Canon Powershot S90 IS Initial Impressions: Build Quality

Canon Powershot S90 IS Initial Impressions: Build Quality
Sunday, October 11, 2009

I admit to having a slight bias against Canon. Maybe it's the New Yorker in me, but I tend to root for the underdog. Despite this slight bias, I've purchased a lot of Canon cameras. More than any other brand. Thing is, Canon knows how to build a serious compact.

I'm impressed with the S90 build quality:

- Battery/SD door is firm and heavy duty
- Dial around lens has a good, smooth resistance with satisfying clicks at each adjustment
- Body is metal with no creaking or play
- Parts are tapered and well fitted without gaps, similar to an Apple laptop
- Flash extends and retracts without any sense of wobble
- Mode dial has the right amount of resistance and feels sturdy
- Buttons are all firm with good action
- On/off button is nicely recessed unlike *many* other compacts
- Good crisp feel, travel, and responsiveness to the shutter release
- Rear dial lacks resistance, but that has not been problematic in any way

Two small issues:

- The dial around the lens is plastic and has a touch of play.
- The LCD on my brand new S90 had a couple extremely fine/subtle scratches on it straight out of the box. This makes me wonder whether it scratches easily. Time will tell!

Did I mention that this camera is very compact? Here it is next to a GRD III. Please excuse the poor picture quality.

Posted by Amin

Comments (12)

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Linh 36p · 808 weeks ago

Is the dial around the lens only for settings like shutter and aperture, or focus, or both? Given it "clicks" it sounds like it's only for settings.

I think the comparison is actually a testament to how small the GRD III is, heh.

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1 reply · active 808 weeks ago

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amin 67p · 808 weeks ago

The dial can control manual focus if that is what you assign. In that case, the manual focus is adjusted in clicks rather than smoothly, but it seems to work out okay. Unfortunately the camera doesn't remember where you leave the focus if you power off and on. It will remember the zoom setting after a power cycle if you have zoom assigned to the dial.

Regarding the GRD, as well made as the Canon is, the GRD feels that much nicer. The weight, size, and grip on the GRD are just perfect IMO. Controls on the GRD are also superior (IMO). More on that to come.

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Spyro · 808 weeks ago

Re manual focus, does the camera give you any sort of indication how far you've set the focus point? Like a distance scale on the LCD, like the LX3 has? This is crucial for setting hyperfocal distance, which is all you need at the wide end.

Not remembering the focus setting is a pain but only a software limitation. Maybe Canon will fix it later with a firmware update, like Panasonic did with their here today -gone toorrow update :)

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1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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amin 67p · 808 weeks ago

Yes, there is a distance scale on the LCD when setting manual focus. I'm hoping for a firmware update just as you mention, but Canon's not exactly known for continued improvements through firmware.

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Spyro · 808 weeks ago

Ahhh nice, thanks.

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Bokehmon · 808 weeks ago

If you could choose either the S90 or GRD3, which would you get and why?

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nemo66 · 808 weeks ago

If u ask me ;-) i would choose without thinking the GRDIII.
And to be sincere, that´s what i already have done.

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1 reply · active 808 weeks ago

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Bokehmon · 808 weeks ago

It's $200 more than the S90, uses the same sensor, and lacks zoom. Why was it worth $200 more for you?

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Enche · 807 weeks ago

The build quality is no where near Ricoh GRD3 or LX3. It is surprisingly more plasticky and reflective than I thought. The round dial and buttons are also plasticky and donot have solid feel to it.

However, I appreciate the two dials (2 round dials - lens + back) this will make changing setting blazingly fast.

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2 replies · active 807 weeks ago

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amin 67p · 807 weeks ago

I've read a number of comments from others, along the lines of what you have written, and I feel as though I got a different camera. The buttons on my S90 feel more solid than the buttons/switch on my D-LUX 4 and the LX3s I have tried. The dial is no doubt plasticky, and the loose rear dial has now become annoying since it sometimes changes exposure compensation without my intention for that to happen. The GRD3 feels better built than both S90 and LX3, but you pay for that!

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gduran · 793 weeks ago

with the GRD3 it is possible that at some point you will end up with dust inside your lens, which after your warranty is over, is almost $300 to clean it

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shandrew 11p · 789 weeks ago

Just a bit late here...but anyway:

My S90 takes terrific photos and has excellent controls. However, I found the build quality to be worse than expected, especially for a $400+ compact. My previous pocket camera was a Canon SD200 (~$300, 2005), which felt more solid and indestructible. In contrast, the S90 creaks in some spots and the convex buttons don't have as good of a tactile feel as the concave buttons on the SD200. The directional buttons on the dial feel cheap.The on/off button is difficult to distinguish from the ring-function button. On the good side, the shutter button (the most important!) is perfect on the S90.

The good news is that the average build quality doesn't detract from the awesome photos the camera can take and probably has minimal correlation to how durable the S90 will be.