A Truly Small Wonder

Author's Rating:

Pros: small, light weight, quick, excellent build quality, takes great pictures, can shoot movie clips

Cons: expensive, battery life slightly short, flash slightly weak, only 2.1 mega pixels

The Bottom Line: 
Perfect if you have the cash and are looking for a small digital camera which takes great photos.

Author's Review
Background
I did a lot of researching before deciding which camera to buy. My main requirements were small size and the ability to accept compact flash cards. I wanted a small camera because for me the main purpose of having a digital camera was to encourage myself to take more pictures. If the camera was too large to fit in a pocket I knew I'd often just leave it behind because I wouldn't want to lug it around. I wanted compact flash as the storage medium because it's the most affordable and comes in the largest capacities among the media commonly used in digital cameras.

I was tempted to try and get a 3+ mega pixel camera but found that there weren't any cameras which fit my two main criteria in addition to offering 3+ mega pixels. There were definitely some small cameras - the Fuji cameras I looked at were quite small and very pocketable, but they used SmartMedia. Most of the other cameras in the 3+ mega pixel range were just a little too large for my taste.

After deciding that 2+ mega pixels was probably enough for me, the Canon Digital Elph quickly rose to the top of the list. I was almost set on buying the S100 when I heard that the S110 and S300 were due to arrive shortly. The S110 was to be an updated S100 which offered the ability to record movie clips and the S300 was to a completely new camera which was to be slightly larger but which would offer a 3x zoom (as opposed to 2x) plus the ability to record movie clips and whose optics were supposed to be greatly improved. Being a gadget geek, I always want the best and decided to wait for the S300 and I'm glad that I did.

Description of Hardware Features
The S300 is slightly larger than the S100 but is still very easy to slip into a pocket. It only comes with an 8MB compact flash card but I was able to purchase a 128MB compact flash card for about $90 on the web. The stainless steel casing is beautiful and extremely well made. The button layout is excellent and the LCD screen on the back, while small at 1.5", is really easy to read and has a great anti-reflective coating on it. The LCD is more accurate than the actual view finder so I almost never use the view finder unless I'm really trying to conserve battery power.

The lens is really nice. It zooms much quicker than most other cameras I've tried and having 3x optical zoom really does make for better pictures. In addition to the 3x optical zoom the camera has a smooth digital zoom up to 2.5x so you can adjust the picture after optical zoom anywhere from 1x to 2.5x.

The built-in flash is powerful enough for most purposes although larger cameras probably do better in this area.

This camera accepts only compact flash type I. Because of its small size it can't accept the larger type II format which rules out the use of IBM's microdrive. While it would have been nice to have 1GB of storage for about $400, it's not really a big deal. This is, after all, a 2.1 mega pixel camera and not a 3.3 mega pixel camera.

Picture Quality and Usability
You have three options for the size of the pictures: 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, and 640 x 480. The 8MB card included is probably okay for the 2 lower resolutions, but if you plan on taking photos at 1600 x 1200 you'll want to invest in some higher capacity compact flash cards.

The quality of pictures taken by this camera seems great to me, but I'm not a professional photographer. Outdoors I don't have any complaints and indoors it's pretty good, too, except that the flash could be stronger. I can't really make any serious comments in this area except to say that it's more than good enough for me. :)

The camera is very easy to use. It is perfect for my needs as a point and shoot photographer. It even has a mode which will help you to "stitch" multiple photos together. This is when you take multiple photos and then later merge them into one large photo - useful for taking pictures of large scenic settings.

It probably does not have the flexibility to make a more advanced photographer happy, but the simplicity and ease of use are what I was looking for. I will probably never need more than what this camera offers.

The ability to shoot short video clips with sound seems more of a novelty feature to me than anything else, but maybe that's because I haven't really gotten into it yet. Perhaps as I get to use the camera more this will become a must have feature.

Accessories
The battery is good enough most of the time, but I could see how having an extra battery might be helpful. I don't remember exactly how many pictures I was able to take before the battery was low, but it was somewhere less than 100.

On a related note, the camera comes with a USB connectivity cable but does not come with an AC adapter. This means that if you decide to hook your camera directly to your computer to upload images, you'll always be running off of battery power. I own a separate USB compact flash reader so this wasn't a problem for me, but I can see how it might be inconvenient for others.

The included battery charger is nice. It's really compact and charges the battery in a little over 2 hours. Very easy to pack for trips.

The camera comes with a wrist strap but it does not come with a case, which is a shame because I'd hate to scratch up its pretty stainless steel casing. A very nice case made specifically for this camera is available as an accessory, but I haven't been able to locate one yet.

The camera includes a video cable for displaying pictures on a television. I haven't used it yet so I can't comment on it.

One really cool accessory I've seen pictures of is a waterproof case which would allow you to take the camera completely under water! The case has play through buttons so the camera is completely functional while in the case. I'm not sure how bulky this would make the camera, but it sure would make me feel better about taking this $600 piece of electronic goodness to the beach (all that sand and salt water!).

Conclusions
This is a great little camera which takes awesome pictures. The only reason I might recommend another camera for the person looking for a convenient and easy to use digital camera is the price. At $600 you're really paying a premium for the size advantage. There are cameras in this price range which take better photos (at 3.3 mega pixels) but which are close to 2x the size. You really need to decide whether you're willing to pay for the pocketability.