My Canon PowerShot SD890 IS: First Photos

As mentioned previously, I’ve had the Canon PowerShot SD890 for about a month now, and the first real test I ran it through was our trip to Door County, WI last month. I thought I’d share some of my initial reactions and first photos using this little guy.

The first thing I realized when I took it out of the box was that it was small, smaller than I had expected. I don’t know why I was surprised, because after all, one of the reasons I bought this camera in the first place was because it was small and more portable than a full sized DSLR. I guess what made it seem smaller than I anticipated was the fact that my hands and fingers are a little too big for some of the buttons and dials. Nothing I didn’t adapt to after a short while.

The next part that I had to adjust to after 2 years of using my Canon EOS 20D was not having full control and immediate access to everything. I got acquianted with the controls and the menus pretty quickly, and found just about all the settings that were available, but compared to a prosumer DSLR like the 20D, you have to jump through a few more hoops to get to things the way you want them.

For a camera so small, a good part of the backside of it was the screen, which was larger than I’m used to. I’ve shot with Cindy’s Nikon E5600 from time-to-time, so using the LCD instead of the viewfinder isn’t that big of a change for me, but the nice, clear screen on the SD890 made it very effective. Even in bright sunlight, where Cindy’s Nikon sometimes suffers, it was still bright enough to get a good shot.

The video feature works well on the SD890, too, where that LCD display really shines. I’ve only shot a few clips here and there (nothing posted yet), but so far those have played back pretty well both on the camera itself and on my XPS laptop. I don’t know the specs on the video off-hand, but the quality is pretty decent for a small little point-and-shoot. The audio is great, too.

Now, for what really counts… the image quality.

I was pleasantly surprised with how well the SD890 captured true colors with even the basic shooting modes. I had some success with adjusting white balance and exposure settings, but even out of the box or with one of the program (SCN) modes, it held up to the Canon name. As you can see with the colors in the photos here, everything looks crisp and vibrant, and for the few times we had clear skies that weekend, these shots came out great.

When the clouds started to roll in, I did have a little trouble adjusting the exposures to compensate. In all fairness, that is one of my current weakpoints and something that I’m always working on. That aside, I’m pretty happy with the SD890 as my everyday, everywhere camera. Even my wife has started taking a liking to it, which is good because once we’re back in Maui next year, my quality shooting time is going to be spent with my DSLRs. 🙂

Here are a few more photos from our Door County trip taken with my SD890. You can view all the photos (20D and SD890) at my Door County – Sept. ’08 Flickr set and see if you can tell the difference.

Kris Nelson Photography

My Canon PowerShot SD890 IS: First Photos