PowerShot S1 IS Digital Camera (3.2 MP, 2048x1536, 10x Opt, CompactFlash Card)

Manufacturer: Canon
Model: 9179A001
Max Focal Length: 58 mm
Max Horizontal Image Resolution: 2048 pixels
Max Aperture: 3.1 1/f
Image Format: DCF|DPOF|EXIF|JPEG
Average User RatingAverage User RatingAverage User Rating: Number of User Reviews: 36

Reviewed by: marian_o from TX on May 14, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 2 Days

Strengths: Image Stabilizer - works great 10x optical zoom Vari-angle LCD Digital view-port Very configurable (Almost) unlimited high resolution (640x480) movies Panoramic pictures

Weaknesses: Cannot use as an Removable Drive in Windows 2000 No rechargable batteries provided No AF illuminator (to focus on very low light) LCD too small for cam. size Movies are not MPEG No fast preview

Summary: Canon Powershot S1 is a very good camera, with an awesome 10x zoom and a great image stabilizer. The maximum speed for the zoom is a little bit too fast, but fortunally after a while you will adjust it more smoothly. You have a lot of control for camera settings, i.e: very good manual focus.

The software could be improved (the menus are not very intuitive). Also, the positioning of the buttons could be improved (I expect a "Set" button in the middle of left-right-up-down-arrows for faster navigations).

A very nice thing: you can control the camera (and take pictures) using the computer.

The software does not allow you to direct control the content of the memory card in Windows 2000 (the camera does not act as a removable USB drive).

Reviewed by: tomkim825 from CA on May 19, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 45 Days

Strengths: Good picture quality, sharp images, full manual control, easy to use, IS, good movie mode

Weaknesses: hard to put into pocket, but it is the smallest 10x i seen, smaller than my last 6x!!

Summary: Everything is these reviews are true. the only thing i can add is that if you want to do full motion video- 640x480 @30f/s you should put in a "high Speed" CF card. i read this somewhere, based on the movie size/mins it seems somewhere over a meg/sec which would be over "10x" CF card. test this out yourself, i haven't checked it but it seems to make sense. Great camera. my favorite by far...now only if a 5mp version came out....hmmmmm

Reviewed by: rubbertoe on Aug 7, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 5 Days

Strengths: 10x zoom(fast and quiet), LCD view fider, Image stabilizer, good manual control options, exellent video for a still camera(30 fps) the flip out main LCD screen and the look and feel seems well made.

Weaknesses: NO AF low light LAMP!(for a higher end camera too) LCD screen too small

Summary: I'm probably going to exchage it for a canon A75 or A80.
first of all they are much cheaper and they both have a 9 point AF low light focus. I don't uderstand why canon didn't put that option in the S1. But besides the price thats the only reason that I'm going to exchange it.

Reviewed by: mahadevan07 from CA on Dec 15, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 2 Weeks

Strengths: Undoubtedly the 10X optical zoom, Image Stabilizatiion is an amazing feature. You can take pictures in Black/White. I am an ardent lover of B/W pictures, and so I liked it very much.

Weaknesses: A bit bulky, but perfectly OK for all the features.

Summary: Ultimate feature packed. Picture clarity is very good. Basicallly a typical 3+X optical zoom cam is very good. I don't find any point in having a 5MP or more cam, as a 3MP picture qlty itself is very good. Will highly recommend the same to my friends !

Reviewed by: homerlya from NJ on May 20, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 2 Days

Strengths: Zoom lens, Image stabilizer, ease of operation, Compact Flash memory, reliabilty

Weaknesses: Low pixel count for price

Summary: I have had and still use an A70 and A80 units. This S1 IS is the best yet. The zoom lens and the right price make this a great choice for any digital camera user. The reliabilty of Canon cameras is second to none. The battery life is also woth mentioning. Even if you have rechargables AA's are worth sticking in your bag. Another great shooter from Canon. Only the lack of 4 mil. pixels dissapointed me. The quality of the shots are like 4 or better when compared to many other makers's cameras.

Reviewed by: rickyprice from CA on Apr 30, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 2 Weeks

Strengths: THe 640x480 30fps movie mode is excellent. 10X zoom with IS also produce very good image.

Weaknesses: The LCD screen is a little bit too small. No macro fouce. The nearest fouce distance is about 10cm which is a bit too long.

Summary: This digital camera is smaller than I expect which is good.
The power on/off switch is a bit of small that sometime hard to turn on and off. The up/down/left/right selection button sometime hard to control. I prefer the Olympus style of 4 arrow buttons which is easy to control.

The image quality is very good to excellent. the purple fringing on the high contrast edge is minor. It didn't
bother me too much since it happen on most of high zoom
power digital camera.

Overall I am satisfied with this camera.

Reviewed by: dsinai from MN on Jun 15, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Weeks

Strengths: Good zoom. Excellent images. works on AA batteries. Excellent manual control.

Weaknesses: No assist lamp resulting in poor focussing in low light.

Summary: Great camera for the price it is available at right now. Image quality is excellent. Low light focussing is poor, but can be made up using manual focus. Not pocketable, so plan to buy a carrying case.

Reviewed by: XSarge from WI on Jul 26, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 4 Days

Strengths: 10X Zoom, Size, Tilt LCD, Ease of menu, Good flash, Great picture quality.

Weaknesses: Lens cap is cheap and falls off.

Summary: I've only had the camera for 4 days but wanted to give a quick review.
This camera is great ! Fun and easy to use and will do just about anything I ask of it. So far I've taken about 150 pics, both indoor and out. Even though I'm still getting used to it, the picture quality has been nothing short of outstanding. The color is much better than I expected. So far so good !

On the down side is the lens cap. But that seems common with alot of digital cameras. And maybe I'll figure out what I'm doing wrong. But I have to guess when to snap the pic on moving objects. If I take the pic as I would with my SLR, the object won't even be in the frame. Could just be me.

Reviewed by: madan7 from CA on Dec 26, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 60 Days

Strengths: 10x zoom, lots of features, great video recording option, thoughtful menus and ease of use

Weaknesses: lousy battery life, picture quality not so great as some reviews talk about,

Summary: ok, let me start by saying this is a great camera when compared to the losuy ones out there for the same price range. but when copared to what it could have been there sadly is a disconnect

firstly, for the 340 bucks i paid, am sure that there are not many other competing products with a 3 MP and 10X optical zoom, so just buy this for this alone

but then don't expect too much from the pic quality, a SLR seems to better caputre the green hills that surrounds me rather than the canon digital. the color mix is not so mhot, when it is bright natural green seems to be dull and there is a blue hue.

worst, is the battery consupmtion of this monster, u can't take more than 20 odd pics with the flash on before the batery drains out, just buy a rechargable battery 2000mah and above, don't even waste time using normal AA. Losuy Losuy battery consumption..

Reviewed by: Oluf on Aug 15, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 35 Days

Strengths: NA

Weaknesses: NA

Summary: I have not had any problems as I had read your reviews before use. The batteries took only two(2)photoes and had to be replaced. Which I consider very unsatisfactory

Reviewed by: venkie on Dec 3, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 20 Weeks

Strengths: None

Weaknesses: Lots of Noise and bad LCD display, very low image pixels, no external flash facility

Summary: I have got a EOS D20 and also bought the S1 IS for less professional use. I downloaded the Firmware from the canon web site to fix some problems especially when panning and the auto focus use to freeze. now that this problem is sloved i have started to notice that there is a lot of noise in my images and its very disturbing to see them. more over when i put the wide angle lense i can see streaks of orange on the LCD and the images. I think Canon have tried to get away with a cheap camera but have not thought of the eventual problems. I think the cam should have atleast 5 mega instead of 3 and i also know that increasing mega would make the camera bigger and bulkier but i think that can be sloved if canon had thought about his before launching. the video mode is ok but does not work as well as canon claims. i have a 4 GB card and i get only 30 minutes of movie on a 4GB scandisk card which is the pro series. more over my re-charge NI batteries are 2300 MHZ and they run only for 70 shorts or 30 minutes of video. I would not recommend anyone to buy this model.

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