
>(close-up/macro .... shooting insects and the likes).

The macro range has a minimum close focusing distance of 5cm
(2 inches).



jimbok

BobW wrote:
>
> If you don't need aperture/shutter priority and/or full manual control
> then you should look at the SD line because they're easier to carry
> around and they don't use AA batteries. If you do want the manual
> control and you can live with a little larger camera and the AA
> batteries then you should look at the SX100. It has a longer zoom and
> a closer macro than the A590.
>
I don't believe the SX100 has a viewfinder, which the OP seemed rather
keen on. Not many of the SDs have viewfinders either, and being able
to use AA batteries seems to be on the OPs want list too.

I have two compacts with viewfinders and take AAs - Olympus SP-350 and
Fuji E900. I have no problems with losing date & time when changing
batteries, but both these models are currently discontinued, although
still occasionally available refurbished.

Close up conversion lenses are available for many compacts.
--
Alex Monro
Exeter, UK
Running on Linux (Kubuntu 7.1)

Ian Woodrow wrote:
> I'm looking for another compact digi to carry around at all times in my
> pocket. One that has caught my
> eye is this Canon A590 IS. I have looked at reviews here and there it it
> seems OK but all the things on
> my want list are not mentioned in some reviews.

My wife has the A570 IS which should be the same other than the sensor
resolution (something I intentionally wanted lower due to noise issues
on the smaller, higher megapixel sensors). She uses the viewfinder a
lot, and the inclusion of a viewfinder was an absolute requirement (for
the same reasons that you stated). The actual photo covers more than the
viewfinder shows, so you can crop to get exactly what you want (of
course at a slight loss of resolution).

Time and date are not lost when changing batteries, they are maintained
by a CR1220 lithium cell.

The only real negative about these cameras is that the AA batteries are
a real pain in the butt. Yeah, you can pop in to any shop to change
them, which is a good thing! I use the Sanyo Eneloop batteries. I
probably get 1/2 the number of shots that I get with my SD800IS which
has the same sensor (but it is smaller and it has a wide-angle lens).
With one spare $10 battery I'm not likely to need to pop-in anywhere to
buy AA batteries, and the charger is very small. The Macro is down to
3cm versus 5cm on the A590IS. Alas, the SD800IS is discontinued. It was
the only Canon sub-compact with both a wide-angle lens and an optical
viewfinder.