An INSIDE LOOK At What Makes The Canon Powershot S400 An Awesome Digital Camera!

Author's Rating:

Pros: superb picture quality at 4.0 megapixels, easy to use, small and stylish

Cons: none...except that it's expensive, but it's worth the money

The Bottom Line: 
The Canon S400 is an excellent digital camera -- bottom line.

Author's Review
The Canon Powershot S400 is one of Canon’s many digital cameras. It’s a pretty small camera that’s easy to use and bring around almost everywhere. The Canon Powershot S400 is one of the newest digital cameras from Canon and costs around $500 (according to my local Best Buy).

The camera is also light in weight and seems very durable to me. It’s made of stainless steel shell.

Taking Pictures

The Canon Powershot S400 is easy to use when it comes to taking pictures. With the click of a button, you could be taking pictures and recording them. The LCD display allows you to focus where you want the picture taken. Also, it takes just a couple of seconds to record the picture. Once the picture is recorded, the camera will show you the image just taken. Here are the modes available when taking pictures:

- Manual
- Auto
- Macro
- Movie

We went to Niagara Falls to use the camera and see what it could do. For those of you who know Niagara Falls well, you know that there is a boat called Maid of the Mist which takes you right next to the falls and almost into the horseshoe. I decided to use movie mode and see how well it captured the movement of the water. The movie mode runs for three minutes max. and comes with audio. Truthfully, I think three minutes is very good compared to my Fuji Finepix 2650 which only lasts for under a minute and has no audio.

Picture Quality

The three minute movie came out well. I was surprised at how much detail there was, but with 4.0 megapixels used for all pictures and moving pictures, it only promises high picture quality with precise detail. There was no problem with audio -- sounded clear and precise to me. I downloaded the movie onto my computer and the audio also came on in the computer just as well.

We also used the Auto mode to take pictures of The Falls from the Skylon Tower. We actually ate at the Revolving Restaurant on top so we could get all different views and see where the camera’s weak spots were. By the way, the food was delicious but quite expensive.

Now back to the pictures. We took different angles from on top of the Horseshoe Falls. The Zoom feature helped us focus on certain parts of The Falls such as where the water starts falling. Besides that, we also took pictures of the city itself.

When getting home, we downloaded the pictures on the computer with the USB 1.1 which connects to all PC’s and Macs. Wow! The pictures were amazingly particular and I couldn’t see any weak spots. The pictures were very clear as if a film camera had taken them. We were so impressed with the pictures that we sent them to different family members and friends who had never been to The Falls.

One aspect that could have been a problem for other digital cameras is the glare from the sun. The glare beats upon the top of The Falls which could bounce off and hit the camera due to the angles that we were at. Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem and the pictures came out with no glare from the sun.

Specifications

Lens: f2.8 -f4.9/36-108 mm 3X zoom
Height: 3 5/16”
Width: 6 1/2”
Depth: 9 11/16”
Shutter Speed: .0005 seconds (on maximum)

Other Info
- Includes USB Interface
- Comes with self-timer
- Resolution modes: 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480
- The Canon Powershot S400 omes with a one-year warranty
- 11” x 14” is the largest an exposure can be developed
- Comes with built-in flash

Software

The Canon S400 uses Canon software to download pictures onto the computer. The cord that connects the digital camera to the computer to dowload pictures comes with the purchase. I found this easy to use and have had no problems with downloading pictures onto my computer.

Battery

The Canon S400 uses a rechargeable LiIon battery which comes with the camera upon purchasing if you purchase at Best Buy. These batteries cost anywhere from $30-$50 if you buy the camera and the purchase does not come with the battery.

This battery is also used in some of the other Canon digital cameras such as the S300.

My Thoughts

The Canon Powershot S400 is a great camera. It’s easy to use -- from a beginner to an expert. The different photo options let you take a picture from anywhere of anything. The precise and clear detail is very enjoyable. It is also very easy to download the pictures and movies onto the computer.

I think that kids and teenagers will enjoy the camera because of its sleek looks and its cool features. When we were eating our lunch at the Revolving Restaurant in Skylon, several kids asked to use the camera to see how it operates and we gave them permission. They all seemed to figure it out pretty well without us having to tell them anything about the camera in the first place. But that is just how a kid’s mind operates I guess.

The camera seemed to serve us well with every picture and movie we took of it. Overall, I was very impressed with the Canon Powershot S400 and hope that you’ll enjoy it also.

Check out my Fuji Finepix 2650 digital camera review! Click here.