The Canon S90 is 2009’s best of the smaller digital cameras for those who highly value a 28 mm wide lens, superb low light capability, manual control of shutter and aperture, and RAW capability. There are numerous bonuses, such as the two programmable rings, and a third programmable button, for fast control of things like focus, exposure, ISO, or white balance, instead of scrolling through a hodge podge of menus. If you want a 10x zoom, interchangeable lenses, or a larger camera for your grip, look elsewhere.

I don’t like using flash, and the f 2.0 lens and superb high ISO resolution is wonderful. I took photos in a very dim restaurant took photos of friends and my food, and the photos are clean and fairly noise free at ISO 800, and quite good at ISO 1600. Photos at 3200 are surprisingly good if shooting in dim light, not darkness. If you blow them up, sure you’ll see noise, however on my wide screen monitor, they are quite good. The photos at 1600 and 3200 are not the quality of a new higher end Digital SLR, however at this ISO, they are far, far better than any other “point and shoot” sized camera to date. To be fair, the S90’s chip is a small fraction of the size of an APC or even full frame sensor chip, and thus does a wonderful job in low light. The S90 does “drop” image size to about 1.3 Megapixels to get the ISO 3200 photo if light’s truly dim. This is a minor drawback to some, not if having “a decent” photo is far better than “no” photo to you.

The LCD screen is large and bright. Focusing is easy. Overall picture quality, colr and macro photography are superb. The antishake stabilizes well-I take photos at 1/6 second, and letters on a menu in low light are sharp-slower speeds than that and I brace my arms or camera. While point and shoot cameras can take a few seconds between exposures, the S90 has a “continuous” setting in the “candle” low light mode and in “P” mode, that, as long as your finger presses the shutter button down, it lets you take numerous photos slightly faster than every second, for over a dozen photos, if in decent light.

One drawback-the expensive Canon OEM battery only gives ~200 shots. Canon should put in a more powerful battery. Some cheaper off brand NB-6L compatible batteries offer 1300 mAH instead of Canon’s 1000 mAh NB-6L, and folks have been happy with those batteries in other Canon cameras. 300 more mAh means 30% greater capacity, not a different voltage. Whether you buy Canon OEM, or another brand, it’s best to have two batteries with you. Sometimes 3 batteries as a safety factor if you use the flash a bit, take videos, and will be unable to charge up for a while, Play it safe if you are at a wedding, or once in a lifetime event. Another minor drawback-the back adjustment ring is looser than I’d like, as it can be moved too easily and change settings if you are not vigilant. The front ring around the lens is a dream to work with.

I have used the Nikon D80 and D90 for serious work, and have kept the Canono SD 850 in my pocket to take photos anywhere, anytime. I am in low light often indoors, and the S90 trounces the SD850’s mediocre ISO 400 and up performance. I bought a hard carrying case that slides on my pant’s belt. While the S90 is just a tad too big for fitting in tighter jeans-it fits easily in looser pockets.

This gets 5 stars, and I’ve just started to learn its many capabilities and quirks.

1. Image quality is the about the best you can get in a pocketable camera. First, Canon has made the optics and image sensor as large as possible for a camera this size. Second, they have kept the sensor to 10 megapixels, which means less noise in the images.

2. The LCD screen on the back is full size and makes it easy to compose shots. It also instantaneously shows the effects of changes in exposure compensation, white balance, etc. I really like this feature!

3. The camera has a separate control knob on top for setting the shooting mode, from full automatic to completely manual. Just like a digital SLR!

4. There is a customizable control ring around the lens that makes it possible to adjust a key setting very quickly, without digging through menus or pushing tiny buttons.

5. Another control ring on the back of the camera allows a further setting to be adjusted very quickly. And if that is not enough, there is a programmable shortcut key.

6. The camera is fast for a compact. It turns on in less than one second. Focusing takes a couple of tenths of a second, though your mileage may vary. Once focused, there is no noticeable shutter lag. Get a good memory card for best performance.

For example, I often shoot in aperture priority mode. Here, by default, the lens ring sets the aperture, and the ring on the back of the camera sets the exposure compensation to get your lighting just right. I have set the programmable shortcut key to adjust the white balance. Very efficient!