The once strong, low-cost market for point-and-shoot cameras has been decimated by smartphones. There were many options for less than $200 five years ago, but these days there are fewer choices. The Canon PowerShot Elph190 IS (£159.99) was our top choice. The 10x zoom lens allows for a wider range of shots than smartphones. It also features Wi-Fi, which lets you beam images to your smartphone and share them online instantly. This is a great camera for those who want a smaller, more affordable option. However, it has some drawbacks compared to flagship phones.
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Design
The Elph190 IS is small at just 2.2x3.8x0.9inches and lightweight at only 4.9 ounces. This is the perfect pocket camera. It can be worn in your jeans or carried around in your bag. Available in red, blue or black colors, the plastic body has a shiny finish.
The image sensor packs more than enough resolution for a small camera, 20MP—we'll get into how that influences image quality later. The image sensor is paired with an 10x zoom lens that covers a field of view measuring 24-240mm. It also has a variable aperture of f/3-6.9. 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 light as flagship models from Apple and Samsung—which means that using it in dim light sans flash isn't an option.
You will find the On/Off and shutter release buttons, as well as zoom controls, on top. On the rear you'll find Menu, Play, Record, and Wi-Fi buttons, along with a four-way directional pad with a center Func/Set control—Canon speak for OK. Its directional presses include Auto/Delete, Auto Zoom, flash control, and Info.
Canon assumes that most users will use the Elph 190 IS fully automatic. You can't control the exposure when it is in this mode. However, you can turn off flash for photos that you don't wish to have lit. This mode is the only one that allows you to use Auto Zoom. To automatically frame portrait shots, it uses Elph’s facial detection feature.
Although there is no manual exposure mode, you can have some more control of your photos. The camera can be set to Program shooting. This allows you to adjust the exposure compensation, ISO, metering patterns, white balance and more via an overlay menu. You can also set the camera to Scene, which allows you to shoot in low light and capture fireworks.
Although the rear LCD measures 2.7 inches in size, that is to be expected considering the small camera's frame. The LCD doesn't allow touch input and is very blurry at 230k dots. However, I was able use the camera outdoors with bright sunlight and good viewing angles from both sides. The top and bottom angles can show it false colors. It's also not sharp enough for images to display fine details.
You can use the Canon Camera Connect app for Android or iOS to connect your Elph 190 IS with Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth. After connecting, the Elph's images will appear on your smartphone's screen. You can then tap to download them. Remote control is also available. This allows you to fire up the shutter of the camera using your smartphone and zoom in or out.
Only one data port, although it is outdated, is the standard mini USB connector that allows data transfer. It can be removed and recharged using an included wall adapter. The design includes an integrated AC plug that folds in so it is compact but not as large as the actual camera. It can take 190 photos per charge. Images can be stored in standard SDHC or SDXC storage.
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High Performance and Quality Image
The Elph 190 fires, focuses and starts in 1.4 seconds. This is a great result for a point and shoot camera. It also locks focus fast, taking a standard test of 0.1 seconds. When trying to take consecutive shots, it is slow. Continuous shooting mode has a gap of 1.5 seconds between each shot. This is compared to a brand new iPhone that shoots at an incredible 10fps by simply holding down the shutter button.
You don't get selectable autofocus points. While you have two options for focusing, the center point and wide-area shooting are not available. Face detection is possible with the latter. You can also set the tracking option. The box has crosshairs in the middle of it. Once you press the shutter in halfway, the target will remain in focus. The Elph is not used for burst shooting, because even at a slow steady rate, the focus remains locked in after each shot. It is not a great choice to track fast moving targets in multiple shots. You don't see any changes between shots so it can be difficult to keep your eye on a subject that's changing.
Imatest was used to test the Elph lens' sharpness and noise. It scores 2,619 lines per image height at the 24-mm f/3 setting on an average center-weighted sharpness check. This is an outstanding result. Although the performance is excellent throughout the frame, it scores just 1,643 lines at the edges. This is typical for a pocket-sized camera. It is less than we would like to see 1,800 lines.
The aperture narrows to f/4 at 90mm, however the Elph maintains a performance of 2,497 lines. The edges are less sharp than those at the wider angle (1,331 lines). The longest zoom point, a 240mm position at f/6.9, is not only limited in light-gathering capability, but the entire image shows 1,688 lines with 1,321 lines around the edges.
The Elph 190 IS uses a CCD image sensor, a design not 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 modern, premium CMOS image sensors. Imatest results show that even at its lowest ISO 100 setting, the camera produces 1.4 percent noise. The noise level at ISO 200 is higher than the 1.5 percent threshold, but not above it.
As the sensitivity increases, an aggressive in-camera noise suppression kicks in. At ISO 400, it drops to 1.31% and at ISO 800 jumps to 1.5%. When you turn the ISO 1600 setting to maximum, noise levels rise above 1.5 percent. This is when the ISO 800 mark becomes apparent. You can see more details in the images taken from our test scene. The ISO 100 images are very sharp. There is some blurring at ISO 200 but it's not significant. The ISO 400 image quality also looks good. At ISO 800 fine lines appear blurred, while at ISO 1600 all frames seem blurred.
The Elph will be more inclined to use its ISO setting when you are not shooting outdoors in brightly lit conditions. This is because of the lens. It is a f/3 at its broadest, narrowing to f/4 near the middle of the zoom. When fully zoomed, it drops to f/6.9. The lens is capturing less light, despite the number increasing.
A smartphone equipped with an f1/.8 zoom lens will produce nearly three times the light as the Elph. This allows it to capture more light and use faster shutter speeds (to decrease blur) and lower ISO settings (to create sharper images). At the telephoto end the difference is even more dramatic—the typical smartphone gathers 16 times the amount of light as the Elph. The Canon zooms better than a smartphone but is only good in bright conditions.
The video quality is not as good as the newer phones that can record 4K videos. The Elph doesn't even do 1080p—its video is 720p at 30fps. The Elph's video is clear despite not having a lot of pixels. Although the footage has a high level of base noise, it does an excellent job maintaining handheld video stability using the optical stabilization system.
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Conclusion
The Canon 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 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 light due to the modest f-stop.
The Elph 190 is our Editors Choice. We give it a 4-star rating. However, it's still not the most popular camera. It's an excellent choice if you are looking for something affordable, have a great zoom range and can understand the limitations of its capabilities when compared to newer iPhones or Galaxy S2. You can also get pocket cameras that offer a clearer advantage than top-tier smartphones if you have the budget.
The Sony HX90V is a longer zoom lens that features a modern CMOS sensor. Olympus' TG-5 underwater lens is the most suitable. It has a sharp, bright lens with limited zoom. The Canon G7 X Mark II is a better choice if your goal is to improve image quality in a small, portable package. These cameras are priced between $450 and $700. This puts them in a premium category compared to the Elph 190 IS.