Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS produces images of good quality. The biggest issue is noise and loss of detail at relatively slow ISO speeds. The 1/2.33 inch, 12 megapixel sensor recorded noise-free images at ISO 80 and 100, but there's already some noise and slight colour desaturation at ISO 200. ISO 400 shows a little more noise and loss of colour, and ISO 800 and 1600 are even worse, with obvious loss of fine detail and a distinct colour shift. The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS handled chromatic aberrations well, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations and generally at the edges of the frame. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with a little red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds being long enough for most after-dark shots. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 2 cms away from the subject. The images were a little soft straight out of the Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting. The lens exhibits quite obvious barrel distortion at the 37mm wide-angle setting.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
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ISO 80 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% Crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the My Colors menu option.
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Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
| 12M Fine (2.93Mb) (100% Crop) | 12M Normal (1.28Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review, with limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.
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Example 1 (100% Crop) |
Example 2 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 2cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro Shot |
100% Crop |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS are Auto, Flash On, Slow Synchro, and Flash Off, with Red-eye Correction and Red-Eye Lamp settings available via the Flash Settings main menu option. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (37mm) |
Flash On - Wide Angle (37mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (185mm) |
Flash On - Telephoto (185mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, both the Flash On or the Red-eye Correction settings caused a small amount of red-eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye Correction |
Red-eye Correction (100% Crop) |
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Night
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds in the Long Shutter mode, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 5 seconds at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 5 second setting the actual exposure takes 10 seconds.
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Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
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Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/5th / 37mm | |
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| 0.5sec / 185mm | |
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Sample Images
This is a selection of sample images from the Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.
Sample Movie & Video
This is a sample movie at the highest quality setting of 1280x720 pixels at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 20 second movie is 57.9Mb in size.
Product Images
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera / Lens Extended |
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Isometric View |
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Isometric View |
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Rear of the Camera |
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Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed |
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Rear of the Camera / Main Menu |
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Rear of the Camera / Turned On |
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Rear of the Camera / Function Menu |
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Top of the Camera |
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Bottom of the Camera |
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Side of the Camera |
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Side of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Front of the Camera |
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Memory Card Slot |
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Battery Compartment |
Conclusion
The Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS camera is a sound addition to the now extensive IXUS / Elph range, but it doesn't quite offer enough to justify its rather high price tag. $379.99 / £379.00 is a lot of money to pay for what is essentially a point-and-shoot compact, albeit one that's stylish, full-featured, yet still easy to use for the beginner. It also suffers in direct comparison with its predecessor, the IXUS 980 IS, which is still available and offers a lot more to the more experienced photographer, including full manual shooting mode, a live histogram, manual focusing and even more megapixels. If you're looking for a pocket camera to supplement your DSLR, then the 980 IS is clearly the IXUS model to go for. Indeed, in the US, the IXUS 990 IS is called the SD970 IS Digital Elph and is positioned below the older SD980 model, a reflection of its rather different feature set.
In its favour, the Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS does offer a longer 5x, 37-185mm lens and excellent higher-resolution 460,000 dot, 3 inch screen. As with the 980 IS camera, though, the 37mm equivalent wide-angle doesn't seem enough these days when competitors are releasing cameras with 25mm lenses. Also the extensive corner softness and barrel distortion at the 37mm setting effectively mean that you are best off using this camera in the telephoto range. The IXUS 990 IS also suffers from less than stellar images in low-light due to obvious noise appearing at ISO 200 and faster, and the slow continuous shooting speed of 1.0fps is also disappointing. The 1280x720 pixel HD Movie mode promises to tip the balance in the 990's favour, but it quickly fills up your memory card thanks to the space-hungry Quicktime format, suffers from the usual muffled mono sound, and worst of all doesn't allow the zoom to be used during recording.
So overall, the new Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS falls between two camps - it's too expensive for the casual snapper, and doesn't offer enough advanced features for the pros looking for a second pocket camera. It's undoubtedly a really nice camera to use, and therefore still easy to recommend, but there are better and cheaper alternatives, including from Canon themselves.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
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| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 4 |
| Ease-of-use | 4 |
| Image quality | 4 |
| Value for money | 3 |
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Canon Digital IXUS 990 IS from around the web.
steves-digicams.com »
Leading the way for Canon's PowerShot SD line is the new SD970. This compact digicam sports a 5x optical zoom lens with optical image stabilization, Digic 4 image processor, 3-inch PureColor II LCD screen, 720p HD movie mode with HDMI output, i-Contrast technology, Face detection software with a face detection self timer and a whole slew of other built-in features to assist you while shooting. Canon has also given this camera a new menu style, which works the same as the old one, but is more informative when the "hints and tips" option is turned on in the setup menu.
Read the full review »
Specifications
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Zoom |
¹ Depending on the image size selected. |
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AF Modes |
¹ Some settings limit availability |
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Modes |
¹ Recording pixels fixed at 1600 x 1200. |
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Continuous Shooting |
¹ Under conditions where the flash does not fire. |
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Movie Length |
¹ Depending on memory card speed / capacity / compression setting. |
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Battery life |
¹ Using the batteries and memory card format supplied with the camera (where included), except where indicated. |
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* Standard Output Sensitivity / Recommended Exposure Index. |
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According to ISO 12232:2006 (20th April 2006) which specifies the method for assigning and reporting ISO speed ratings for digital still cameras. |
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All data is based on Canon standard testing methods (according to CIPA Standards) except where indicated. |
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