Canon PowerShot Pro90 IS review

[MICHAEL WOODY]

Initially expensive this gem of a dig cam was the best of its kind during the short time Canon released it. The 10x optical IS is excellent and I have have the 10x shots to prove it. Canon spent over a year developing the IS 10X lens and finally had to compromise with the effective/croped to 2.6 mp.. I have owned it since it came out and have had every problem you can name but still love the quality of the 10x IS. But the problems are signifcant if you are primarily a candid photographer as I am. Using an external flash I was able to get the eyes of a leopard in a tree more than 200 feet away up in the branches laying down and looking right at me. Analog film is great but always risking film handling -developing problems and always waiting to know what pics are the great ones is too tedius for me now. Its a shame Canon gave up on the Powershot 10x IS concept and just went for the smaller but bigger money maker smaller cams.

Problems:

Powershot Pro 90IS IS THE WORST BATTERY HOG I HAVE EVER KNOWN. THE TWIST ON POWER KNOB WORE OUT AND HAD TO PAY TO HAVE IT REPAIRED. THE FIRMWARE UPDATE DID NOTHING TO HELP THE BATTERY PROBLEM THAT I COULD SEE. I OWN 7 BATTERYS AND TAKE ABOUT 100-200 PICS A DAY AND USE ALL SEVEN. I PURCHASED CANON BATTERIES AND NOT THE AFTER MARKET ONES. THEY JUST LOWER THE VOLATAGE TO 7.2 TO (GIVE) YOU THE IMPRESSION THE BATTERY IS MORE POWERFUL.
AND YES THIS CAMERA TAKES FOREVER TO TURN ON AND FOCUS CORRECTLY. BUT IT WAS THE BEST COMPROMISE FOR ITS TIME.