2026-07-10 Canon PowerShot A490 Camera

Sometimes it is a lot of fun trying to follow why a camera was developed the way it was. The Canon PowerShot A490 came out to replace 2009’s A480. It was one of two cameras used to replace the A480, as there was also an A495.
The price difference between the A490 and the A495 was about $20. Staying with the A490 it listed for $110, came only in silver (as shown), had five point focus instead of nine point, had no face self-timer, had two less creative modes (Super Vivid and Poster) and had 13 Scene Modes instead of 18 in Smart Auto mode.

   Put simply, the A490 has very few controls, is fairly slow to get ready to shoot and even slower before it can shoot again. It can focus pretty fast in bright light, but slows down a lot in dim light. On the other hand the camera has a great Macro shooting ability, allowing you to shoot down to 10 mm (0.4 Inches).
   Its zoom varies from 37 to 122 mm (35 mm film equivalent) which is a 3.3x zoom ratio. Its aperture varies from f/3 to f/5.8. It has digital image stabilization and can ramp up to ISO 1600.
   Although reasonably small in width and height, it is a slightly thicker than average (I suspect because of using AA batteries). Speaking of the batteries, an alkaline pair will allow you to shoot about 150 images, lithium about twice that.

The screen is large enough, but low in resolution and can be hard to see in full daylight.
It seems Canon wanted a low price but very competent camera they could tag team with a slightly higher capability camera they could sell you for just a little bit more money. In daylight the images from the A490 have bright colours and plenty of detail. The A490 is quite usable and low cost and has better build quality than the proceeding A480!

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2026-03-14 - History and Evolution of the Kodak Logo

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