S400 for all purposes!

Author's Rating:

Pros: great quality, good resolution, better than average red-eye

Cons: small LCD, old CF memory, small resolution video, bad battery

The Bottom Line: 
Great shots with sturdy camera!

Author's Review
I have owned Canon PowerShot S400 for 2 years, and used it extensively in my travels, parties, clubs, and even for portraits. I purchased S400 when it first appeared in the stores 2 years ago. I previously owned S200 which was quite a bad experienced and hoped for something better. And guess what? This "something better" was S400!!

PICTURE QUALITY

I was amazed right away by the S400 picture quality. Most shots, even taken with almost no effort to focus came out crispy clear, sharp with very rich and natural colors. It was such a big change for me from my previous S200 which was not as good at focusing and metering as S400. I was especially amazed by the quality of close-ups with S400. The portraits, close up of flowers, food and rocks came out extremely detailed with amazing fresh colors. I have printed 2 megapixel pictures taken with S400 (medium size/small compression) on 8X12 paper, and it came out phenomenal.

Specifically, S400 proved itself on my trip along the California coast, as well as to Spain and Russia last year. Outside shots did not lack perfection especially with good sun light. You can see most of my S400 shots on my photo website: http://www.fotki.com/irinette

Even though S400 is part of PowerShot family which is reknown for its Red Eye imperfection, S400 stands out among the other PowerShot brothers. In close up portraits using macro mode (flower), and red eye reduction on, the shots came out absolutely red-eye free with nice non pixellated and non-noisy contours of the face and skin.

The panoramic shots are great, all the details of my panorams came out clear.


OPERATION AND CONTROL

It was very easy to operate S400, maybe because I owned other powershots. It was very comfortable to hold it during picture taking/focusing. The main button was big & comfortable for any finger. However, the on/off button was rather small for presses. The shortcuts to Close Up mode, Flash and Timer are very comfortable to use.

One thing I didn't like is the very small LCD. I had to enlarge images all the time, to make sure the pictures came out sharp and clear and do not need to be retaken. I also normally would put 8 sec display time, so that I see the picture on the screen 8 sec after it was taken to make sure the lighting and focus was ok.

Another uncomfortable thing was the slow processing time of the camera. If you are using more than 256 MB card, it might take a while to get to view your picture. The camera will be blinking for a while before your picture is retrieved. The same process seem to take a lot of battery life. The battery life is already poor, but shortens even more after picture viewing on the LCD.


PICTURE TAKING OPTIONS:

I really loved using fun options such as sepia, black&white, negative. They all came out as crispy as regular color shots, which is very rare with PowerShot cameras. Normally, fun alterations come out very blurry (see my SD200 review).

I took most of my shots at either Medium/Small compression mode or Large/Small compression mode. Both types came out great. I am very much used to changing resolutions on PowerShots, but it might be a bit of a hassle for new PowerShot users. Once you get used to it, it's very easy.

I took most of my pictures in Auto mode in either Close up or non-close up mode. They came out great. The few pictures I took in Manual mode with shutter speed alteration, came out not as sharp as those in Auto mode.


COMPACT FLASH

As Compact Flash is fading away slowly, Canon PowerShot S series remain its strongest supporter. Maybe Canon wants to continue S series tradition and design, or too lazy to change anything. However, I only understand now why CF is not as efficient as other faster memory cards. For 2 years of extensive use of S400 with CF, I encountered the following memory problems:

- CF processing speed is slower than other cards
- CF gets corrupted faster than other cards
- 4 megapixel images sometimes do not show on the PC screen

This particularly refers to greater size memory cards (for example 512MB). Out of couple hundred of pictures taken on 512MB card, 5 came out corrupted. They were visible on camera screen but not on the computer. This could also be due to:

- Old card (overused, reached its life cycle)
- Corrupted card (maybe some dust or something got into it)

In addition, I encountered another problem. I just recently took portrait black and white pictures with S400 at the highest resolution (Large size/Small Compression). They loaded to PC ok, but when you press on enlarge button to see the details of the picture, the picture reports as impossible to view. First, I thought it's another corrupted image, but then I realized that it was. I had to click enlarge button few times before the image actually appeared. The CF used was small 128MBs so, it does not relate to previous problems with old/possible corrupted cards.


Here is my overal summary:

PROS:

- sharp, crispy images
- amazing close up (macro) shots
- great resolution (4 megapixel is perfect for printing)
- video capability
- somewhat stable (bigger than new small line of PowerShots)
- easy & comfortable to hold
- easy to operate
- great resolution controls (3 size modes, 3 compresssion mode)
- fun controls (sepia, black/white, negative, etc)
- white balance controls
- stitch function (great for panoramic shots)
- great flash (less red eye than other PowerShots)
- rich colors
- sturdy metal body (dropped few times, nothing happened)


CONS:

- small lcd
- small video resolution
- Compact Flash imperfections (long time to view, corruptions)
- took time to focus before taking pictures
- long processing time
- bad battery life (deteriorated quickly)
- flicky battery door
- small on/off button
- possible reported problems by my friends (one with retracting lens, one with blank LCD).


FINAL WORDS ABOUT RELIABILITY:


I always relied on my S400 for 2 years of continuous travel and partying. Never it let me down once! (except for the Compact Flash fiasco described above). You can always rely on the quality of S400 shots, they will be awesome and great for printing! Two of my friends owned the same camera. One says that the LCD went broke after a year of extensive operation during his travels. I never had a proble with the LCD for 2 years of owning this camera. Another friend mentioned that something wront went with the camera's retrackting lens. I never had a problem with that either. I always cared greatly for this camera, kept it in some sort of case, and dropped only a few times and very lightly (carpet etc). I consider S400 to be super sturdy and reliable.


RECOMMENDATION:


Will recommend this camera for most people, whether be for family picture taking, travel, macro shots, and even some night shots (check my Moscow gallery at http://www.foki.com/irinette for night shots of the fountain). Totally comfortable to use, reliable, and great quality shots at decent resolution.