Canon PowerShot S410 User Opinions

Canon PowerShot S100 / Digital IXUS Digital Camera

Canon PowerShot S410

$509.96 QVC

$482.99 PCM

$329.00 Adorama

90.7% of Users Would Recommend this Digital Camera

9.3% of Users Would Not Recommend this Digital Camera

TOTAL USER RATINGS: 86

Showing opinions 1 - 10 of 86 next > >>

My Favorite New Toy

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: Out of the box - it rocks. You can leave it on 'auto' and it rarely 'misses'. If you run into those 'hard to capture' moments... it is very easy to navigate the menu and shooting options. Had pictures printed - amazing. I will be retiring my 35mm... finally. If you are looking for a great point and shoot - or if you are looking for a high quality compact - this is the camera for you!

CONS: The usual - card too small. I wish there was a way to erase multiple selected pictures in playback mode (only erase 1 or all). Focus is fast... but could always be faster!

Better than my A70

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: Well I got this camera due to a mix up with my a70(got it for the same price) everything is going well so far. Easy navigation, ease of taking pics... have yet to develop pics, but i havent had any problems with it so far... knock on wood. really small and easy to take pics. nice time for movie mode.

CONS: cant find any so far... wish there was some type of case for it, like a cell phone case bc I'm so worried about dropping...

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: You have to get this camera. I used it in conjunction with my Canon CP200 printer and honestly, the print came out better than lab prints. I do not regret getting this nor my printer. My advice though is if you get this camera, get the CP200 or CP300 to use for printing.

CONS: I use to have the Casio Exilim EZ-4U and so I was use its super slim size. Although the canon is similiar in height and width, it is somewhat thicker but still compact nonetheless.

Its worth EVERY penny!

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: Compact, great image quality for an ultra compact camera. I was stuck between this camera and the Pentax S4i...but the S410's image quality is light years ahead of the Pentax's while still being super compact. Its great that I could keep this in my pocket and take it out and shoot very quickly. Canon supposedly improved the startup to shoot time over the S400. I can't get over the image quality for such a small camera! Good for you Canon!

CONS: You will need a larger CF card since the included 32MB one is not enough IMO. Kind of pricey....but its definately worth every penny.

GREAT Camera for the Price !

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: Incredible camera for the price. Priced just right with features such as movie mode, direct connect printing (when teamed up with actual Canon printer, is easier than I even imagined- and yes, I do know computers). Defintely a great camera for anyone looking for a good deal !

CONS: I had a dead pixel in my LCD so I had to return it to Circuit City. They had no more in stock (in fact the whole city was sold out) so they gave me an upgrade to the S500. I haven't broken it out of the box, but I hope its as good as the s410.

Side-graded from the S45... very happy.

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: I just upgraded from the Canon S45 and my wife has the Canon S400. I sold my S45 to a coworker because I just couldn't get over the size of the Canon S400. I'm a point-n-shoot photographer who likes to dabble with low-light/no-flash photography to capture the mood better. The S410 has almost the same low-light/no-flash capability as my S45 had... plus it is even smaller! The S410 is a head-turner. You will have people commenting on it all the time. I got this camera at Dell.com and also got the leather case. I was surprised at how snug and stylish the leather case is. I also have the Canon PSC-100 soft case. The PSC-100 is good if you regularly carry an extra battery and CF card (which I recommend). I do notice a slight increase in start-up speed when compared to the S400.

CONS: I'm picky, so I will find cons in even the best of digital cameras. I wish the ISO 400 mode had less noise... but technology isn't there yet. I wish the LCD was 2 inches. The auto-focus time still could be shorter (but it is pretty quick). Does the "Quick Shot" really do anything? I wish the camera would tell me the file size of photos I take? it can sometimes be helpful when you are trying to determine which photo has the best focus (better focus usually equals higher file sizes? I think that?s what Nikon?s ?Best Shot Selector? BSS technology does for you). It sure would be nice to have BSS on Canon cameras? good for when you don?t have time to whip out a tripod or figure out how to brace yourself.

Excellent Quality and Performance

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:58 PM

PROS: This camera lives up to the quality I expect from Canon products. Easy to use with many great features. Easy to focus normal or macro. Picture quality is magnificent. There are manual controls that the professional reviewers seem to have missed that allow good control. The fuzzy logic nine point focus is great because it essentially gives unlimited depth of focus.

CONS: There is somewhat of a learning curve to using this small, very complex and well made item. The LCD viewing window is a bit small and doesn't perform well in bright light, but is ok in a normally lit environment.

Had Pictures (and Color) That Wowed...

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:57 PM

PROS: Got the Japanese IXY 430 version (same as Powershot S410) and so far it had produced amazing rich color photographs using the Vivid picture mode plus smooth and even skin tones. Though manual controls can't beat Canon A series, but it has more than the Sony T1 and adequate for a point and shoot class. Don't really use the movie mode so wouldn't compliment nor criticize.

CONS: Quick shot? Still trying to figure out the cons of using it aside from LCD freeze. The 9 point auto focus is a bit tricky for me at first, make sure you play with it to understand the multi-point focus system especially when shooting landscape with an object.

It's all about picture quality...

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:57 PM

PROS: The big pro is the picture quality, which is both very good and significantly better than any of the competition. The auto-focus system (which shows which part of the image it focused on) is also very handy to reduce blurry photos (if it focused on the wrong part of the picture you can see this and re-frame). Excellent exposure most of the time. Uses Compactflash which is the most common and cheapest format. It's nice that it comes with a 32MB card rather than the 16MB many do, but you'll want to get a 256 and use the 32 as a back-up. (Picture size in large fine runs about a megabyte, so 32MB is around 32 pics.) Nice fast picture review mode and a zoom (in review) that goes on forever - right down to the pixels, so can really see if was in focus. Summary - miles ahead of any of the competition due to good operation and having the best picture quality by far (and I'm fussy). A suggestion - get two cases, the nice IXUS II (in Europe) leather one (which really just holds the camera, but is ideal for fairly formal events, pic at http://www.digital-cameras.co m/shop/images/canon_case_ixusv 2leather.jpg) and a bigger one with an external pouch to hold a spare battery and card (a big camera store will have lots of this sort of thing). Battery life is very good, exceptional for such a small camera, but see the cons section too. I'm very happy recommending this.

CONS: Blurry pictures are usually due to slow exposures and it doesn't tell you the shutter speed anywhere, which is annoying (there is a blinking LED that says it's a slow exposure, but that isn't enough). It defaults to ISO50 almost all the time in AUTO ISO mode, so will get a fair number of slow exposures and hence potentially blurry photos. If you speed it up ISO 400 the pictures get unacceptably noisy. Only shoot at this speed if you plan to use neatimage or a similar noise reduction program on the final images (www.neatimage.com - works very well if don't apply too much reduction). It's very hard to choose when to go for a faster ISO as you can't see the shutter speed so don't know what you're getting (e.g. if was 1/30 at ISO50 would like to go to perhaps ISO200 to get 1/120, but you don't know this.) Also you'll get a fair bit of red-eye with the flash some of the time (some pics are better than other), but that will always be the case with a camera this small (function of flash to lens distance). The LCD does tend to get marks on it with time, so be careful. While the battery seems to almost go on forever there is very little warning of when it's going to die, so really need to buy and carry a spare. Thankfully they aren't that expensive. Note that Canon make two that will fit - I'd suggest getting the one that ends in an H as that's the higher-power one (NB-1LH, 840mAh - same the camera comes with). Also most third party batteries have less capacity than the Canon one, so I'd suggest shopping around for a good price on the NB-1LH.

Excellent pictures - a few shortcomings

Submitted by unknown on 4/27/2005 10:32:57 PM

PROS: This camera's picture quality (detail, color, etc) is simply amazing. There are many (newer) cameras that have longer or more impressive sounding feature lists but their pictures just don't compare. Don't be fooled.

CONS: My biggest gripe about this camera is the proprietary battery (which I think is a symptom of the core design's age). It's a real pain if you travel a lot because you don't have the convenience of simply buying some AAs in a pinch. You constantly have to plan your charging on a long trip (and you also have to buy an extra battery so figure that into the cost). *** Less Important (to me) *** It feels a bit dated in terms of size/weight and features. It's small, but not the smallest. It's heavy for its size. The video mode is archaic.

Showing opinions 1 - 10 of 86 next > >>