Review and Pictures of Canon PowerShot S1 IS 3.2 MP Digital Camera with 10x Image Stabilized Optical Zoom

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After experimenting with Olympus 4-megapixel digital camera and selling it on eBay, it was relieving to have been able to use a good film camera (30-year old Canon Canonet G-III QL17 with 40mm f1.7 lens). Last weekend in Monterey, I took tons of pictures with it and they all turned out either excellent or at least interesting, due to the camera's great lens and aperture that can be opened up to f1.7. With such maximum aperture, depth of field can be made very small for portraits and other sorts of creativity. Try it with your average digital camera...

However, the convenience of the digital world cannot be underestimated. After printing awesome pictures produced by Canonet, scanning them for storage and emailing purposes is a pain. Also, the trusty Canonet still has film in it with 6 shots taken and the remaining 19-20 waiting to be used. As such, I have to wait for the remaining part of the film to be used to be able to see the frames that are taken already. Annoying.

I am currently trying to find a reasonable compromise between the digital convenience and acceptable image quality and features. As far as features go, the Canon Powershot S1 IS with its image stabilization sounded like a good candidate. According to Canon, the feature is supposed to help you take pictures with two-three stops faster shutter speed than comparable cameras without it.

Why IS?

Image stabilization is helpful because of the camera shake. When the camera is hand-held, the shake makes pictures blurry. This effect is most noticeable at telephoto (high magnification levels) or/and slow shutter speeds (caused by low light, by decision to use smaller aperture for deeper field of view or for other creative reasons).

Lens

The camera has a 10x lens (38-380 mm 35-mm equivalent) with f2.8-f3.1 aperture. The maximum aperture or f2.8 at wide angle is very good for a digital camera of this price. The 38mm wide angle setting is not wide enough for me, however. When I travel, I like to take pictures of buildings with a 28mm lens so that I can get wide view while staying relatively close.

Otherwise, the 38mm staring point is good and comparable to other digital cameras (aside from Olympus's C5060 and C8080 and some others) and majority of 35mm point-and-shoot models. The 380mm telephoto is more than many cameras provide (10x zoom).

Camera Pictures

You can see how the camera looks (front and rear as well as with the LCD screen flipped out) by clicking on the link below the picture:

Click here to see more pictures of Canon PowerShot S1 IS Camera

Handling

The camera is relatively compact for its monstrous zoom and large aperture. The lens retracts when the camera is not in use. The LCD is 1.5-inch (somewhat smaller than average). It is bright and flips/swivels. The camera also has an electronic viewfinder (EVF), which has diopter adjustment for people who wear glasses. The switching between the swiveling display and the EVF is conducted by a button called "Display".

The EVF has the same information, but is smaller and consumes less power. The LCD can be closed flush with the rear panel of the camera either facing you or facing the back of the camera (to prevent scratching/fingerprints/dirt).

The back and top of the camera house a multitude of buttons. After partially reading the manual, they are easy to use. The top also has a dial that switches the camera modes, which I find more intuitive than having to select options in menus. You can leave the dial in Auto mode for almost "Point-and-shoot" ease of use. Alternatively, you can select other modes with progressively more degree of manual control over exposure and other parameters.

The camera body looks SLR-like and has a convenient hand grip (if you are right-handed).

Control

In addition to auto and preprogrammed auto exposure settings, you can select shutter priority (you set shutter speed and the camera decides on aperture), aperture priority (vice versa) or full manual mode, where you set both manually. The pre-programmed Portrait, Landscape and Night Scene modes are helpful if you don't know much about depth of field or are simply in a hurry.

You can adjust white balance, sharpness, contrast and color saturation. As far as exposure metering, you can select between Spot (I used it in strong backlight), Center-Weighted Average and Evaluative.

Shutter Speeds

The shutter speeds can be between 15 and 1/2,000. Speeds slower than 1.3 sec are available in shutter priority or manual mode and work with noise reduction.

Resolution

Although many people believe that the resolution of the camera determines the picture quality, it is, in fact, far from truth. The picture quality mostly depends on the camera's optics. It also depends on the electronics/processor and the focus system. Also, digital cameras produce noise, especially at higher ISO settings.

This said, resolution does matter, especially if you plan on enlarging the pictures to sizes higher than "normal" 6x4-inch prints or you want to crop a section of the picture or/and enlarge it.

The 3.2 megapixel resolution this camera provides (2048x1536 pixels) lets you print 6x4 photos at better than 300 dpi (341 dpi horizontal and 384 dpi vertical resolution). In other words, the 3.2 megapixel resolution is more than sufficient for 6x4 prints.

Larger prints can be produced as well. I tried printing a 10x8 on a photo printer and detail level, contrast and resolution were very good. If you do the math, this amounts to about 200 dpi - not bad at all.

Still, it would have been nice to see a 4 or 5-Megapixel CCD in this camera. As with many other digital cameras, the noise is well controlled at up to ISO 200. At ISO 200-400, the noise may be slightly noticeable in darker areas. I suggest you use ISO 50, 100 or (if you have to) 200. With its image stabilization, the camera can sustain long shutter openings with less image degradation, so keeping the ISO 50 or 100 and still being able to shoot hand-held in darker conditions is much easier than cameras with no image stabilization would allow. Plus, the aperture can be set at maximum (f2.8 at wide angle, f3.1 at telephoto), further increasing the camera's overall light sensitivity.

Focusing

The Canon's auto focus uses TTL contrast detection and works well. You can move its single focusing point anywhere you want. The focusing is quick (in well-lit conditions) and accurate.

You can focus manually, if you want. In manual mode, the focusing scale appears on the screen and the picture is enlarged 2x to help you focus better. Call me old-fashioned, but I much rather prefer a good old ring around the lens and a rangefinder system.

I have to mention that the camera startup time is about 4 seconds, which is not bad and considering 1-second full zooming time and fast focus and shutter lag makes it a good performer as far as on-to-shoot times go.

Picture Quality

The camera produces excellent picture quality due to its good optics, image stabilization and good processor. Image stabilization definitely helps at slower shutter speeds. I normally try to shoot (when hand-held) at shutter speeds no slower than 1/focal length. But with image stabilization, I could shoot at wide angle (38 mm) at 1/30 hand-held with no blur.

In good lighting, I could shoot at full telephoto (380 mm) at 1/250 handheld with no blur. Make sure you hold the camera correctly for best results.

Power

The camera is powered by 4 AA batteries (alkaline or rechargeable). I highly recommend rechargeable NiMH. I used 1600 mAh Panasonic NoMH rechargeables and they held up well. After about 80-120 shots (with LCD use and about 50% flash use), they were still full of power.

Zooming

The camera can zoom in and out very quickly, while being very quiet. It can zoom from wide angle to telephoto in 1 second.

Storage

The camera stores its pictures (and short videos) in JPEG format on a Compact Flash Type I and Type II as well as on IBM Microdrives. The 32 Mb card is included, which is a good capacity for an included memory card. Many cameras (even the ones with higher resolution) came with only 16 Mb card or none at all.

Formats

The images are stored in JPEG format. JPEG means compression with loss and it is a shame that there is no RAW lossless mode, especially considering that the maximum resolution is only 3.2 Megapixel and that some cameras with much higher resolution can store RAW images.

In any case, shooting in super-fine mode (full resolution, minimum compression) produces great results.

The camera can take pictures at 2048x1536 resolution as well as at 1600x1200, 1024x768 and 640x480 (VGA). The smaller resolution is useful for email or web posting. Of course, you can resize a large image on your PC to smaller size.

I did not bother with short movie clips the camera can produce, as I have a dedicated camcorder for video and if I need video capability, I will use the camcorder. It is comforting to know, however, that if the need arises, the S1 can record short videos.

Connectivity

The camera has a USB 1.1 connection and an A/V out (can be switched between PAL and NTSC) for connection to a TV. The USB 1.1 is adequate for the resolution the camera provides since the files are small enough in size to transfer relatively fast.

Flash

The built-in pop-up flash can be turned off, on or work in auto mode (when camera thinks it needs it). It has red-eye reduction mode. You can also use it in first curtain mode and second curtain mode (flash at the beginning of the shutter opening or at the end, respectively). There is also a Slow Sync mode (if you want to take a photograph of a person with a very dark background, for instance). You can adjust the flash power and compensation.

Exposure Compensation

The camera has exposure compensation in 1/3 EV increments. This way, you can compensate for dark subjects by decreasing exposure and vice versa. Or, in case of the bright background, you may want to increase exposure by using the exposure compensation.

The camera also has Auto Exposure Bracketing, which takes three frames at slightly different exposure settings in rapid succession after the shutter button is pressed. One frame is slightly overexposed and one is slightly underexposed. This way, you can choose the best one of the three and delete the rest.

Competition

This camera is very similar to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3. It has similar resolution, OIS, but 10x optical zoom vs. Panasonic's 12x and f/3.1 maximum aperture at telephoto vs. Panasonic's f/2.8. I do like Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 better than the Canon S1 IS.

Bottom Line

The Canon S1 IS is quite impressive in terms of picture quality, design, features and its image compensation. If you don't need super-wide angle lens, I highly recommend it.

My Reviews of Other Digital Cameras

Canon:
Canon PowerShot S500 5-Megapixel Digital Camera Review
Canon PowerShot S410 / Digital IXUS 430 Digital Camera Review

Panasonic:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 5-Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Optical Stabilized Zoom Review

Recommended
Yes

Product Rating
(superior)

This review is also available at Epinions.com: Canon PowerShot S1 IS Review on Epinions.com

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