Canon PowerShot A590 IS

Pros: Small size, good picture quality, good color and clarity in daylight, uses AA batteries, SDHC memory card, a conventional cord and USB 2.0 interface, viewfinder, manual controls, AF assist lamp. Remembers the choices after the camera was turned off.

Cons: The flash does not cover the entire field. The center was overexposed while the edges were dark. Flash also takes too long to recharge. The pictures had too much contrast and the shadows were too dark, not balanced overall.

Summary: Initially, out of the box, half of the pictures were blurry. IS settings did not seem to make any difference. Changing to AiAF seems to help solve that problem. In a group picture taken with flash, the faces were darker than the chest and legs. In a portrait, the face was overexposed. If you reduce the intensity of flash then everything else is underexposed. I have a Canon A510 which takes much better evenly lit flash pictures. I was going to accept the slow flash recycling but returned this camera because of this major disappointment. All the A series with two batteries are slow. Lithium batteries improve the flash cycle. For a camera that is not subcompact, they should use four batteries. This would eliminate the flash weakness, with a slight sacrifice in the size and weight.