(pics clagged off dpreview.com)

Got my new camera today… the freakin’ spectacular Canon S90!

I researched and researched ’til my eyeballs hurt from reading reviews non-stop. And this one came out as, by far, the best camera in the market.

I wanted something that was just like my Panasonic Lumix LX3, the camera that got stolen (curse that moron!). That camera was excellent and served me very well. And I was surprised to read that it was actually still considered one of the top of the range, even though it’s been about 2 years since it came out! However, the Canon S90 is very similiar/better, but much smaller and lighter. It’s what I LOVE most about my new camera – it’s the size of a standard “point and shoot”, though the quality is FAR BETTER. Oh, and I refuse to buy an SLR – because let’s face it, those are so freakin’ ugly I can’t bring myself to carry one! So huge and bulky and unattractive.. plus it makes me look like I’m a food blogger trying to be ~professional~ if I whip up a huge SLR in restaurants, no thanks 🙁

I like how this Canon S90 has the size and weight of a regular “point-and-shoot” camera, but has much much much better quality, bringing it to the semi pro range. You can’t even compare to the former, IMHO! Entirely different and I could never use a “point-and-shoot” because they’re so basic and the image quality is so crap.

This Canon S90 has the incredible, special F2.0-4.9 28-105mm stabilized lens, not to mention a 1/1.7″, 0.43 cm² (big!) sensor with high sensitivity, which ‘regular’ small cameras simply don’t have. THIS is what people should look for in a camera, and not the megapixels, because those don’t mean that much (unless you’re printing it out on banner-size paper)! Plus, it shoots in RAW format, which very very very very few small cameras do.

Best bit? It has a control ring built around the lens with multiple functions that you can set, making it feel very much like an proper SLR. The image quality is really, obviously, amazing. I don’t need to do much brightening/saturation in Photoshop, hurray! My 2 favourite features are:

1) Low light setting: one of the options on the dial. Super useful whenever we go for candlelight dinners and I want to take photos without using the flash
2) Macro: very sharp with great fading/blurring of the background. Awesome for all my food photography and still-life macro photography!

It’s considered the current market leader in the semi-pro category and of course much better than regular small cameras.. so if you’re looking for a new camera and don’t mind paying a wee bit more (retails US$399), then you absolutely should get it! Especially since I’ve already done allll the research for you and found the best one 😛 Plus, I like having the same camera as my friends.. I think it’s fun, hehe. Getttt itttttt………

So the following photos are taken with the new Canon S90.. obviously with amateur settings ‘cos I’m still learning my way around it (so what you see below is pretty much on “point and shoot” mode), with no touchups:

My desk at work

Macro of my (very dirty) ring

Mad cute case from my cousin – thanks!!

My dinner tonight at Bellagio

A very tired and frazzled me in the car after work today