Product Titlecanon Powershot Elph 190 Is Digital Camera (Blue) Review

Smartphones have absolutely decimated the once robust low-toll betoken-and-shoot photographic camera market. Five years ago in that location were dozens of choices available for under $200, merely today the pickings are slim. We've looked at a few cheap pocket cameras and establish the Canon PowerShot Elph 190 IS ($159.99) to be the best option. It has a 10x zoom lens, covering a much longer range than any smartphone, and features Wi-Fi so you tin beam photos to your phone for instant sharing online. If you desire a pocket-sized, affordable camera, this is the one to become, and our Editors' Choice, just it does take some disadvantages compared with flagship smartphones.

Pattern

The Elph 190 IS ($199.00 at Amazon Canada) is very pocket-size, just 2.2 by 3.8 by 0.9 inches, and light at iv.9 ounces. It's the definition of a pocket camera, sliding into your pants or living in your purse. The plastic torso features a glossy stop, and is available in black, blue, or blood-red.

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The paradigm sensor packs more than enough resolution for a minor photographic camera, 20MP—we'll go into how that influences paradigm quality later on. It's paired with a 10x zoom lens, covering a 24-240mm (total-frame equivalent) field of view, with a variable f/3-6.9 aperture. It offers a lot more range of coverage than you get with any smartphone, but even at its widest angle it captures less than half the low-cal every bit flagship models from Apple and Samsung—which means that using information technology in dim light sans wink isn't an option.

The On/Off push, shutter release, and zoom control are on the top plate. On the rear you'll observe Menu, Play, Record, and Wi-Fi buttons, along with a four-way directional pad with a heart Func/Fix control—Catechism speak for OK. Its directional presses include Auto/Delete, Auto Zoom, wink control, and Info.

Canon expects most people to use the Elph 190 IS in full automatic mode. When it's in this style you have no command over exposure, although you can disable the flash if you're taking pictures and don't want it to fire. The Automobile Zoom function only works in this mode. Information technology uses the Elph'southward face detection feature to automatically frame a portrait shot.

You can take a bit more than control over your photography if you lot want, although there's no true transmission exposure mode. Y'all can set the photographic camera to Program shooting, which lets you adjust exposure compensation, ISO the metering blueprint, and white remainder, all via an on-screen overlay menu. There are also a number of Scene settings, including options to capture fireworks, shoot in dim light, and use a long exposure, as well as artistic filters.

The rear LCD is a little small, two.seven inches, only that's to be expected given the camera's small frame. It doesn't support touch on input, and it isn't that sharp, just 230k dots, but I was able to use it outdoors on a bright day, and viewing angles are skillful from the left and right. Information technology does show false color when viewed at an angle from the top and bottom, and it'south not sharp enough to prove fine details in images.

The Elph 190 IS boasts congenital-in Wi-Fi and NFC, and then yous can connect it to your smartphone using the costless Canon Camera Connect app, bachelor for Android and iOS. Once connected, images on the Elph'due south retentivity card show on your telephone'south screen and you lot can tap to download them. Yous as well become a remote control option, which lets you burn down the camera's shutter using your telephone and zoom the lens in and out.

The only data port is a standard, albeit dated, mini USB connector, used for data transfer. The battery is removable and rechargeable using the included wall adapter; it features a design with an integrated, fold-in AC plug, so it's compact, but still most the same size equally the photographic camera itself. The battery is rated for 190 shots per charge. Images are stored on standard SD, SDHC, or SDXC memory.

Performance and Image Quality

The Elph 190 starts, focuses, and fires in nearly one.4 seconds, a good consequence for a bespeak-and-shoot, and it locks focus quickly, in about 0.i-second in our standard test. Information technology is quite slow when trying to shoot consecutive images. In continuous shooting fashion there is a one.5-2d gap between shots. Compare this with a new iPhone, which shoots at a blistering 10fps simply by property the shutter push downwardly.

You don't get selectable autofocus points. Y'all just have the option to shoot with a middle point or with a wide area, although face detection is bachelor for the latter. At that place'southward a tracking setting as well. It shows a box with cantankerous hairs at the center of the frame and, once you lock focus by pressing the shutter in halfway, it keeps that target in focus for a photograph. It's non effective for shooting in flare-up fashion, however, as even with the ho-hum continuous rate the focus is locked in after the first shot. The Elph isn't a good choice for tracking fast-moving targets for multiple shots; you don't get to come across changes to the frame between shots in a burst, and so y'all'll speedily lose track of a moving subject field.

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I used Imatest to check the sharpness of the Elph's lens and the noise in images. At the 24mm f/three setting it scores 2,619 lines per film height on a standard eye-weighted sharpness test, an excellent event. Performance is strong through nearly of the frame, but in typical manner for a pocket camera, the outer edges of images are a bit soft, scoring just one,643 lines. This is lower than the one,800 lines nosotros want to encounter at a bare minimum.

At the 90mm position the aperture has narrowed to f/4, but the Elph nevertheless manages performance equally strong 2,497 lines. Edge quality is worse than at the wide angle, 1,331 lines. At the longest point of zoom, the 240mm f/six.9 position, non just is low-cal-gathering ability express, the entirety of the image is on the soft side, showing 1,688 lines, with edges that drib to one,321 lines.

The Elph 190 IS uses a CCD image sensor, a design non typically as good at the high ISO setting used in dim light—or when shooting in moderate light with a dim lens—when compared with more modernistic, premium CMOS image sensors. Imatest shows that the photographic camera delivers a decent amount of dissonance, 1.4 percent, even its base ISO 100 sensitivity. Dissonance increases to, but doesn't exceed, our 1.5 percentage threshold at ISO 200.

Agressive in-photographic camera noise reduction kicks in as sensitivity ramps up further. It drops to ane.3 percent at ISO 400 and jumps back to 1.5 percentage at ISO 800. It's non until you lot set the camera to its highest, ISO 1600, that racket exceeds 1.5 percent, hit the 1.8 percent mark. A close wait at images from our exam scene lends some more insight. Prototype quality is very stiff at ISO 100, and while in that location'south some slight blur at ISO 200, it'south just that, slight. Epitome quality is decent at ISO 400 as well. Fine lines are smudged together at ISO 800, and at ISO 1600 the unabridged frame appears blurred.

When you're not taking images in brightly lit outdoor situations, the Elph is more likely to utilize its higher ISO settings. The reason is the lens. At its widest it's an f/3, and narrows to f/4 around the midpoint of its zoom, and all the way downwardly to f/6.9 when fully zoomed in. Despite the numbers increasing, this means that the lens captures progressively less calorie-free.

If you have a smartphone with an f1/.8 lens, which is pretty typical these days, your telephone will capture nearly three times every bit much light in the same state of affairs, allowing it to use a quicker shutter speed (to reduce blur) or a lower ISO (to go a cleaner, sharper paradigm) than the Elph. At the telephoto terminate the difference is even more dramatic—the typical smartphone gathers 16 times the amount of low-cal as the Elph. And then, yes, the Canon has a big advantage in zooming compared with a smartphone, only it'southward simply useful in brilliant situations.

Video is some other drawback compared with the latest crop of phones, nigh of which have 4K recording adequacy at this point. The Elph doesn't even do 1080p—its video is 720p at 30fps. Despite not packing a lot of pixels, details are clear, and while the high base of operations noise means the footage is on the grainy side, the camera does a solid job keeping handheld video steady using its optical stabilization system, fifty-fifty at maximum zoom.

Conclusions

The Catechism PowerShot Elph 190 IS has a few big advantages over a flagship smartphone—a long zoom lens, a low asking price, and a lack of recurring monthly payments to name a few. It besides has some drawbacks—the CCD sensor means that high ISO image quality isn't there, and those more sensitive settings will exist used in middling light due to the modest f-finish.

We're naming the Elph 190 IS our Editors' Selection and awarding information technology a 4-star rating, but it's not the best camera for everyone. If you're looking for something that'due south very inexpensive, want a good zoom range, and sympathise its limitations when compared with the latest Galaxy or iPhone, it's a solid option. If you accept a bigger budget, you lot tin can get a pocket photographic camera that offers a more lucent advantage over summit-tier phones.

If y'all desire a long zoom lens with a more modern CMOS sensor, accept a look at the Sony HX90V. The Olympus TG-v is the all-time choice for underwater use, and has a vivid lens, albeit one with a limited zoom. And the Canon G7 X Mark II has a brighter lens and an image sensor that's many times larger than that of a smartphone, making it a not bad choice if you lot want a serious image quality upgrade in a pocketable form gene. Simply these cameras range in cost from $450 to $700, placing them in a distinctly premium class compared with the depression-cost Elph 190 IS.

Canon PowerShot Elph 190 IS

The Lesser Line

The Canon PowerShot Elph 190 IS doesn't offer every bit much as more expensive cameras, but information technology'south the best choice if you're looking for an inexpensive point-and-shoot.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/canon-powershot-elph-190-is

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