Is The Canon Powershot Elph 190 Is A Good Camera Review

Smartphones have absolutely decimated the one time robust depression-cost indicate-and-shoot photographic camera market. Five years agone there were dozens of choices available for nether $200, but today the pickings are slim. We've looked at a few inexpensive pocket cameras and found the Canon PowerShot Elph 190 IS ($159.99) to be the best selection. It has a 10x zoom lens, roofing a much longer range than any smartphone, and features Wi-Fi so you can beam photos to your phone for instant sharing online. If you want a small, affordable photographic camera, this is the i to go, and our Editors' Selection, merely information technology does have some disadvantages compared with flagship smartphones.

Design

The Elph 190 IS ($237.21 at Amazon UK) is very small-scale, but ii.two by three.8 past 0.9 inches, and calorie-free at 4.ix ounces. It's the definition of a pocket photographic camera, sliding into your pants or living in your purse. The plastic body features a glossy finish, and is available in black, blue, or red.

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The image sensor packs more than enough resolution for a small camera, 20MP—nosotros'll get into how that influences image quality afterwards. It's paired with a 10x zoom lens, covering a 24-240mm (full-frame equivalent) field of view, with a variable f/3-6.nine aperture. It offers a lot more than range of coverage than you become with any smartphone, just even at its widest angle it captures less than one-half the low-cal equally flagship models from Apple and Samsung—which ways that using it in dim light sans flash isn't an option.

The On/Off button, shutter release, and zoom command are on the peak plate. On the rear you lot'll detect Menu, Play, Record, and Wi-Fi buttons, forth with a four-way directional pad with a middle Func/Set command—Catechism speak for OK. Its directional presses include Auto/Delete, Automobile Zoom, wink control, and Info.

Canon expects most people to use the Elph 190 IS in total automatic way. When it's in this mode you accept no control over exposure, although you can disable the flash if you're taking pictures and don't desire it to fire. The Auto Zoom function simply works in this mode. It uses the Elph's face up detection feature to automatically frame a portrait shot.

You can take a flake more control over your photography if you desire, although at that place'due south no truthful manual exposure way. You can set the photographic camera to Program shooting, which lets you adjust exposure bounty, ISO the metering pattern, and white balance, all via an on-screen overlay card. At that place are also a number of Scene settings, including options to capture fireworks, shoot in dim light, and utilize a long exposure, as well as artistic filters.

The rear LCD is a little small, 2.vii inches, but that's to exist expected given the camera's small frame. It doesn't support touch input, and it isn't that sharp, just 230k dots, only I was able to use it outdoors on a vivid day, and viewing angles are good from the left and right. Information technology does show false colour when viewed at an angle from the top and bottom, and it's non sharp enough to show fine details in images.

The Elph 190 IS boasts built-in Wi-Fi and NFC, and so you tin connect it to your smartphone using the free Canon Camera Connect app, available for Android and iOS. Once continued, images on the Elph'south memory card show on your phone's screen and you lot tin tap to download them. You also become a remote command selection, which lets you fire the photographic camera's shutter using your telephone and zoom the lens in and out.

The only information 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 meaty, but notwithstanding about the same size every bit the camera itself. The battery is rated for 190 shots per accuse. Images are stored on standard SD, SDHC, or SDXC retentiveness.

Operation and Image Quality

The Elph 190 starts, focuses, and fires in almost 1.iv seconds, a adept consequence for a betoken-and-shoot, and it locks focus quickly, in virtually 0.i-second in our standard test. Information technology is quite slow when trying to shoot sequent images. In continuous shooting way there is a 1.5-2d gap between shots. Compare this with a new iPhone, which shoots at a blistering 10fps just past property the shutter push button down.

Yous don't get selectable autofocus points. You lot only have the option to shoot with a center bespeak or with a wide area, although face detection is bachelor for the latter. There's a tracking setting besides. Information technology shows a box with cross hairs at the center of the frame and, in one case you lock focus by pressing the shutter in halfway, it keeps that target in focus for a photograph. It'southward not effective for shooting in burst mode, even so, equally even with the tiresome continuous rate the focus is locked in subsequently the first shot. The Elph isn't a good choice for tracking fast-moving targets for multiple shots; you don't get to see changes to the frame between shots in a burst, then you lot'll quickly lose track of a moving subject.

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I used Imatest to check the sharpness of the Elph'due south lens and the racket in images. At the 24mm f/three setting it scores two,619 lines per moving-picture show elevation on a standard center-weighted sharpness test, an first-class result. Performance is strong through most of the frame, but in typical manner for a pocket camera, the outer edges of images are a bit soft, scoring just 1,643 lines. This is lower than the 1,800 lines we desire to encounter at a bare minimum.

At the 90mm position the aperture has narrowed to f/4, but the Elph even so manages performance as stiff 2,497 lines. Edge quality is worse than at the wide angle, ane,331 lines. At the longest point of zoom, the 240mm f/6.ix position, non only is light-gathering ability limited, the entirety of the epitome is on the soft side, showing ane,688 lines, with edges that drop to 1,321 lines.

The Elph 190 IS uses a CCD image sensor, a design not typically as skillful at the high ISO setting used in dim low-cal—or when shooting in moderate light with a dim lens—when compared with more modern, premium CMOS image sensors. Imatest shows that the photographic camera delivers a decent corporeality of noise, 1.4 pct, even its base ISO 100 sensitivity. Noise increases to, but doesn't exceed, our 1.5 percent threshold at ISO 200.

Agressive in-photographic camera noise reduction kicks in as sensitivity ramps up further. Information technology drops to 1.3 percent at ISO 400 and jumps dorsum to 1.v percent at ISO 800. It'due south non until y'all set the camera to its highest, ISO 1600, that noise exceeds 1.5 percent, hitting the 1.8 percent marking. A close expect at images from our test scene lends some more than insight. Image quality is very potent at ISO 100, and while at that place's some slight blur at ISO 200, it's just that, slight. Image quality is decent at ISO 400 as well. Fine lines are smudged together at ISO 800, and at ISO 1600 the entire frame appears blurred.

When y'all're non taking images in brightly lit outdoor situations, the Elph is more likely to use its higher ISO settings. The reason is the lens. At its widest information technology's an f/3, and narrows to f/4 effectually the midpoint of its zoom, and all the way down to f/half dozen.nine when fully zoomed in. Despite the numbers increasing, this means that the lens captures progressively less light.

If you take a smartphone with an f1/.viii lens, which is pretty typical these days, your phone volition capture nearly iii times equally much light in the same situation, allowing it to utilize a quicker shutter speed (to reduce blur) or a lower ISO (to get a cleaner, sharper prototype) than the Elph. At the telephoto end the difference is even more dramatic—the typical smartphone gathers sixteen times the amount of calorie-free as the Elph. So, yes, the Canon has a big advantage in zooming compared with a smartphone, but it's merely useful in bright situations.

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

Conclusions

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

We're naming the Elph 190 IS our Editors' Choice and awarding it a four-star rating, but it'south not the best camera for anybody. If you're looking for something that'south very cheap, want a good zoom range, and empathize its limitations when compared with the latest Galaxy or iPhone, it's a solid choice. If yous have a bigger budget, you can become a pocket camera that offers a more than articulate-cutting advantage over top-tier phones.

If y'all want a long zoom lens with a more mod CMOS sensor, have a expect at the Sony HX90V. The Olympus TG-five is the best choice for underwater use, and has a bright lens, albeit one with a limited zoom. And the Catechism G7 X Mark II has a brighter lens and an image sensor that's many times larger than that of a smartphone, making information technology a great choice if yous desire a serious image quality upgrade in a pocketable form factor. But these cameras range in price from $450 to $700, placing them in a distinctly premium class compared with the low-cost Elph 190 IS.

Catechism PowerShot Elph 190 IS

The Lesser Line

The Canon PowerShot Elph 190 IS doesn't offer as much as more expensive cameras, only it'southward the best option if y'all're looking for an inexpensive signal-and-shoot.

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