Review of Canon S3 IS

Ok, this might seem funny.

Wait!! it is funny. Could not take any serious pictures yet, except for these 2 that I took for the blog. and a just a few others.

Review:

Build:

1. at 410g it is heavier than my previous Sony DSC 5W, but feels handy, not to large or small and also feels quite solid.
2. Every time i switch on the camera lens cap falls down. I always forget to remove before switching on.
3. The buttons seemed to be pretty well lay out; the Manual Focus and Macro button are on the left side of lens.
4. It got a plastic tripod mount !!
5. It got a rotating LCD display which addictive.
6. It has stereo microphone and speaker.
7. It takes 4 batteries so on a single charge maximum number of pictures can be taken compared to any other roughly @ 500 pix.

Oparation

1. The camera supports the following modes:
   a. Auto
   b. Portraitc. Landscape
   d. Night Scene
   e. Sports
   f. Special Scene: it further includes the following

i. Fire Works
ii. Color Accent - only one color can be seen rest b/w
iii. Color Swap- changes one color for another
iv. Night Snap Shot
v. Indoor
vi. Foliage
vii. Snow
viii.Beach
g. Stitch Assist
h.Movie
i. Program AE
j. Shutter Speed Priority AE - It is similar to Program AE - however you the camera takes 2 more picture 1 above the shutter speed specified by you and one below. (this does not work on the best quality, largest size mode)
k. Aperture-priority AE - same as above here the aperture changed. These 2 modes are very good for amatures as it lets them know what are the effect of light and timing on the picute one takes.
l. Manual

2. Most of the variable can be adjusted through the Function button on the back, except for in Auto mode - ofcourse why else it would be Auto Mode. There is also custom White balance if you wantand 11 color modes incl vivid, natural, sepia, b/w et al.
3. The file size in the Superfine Mode at the Largest Resolution the file size is approx 2.7MB and up (the above broken glass 1st pix 2.8 and 2nd 3.1 in the native resolution)
4. The camera supports themes but they are only to hear. the startup screen is hardly visible as it starts up pretty quick.
5. no red-eye, as you can see.

   

6. It allows upto 48X Zoom when used the Digital Zoom. And there is a Super Macro that lets you take a picture from 0″.
7. Fast continuous shoot at 2.3 shots/second - does not work in the Sports mode - only 1.5 shot/second
8. There is a custom button on the back which can be used for setting the following functions” a. Shooting mode
   b. Record Menu settings
   c.zoom location and
   d. Manual focus location
9. It has Auto rotate function which changes the oriantation of the camera, so that you don’t have to rotate the picute on your computer, However the Function Menu does not change. It would have been useful if the “Function” menu could also get rotated.
10. There are 4 view modes 2 on LCD and 2 on View finder - 1 each showing only picture and 1 each showing full details. The view can be configured.
11. It has 3 View Modes in the Playback mode - 1. Only Picture, 2. with basic details like date, number, resolution and size 3. Complete details including the Histogram.
12. You can zoom upto 10x on the LCD and 9 picture can be seen at most on the LCD for review in the index playback mode. The Zoom button is used to magnify pictures.

Software

The following software are given with the camera:

1. ArcSoft PhotoStudio - junior photoshop that too trimed down.
2. Zoom Browser - for downloading images from a camera, and then viewing, editing, and printing them. Movie Edit for editing movies, PhotoStitch for creating panaroma. It also has remote capture - when connected to the computer you can take a picture from PC. Quality not so good as it looks a bit grainy. Or may be i could not take a good one see here:

Conclusion: No conclusion because I am just an armature - who would blindly say I love my camera - just because I own it. Having said that I must say that the photo quality is very good, it starts up super quick and has a better continuous mode; I liked the color reproduction as well, see the previous post.

Ya! by the way it is my first review ever.

Read More on Review of PowerShot S3 Digital Camera Resource Page