The Canon PowerShot SD990 IS is at the mid-to-high end of Canon's compact point-and-shoot lineup. A 14.7-megapixel camera with a 3.7x optical zoom, the SD990 IS comes in at a hefty $399.99. It does sport some manual features that other point-and-shoots lack, but it's questionable whether these justify the cost. The Canon PowerShot SD990 IS is scheduled to hit store shelves in October of 2008.
Conclusion The Canon PowerShot SD990 IS is something of a conundrum. It's a 14.7-megapixel camera with a 3.7x optical zoom and advanced manual features that are difficult to access compared to other higher-priced cameras. At $399.99 it seems a bit expensive for what you get. Sure there are more megapixels on board than less expensive point-and-shoots, but once you get past 9 or 10MP, specs it doesn't really matter much.
If the more advanced manual features are really important to you, we'd advise spending the extra $100 for something like the G10. If they're not important to you, save $100 bucks or so and move down the scale where you lose those features but can pick up an even better optical zoom with something like the Panasonic Lumix TZ5S. Overall it seems like the Canon PowerShot SD990 IS is an in-between camera without a well-defined market.
Likes
- Attractive design
- Manual controls
Dislikes
- Expensive
- Manual controls are difficult to use