Canon Powershot S90 Samples

With the Powershot S90 and G11, Canon took a bold step to reduce the resolution of their flagship cameras from 14 to 10 megapixels. This is exactly where it pays off. For the first time, an ultra-compact is getting close in ISO performance to a Fuji F-series camera.

Although the Canon Powershot S90 still appears about one step behind the Fuji Finepix F200EXR, considering the compromise between details retention and noise reduction, the S90's ace is an F2 lens which can shoot up to one stop faster than the Fuji's. This means that in a given situation, the Canon can match the F200EXR's output quality more or less. It is worth noting that the G11 does not feature such a fast lens.

There is more to image quality than image noise, which we can observe from the crops above. These shots are all done using custom white-balance it shows that the Fuji can deliver better color accuracy. When using AWB though, the Canon's system is more reliable though, so when left on their own the S90 will generally have better color accuracy. Detail retention is better on the Fuji as well.