Digital Elph S300 – The Miniature Camera that Could

Author's Rating:

Pros: Extremely small size, fast start up time, ease of use, USB interface

Cons: Lack of manual functions, medium power flash, only 8 MB CF Card, price

The Bottom Line: 
This camera is a great portable mini camera. Its all-metal construction is extremely sturdy and its easy to use. You are paying for size, not other bells and whistles.

Author's Review
The digital Elph s300 is the second offering from Canon in their Elph series of digital cameras. It offers a number of upgrades over its little brother the S100 and even the upcoming model the S110. The S300 is also known as the Digital IXUS 300 overseas, it is the same camera with a different name. The S300 is the ultimate in portability measuring in at 3.7 x 2.5 x 1.2 in. and weighing in at 8.5 oz. (Without battery). The reason to buy this camera is its size. I have no doubt that there are better cameras with higher resolutions out there, but none can hold a candle to the size of the S300. The S300 is a great point and shoot camera, it offers minimal manual adjustment for prosumers, but that is not the cameras purpose. I have a 35mm camera and a bag of lenses that I lug around when I can, but I often found myself in need of a small camera for the days when a big ugly bag in not appropriate. This is where the S300 is excellent, Size, Size, Size.


A Strong Case

The S300 has an all metal (Well, mostly metal) case. It has an extremely solid feel to it and looks great with an all metal exterior. The only non-metal portions are the battery cover and the CF (CompactFlash) slot cover. When the camera is off, the lens hides away and becomes flush with the front of the camera. The S300 lens is automatically covered with a built in lens cover. All metal construction is great for strength, but metal scratches much easier than plastic. Because of this I recommend the SC-PS500 soft case from Canon. This small suede case holds the camera as well as a few CompactFlash cards and even an extra battery. The case also has a belt loop to attach to your belt if you don’t mind the utility belt look.


Zoom, Zoom

The S300 has a 3X (f 2.7-4.7) optical zoom (A 35mm film equivalent of 35-105mm) while the s100 has a 2X optical zoom (A 35mm film equivalent of 35-70mm). This means that you are able to “zoom in” on objects more with the S300 when using the optical zoom. The Elph also has a 2.5X digital zoom that allows up to a 265mm (35mm film equivalent) lens. Digital zoom is not a substitute for optical zoom. Optical zoom allows the lens to do the magnifying, you therefore get a full resolution picture. Digital zoom magnifies the exiting picture at the expense of resolution. I would never recommend using the digital zoom on any digital camera. I would not even consider it zooming at all.


Movie Time

This is a feature that I initially ignored but I have found myself using all the time. The camera has a movie mode with 3 available resolutions all recording at 20 frames per second. It records both audio and video and stores the movie in AVI format. You are able to view the movies from the LCD screen on the camera but sound is not available due to a lack of a speaker on the camera. The three available resolutions are 640 x 480 for approx. 4 seconds, 320 x 240 for approx. 10 seconds, or 160 x 120 for approx. 30 seconds. I have found that the 320 x 240 generally works best because it gives you enough time to actually see a descent amount of video yet still offers a watchable resolution. These movie record times are from Canons web sight and I have generally gotten more time than that in my videos. An example of this is my 320 x 240 video lasts over 15 seconds on average. These little movies are great for sending to friends and relatives.


It is all about the Pictures

The Digital Elph has 3 resolutions and 3 detail modes for a total of 9 available resolution settings. Maximum resolution is 1600 x 1200 and takes up about 1 megabyte of CF space when detail is set to Super Fine. Other available resolutions are 1024 x 768 and 640 x 480. As a note; the S100 has only two available resolutions and 2 detail settings. The only other size available for the S100 (Other than 1600 x 1200) is a puny 640 x 480. The upcoming S110 will offer all the resolutions of its bigger brother, the S300. The S300 has an improved color filter array for supposedly better color rendition. I have never seen the two with the same picture so I can not say if there has been an improvement. Image quality is very good and gives close to photo realistic prints up to 8 x 10.


The Flash

The S300 has an on camera flash but it is not the strongest thing in the world. It works great for low light group shots and flash fill situations but I would not recommend using the flash for medium long-range work. Nothing beyond 15 feet or so illuminates all that well in low light situations due to the low power flash on the S300. This does not prove to be a problem in most situations, especially for a snap shooter, so this is not a major concern to most people. In general, shots taken with people as the main subject turn out well. The problem arises when you want to take a picture of something big at medium long range, it just does not have the juice. The flash works quite well considering that Canon fit it in such a small camera.


Power Hungry

The camera uses a lithium ion battery for its power source. Lithium ion batteries are great, they last much longer than standard alkaline batteries and they do not hold a memory from recharging. The drawback is that you can not go to the local drugstore and buy additional batteries when the camera batteries die. Because of this, I consider an additional battery a necessity if you own this camera. The battery is extremely small and light so carrying an extra one (Or two) should not be a problem at all especially if you own the soft case that goes with the Elph. The battery life is quite good considering the size of the camera and the size of the tiny battery.

According to Canon, a fully charged battery can record 120 shots with the LCD on or 270 shots with it off, all without using flash. The LCD viewing time when reviewing pictures is approximately 85 minutes. When you use the flash, show shots to your friends on the LCD, and zoom in and out, you will find that you will not get as many shots as Canon claims. The battery does last quite a while and owning only one battery may be enough if you are diligent about always going out with a fully charged battery. I am not diligent so I purchased a second battery from BH Photo (bhphoto.com) for $35.00.

The charger is a slick little box that is roughly the same size as the Elph. You place the battery in the charger and plug the little guy in the wall. Roughly two hours later you have a fully charged battery. This design is nice because it elevates the tangled cord mess that is usually associated with charging a camera.


Underwater case

The S300 has a optional waterproof case called the WP-DC100 that is capable of going to depths of 100 feet. Usually an underwater case costs between 700-1000 dollars (Or more!) if you buy one from a third party manufacturer. The cannon case is available for a measly 200 bucks from BH Photo. This is a HUGE selling point for me because I am a scuba diver. The canon case allows you to use almost every single function on the camera, I can’t believe that it is so inexpensive with all that functionality. Just remember, while underwater there is no changing of batteries of CF cards, so buy a high capacity card and change the battery every dive. If you are even more serious about underwater photography, Ikelite (www.ikelite.com) offers an underwater strobe (Flash) for digital cameras. It is not cheap but a detached flash is an enormous benefit while photographing underwater. The ikelite model numbers are DS-50 and DS-125 for those that are interested. Please note that the lower end digital Elphs (S100, S110) do not offer this case. They do however offer an all-weather case, the AW-PS200.



Other Features

The canon S300 also has a direct print function when paired with one of canons photo printers like the CP-10. This allows a user to print directly from the camera with no computer interface at all.

The camera has a stitch mode that assists the photographer to take multiple photos and merge them into one single high-resolution wide-angle picture. You take one picture, then the camera shows you part of the picture you just took while overlaying the new picture that you are about to take. You take as many stitched shots as you like so you may overlay them later. This works quite well when used with the software supplied with the camera. The software “stitches” all of the pictures together to make one big picture.

The digital Elph also has a manual mode that allows the user to make minimal changes to the way the camera takes pictures. The user may adjust the white balance, exposure + or -, and enter macro (Close up mode), and landscape (Smaller/higher aperture pictures) modes. These controls are a far cry from a manual camera but they do allow you to modify the pictures a bit.


Drawbacks

One drawbacks of the camera is the lack of a true manual mode as described above. This makes sense with Canons positioning of the product, it can not be all things to all people. This camera is marketed to the ease of use point and shoot crowd

The camera only accepts CompactFlash type 1 media. This boils down to the fact that the camera will not accept IMB MicroDrives. IBM MicroDrives are available in sizes from 340 MB and up. They require a slightly bigger slot and use more power. The use more power attribute of the MicroDrives is what probably kept Canon from including that feature on the Elphs. Like that manual mode above, this feature is not for your average consumer, so this may be another case of building a camera for the point and shooter.

The third drawback is a minor one. In play mode when reviewing your pictures, you are able to zoom in on the picture using a button on the S300. The problem arises when you want to move around on your zoomed image. Left and right is easy, up and down is a nightmare. To move up and down one must press a button and hold it (Much like a shift key on a computer) then press Left/Right to move up and down. This is a minor annoyance when viewing images.

The final drawback is the insanely small CF card that comes standard with the camera. 8 MB will only hold 7 or 8 pictures at the highest resolution. It is a joke to ship the camera with this much memory. The first required accessory other than an additional battery is a much larger CompactFlash card. I highly recommend the cards from www.newegg.com, as of June 2001 the prices are as follows:

128 MB CF Card – $73.00
64 MB CF Card - $46.00

At these prices I would recommend the 128 MB card and a spare battery. All of that will set you back about 110 bucks. I look at that as part of the camera price. You can fit 128 pictures at the highest res. on the 128 MB card or you can fit 400 at some medium resolutions or 1400 pics. at the lowest res.


Pluses

The camera has a very fast start up time. Most digital cameras take around 6 seconds to power up and take pictures, the Elph S300 takes about 2.5. My old camera, a Kodak 260, seemed like it took an eternity. The Canon starts up in no time allowing you to get that quick picture.

A drawback to all digital cameras is shutter lag. This is the time between pressing the shutter button and the camera actually taking the picture. The camera focuses, figures out exposure, etc. and then takes the picture. The Elph has minimal shutter lag, especially when you half press the shutter button before taking a picture. Half pressing the shutter button pre focuses the camera and figures out exposure. Then when you fully depress the button, there is minimal pause. Shutter lag is an annoying fact of life with all consumer digital cameras, you get used to it. Luckily, the Elph is a good performer when shutter lag is concerned.

Another plus is that the LCD screen is bright and has a non-reflective coating. This LCD, although not a huge display, is awesome to view even while outdoors. The non-reflective coating is also good because it does not show off fingerprints and smudges.

The two things this camera has going for it are size and usability. It is extremely small and portable and it is very east to use. This is a great camera to have with you at all times and pull out when the time is right.