the best digital camera i have used so far

Author's Rating:

Pros: size, power, functions, ease of use

Cons: point and shoot only

The Bottom Line: 
Better than higher quality cameras I have used including Nikon 5000 and Olympus Camedia SLRs. This is the king of point and shoots until someone can topple it.

Author's Review
The new Canon S400 Digital Elph is the best digital camera I have used so far. Now, this is not a professional camera so do not get confused with categories here my friends. This camera is a an everyday point and shoot camera which does everything it is programmed to well.

Firs of all it has a four megapixel CCD. Long and short of this means you will get great picture quality (more information per picture means better quality whether you are making them 8"x11" or 3"x5").

The zoom on this camera is average for the industry, 3x optical, 12x digital. OK, nothing exciting here but at least it has it.

Automatic mode is basically idiot proof. Point and shoot, that's it. Of course some conditions (dark/nighttime mainly) require either re-shoots or perhaps some playing around with placement or using manual mode.

With regards to battery-life, I think this is something that is often miscalculated by end users. This camera can easily take 200 photos with one battery charge. The only caveat is you can not look at all of them on the screen. The screen is what eats up battery life so don't use it so much to look at your pictures after you take them. I have a 512Mb card which allows me to take between 800 and 400 pictures depending on quality so I do not have to edit them like I did when I had only a 32Mb card. Upgrade to a big card. If you look hard you can find a 512Mb for $99.00 now (June 8th, 2003 posting).

This camera outperforms my Nikon 5000 which although can take great pictures is very clumsy. It has long shutter lag and it too complicated for easy use. My Nikon now collects dust even though it is a 5.0 megapixel camera (better than the Canon S400).

Also, the photostitch function is amazing. You can create as large a panoramic picture as you wish. I have made complete circles using it and depending on how well you take the original photos, the finished product comes out great. Photostitch is a software piece that is bundled with your S400. You take a series of photos and the software links them together looking for repeating figures and makes one continuous picture. You lose some stuff on top and bottom usually but it has always made a usable photograph for me when I have been making them.

And I never thought I would use it but the video camera function has been great. Of course it is not as high a quality as other cameras but for a point and shoot its perfect and works easily.

OK, so this camera can be considered a little delicate but anytime you put this much stuff into something this small it will be inherently delicate. I take very good care of my things so this is not an issue. LCD screen scratches? Not an issue. If it is for you get screen covers (thin plastic film which adheres to your LCD and won't harm it).

Easy to use included USB camera and software make downloading also very easy. Perhaps one of my favorite things on the camera of all its little tricks is the anti-reflective coating on the LCD screen which makes viewing it in almost even brightest sun conditions possible. Great addition guys/gals.

Shutter lag is very quick on this camera. Use is a snap even for someone with big fingers like myself. Quality of photos is excellent and it fits in my jacket pocket. It also has a shutter sound so you know when you have taken a picture. You can also put different sounds into the camera and make the camera sound like a chicken when you shoot a picture if you really want to or even Bart Simpson. D'oh!

What else do I want? A camera case. My only peeve is that they did not give us a camera case. Oh well. Next time.