Canon PowerShot Pro90 IS

With its impressive electronics and elegant design, Canon is on to a winner with this camera.

The top prize in the fully featured category of our digital camera group test was awarded to Canon's PowerShot G1. Now Canon's back with its Pro90 IS, a camera described as the flagship of the PowerShot range. But can it really improve on the G1?

First things first: the Pro90 IS is not a cheap camera. At £1099 inc VAT, it costs £300 more than the G1, which itself is at the upper price range of 3.3megapixel models. Speaking of resolution, the Pro90 IS may well house a 3.3megapixel CCD but, like Sony's F505v, its optical design only allows you to effectively use 2.6 of them.

This results in a maximum image resolution of 1856 x 1392 pixels, compared to the full 2048 x 1536 pixels of a proper 3.3megapixel image. In use, the images definitely resolve fractionally less detail than a full 3.3 model but, to be honest, it's not much to worry about.

From here on, almost everything else about the Pro90 IS is positive. The curvy design is extremely comfortable and reminiscent of Canon's vintage PowerShot Pro70. The electronics are essentially the same as the award-winning G1.

One of the best features of the Pro90 IS is the whopping 10x optical motorised zoom lens that has a focal length equivalent in coverage to a 37-370mm lens on a 35mm camera; the actual specification is 7-70m, f2.8~3.5.

Better still, the IS stands for image stabilisation, and the Pro90 IS can (optionally) eliminate enough shakes for hand-holding exposures or focal lengths of at least double what you'd normally get away with. The closest focusing distance is 10cm, although sadly there isn't a dedicated macro mode for getting any closer; a 58mm thread takes filters or an optional close-up attachment.

Composition is via an electronic viewfinder or an extremely bright and sharp 1.8in TFT display which can be flipped out and adjusted to any angle. Canon has also reused the excellent LCD status panel of the G1.

Three resolutions are offered at three levels of jpeg compression - best-quality jpegs measure around 1.8Mb, and look great. Canon supplies a 16Mb Compact Flash card, and the slot welcomes IBM's MicroDrive.

Rather than a tiff mode, the Pro90 IS employs Canon's proprietary RAW format. This takes the raw CCD information untouched by sharpening or white balancing, and compresses it to around 2.7Mb - a lot more manageable than storing huge uncompressed tiffs in the camera.

You'll need to use Canon's software to download and process the RAW files into tiffs on your PC, but it's a shame the camera still isn't mapped as a drive from which you can drag out normal jpegs or movie clips. Speaking of which, you can record up to 30 seconds of 320 x 240 video at 15fps. There's also software that can control the camera remotely from the PC using the USB cable.

The Pro90 IS is all about proper photographic control, and enthusiasts will welcome the dial selecting aperture or shutter priority, manual mode and all manner of auto settings. There are 40 shutter speeds from eight seconds to 1/1000, and 10 aperture settings. Compensation is offered from +/-2EV in 1/3EV steps, and there's automatic noise reduction, spot or centre-weighted metering, manual focus and exposure bracketing.

Along with the usual options for the pop-up flash, there's a full TTL Hotshoe for external Canon Speedlites. The Pro90 IS also offers a great 50 ISO mode which, while requiring twice as much light as standard 100 ISO, further reduces electronic noise on images.

There's no doubt that the Pro90 IS is a superb camera, and worthy of the flagship title, but it's a lot of money. The Olympus E10, with a proper SLR optical design and 4megapixel resolution, is only £250 more. However, it only has a four-speed zoom, and this is where the Pro90 IS really scores.

Only the Olympus C-2100 Ultra Zoom can match it's 10x zoom, but it's in a boxy design housing a 2.1megapixel CCD.

If you're desperate for the long image-stabilised lens and some of the best features around, the Pro90 IS is your only choice - just try to forget that it isn't quite using all of its 3.3megapixels.

Contact
Canon: 0121 666 6262 www.canon.co.uk