Customer Reviews

Canon PowerShot Pro 1 8MP Digital Camera with 7x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I own the Digital Rebel (300D) and last week I bought this Pro1 for my wife. So after a week of intensive use and testing (we are both professionnal wedding photographers) here are the pros and cons, some of them compared to the rebel:

PROS:
- 8 MP
- L "pro" lens, really delivers crisper and sharper images than the bundled EF-S of my rebel, but I still prefer my EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
- 28-200mm equivalent is everything we could ask for weddings, we usually stay in the 28-80 range anyway because of flash range limitations
- the built-in flash is reliable, fast and strong
- lots of functions and modes, + 2 custom settings
- very small, *ideal* for a woman's hands, yet again I'm used to the rebel plus the battery grip so...
- 1 compartment for CF card and battery
- incredibly bright, big and clear LCD, very useful
- flip over LCD panel
- good battery bundled (1350 mAh versus 1100 for the rebel)
- also bundled: 64MB CF, neck strap, 58mm filter adapter, remote control (!) and hood
- Good price (same as rebel)
- hot shoe for external flash
- black "pro" look

CONS:
- Electronic zoom ring, a bit slow and drains battery
- autofocus too slow for wildlife or sports
- not as user friendly as previous Canon models
- maybe a tad too small for most men hands
- smaller cmos sensor than the digirebel
- takes like 2 seconds to turn on (I expected less than the rebel, but it's the same)
- usb 1.1 (should be 2.0 what the Hell was Canon thinking??)
- almost impossible to focus in low light, even with an external flash with IF assistant beam
- freezes the viewfinder for a sec when if focuses, annoying
- not many additionnal accessories (like battery pack, eyepiece extender...)

Bottom Line: I would still recommend it for weddings or maybe all-round, but the next thing I'm buying in about 6 months will definitely be another digital SLR (like the 1Ds), give the rebel to my wife and sell the pro1. It's a great camera, but it's not really "pro" like the name and the L lens suggests.

Well that's about it, I hope it helps.

I'm a fairly inexperienced camera user, and this is my second digital. My previous camera was a Canon Powershot A80, which did everything exactly as expected, and is great for the money.

I waited excitedly for months to get my hands on this camera, and, as a whole, the camera is exceptional. Image quality is great. It's also very responsive, and super easy to use (for a manual cam). You just can't beat the swivel LCD screen, (super) macro mode, and 8mp resolution.

There are, however, some things which should be mentioned:

-High noise at ISO over 200 (camera does 50/100/200/400)
-Autofocus very sluggish, making it hard to catch action shots
-Made to hold with right hand, in which it fits nicely. On the left side, however, there is no "comfortable" spot to hold the camera. Not ergonomically correct. Even bizarre. I usually just "rest" it on my hand.
-No AF assist light for focusing in low light/night time situations. This is truely bizarre, as my A80 ($300 camera) has one built in, and it works great! Seems like a ridiculous oversight...
-Alot of buttons on a small camera. Fingers may cramp.

By no means is the camera "junk", and I've enjoyed it thus far, but felt it necessary to mention these problems for others to consider.

The Powershot Pro1 is the best all-around 8 megapixel digicam. It is compact (unlike the Olympus 8080, Sony F828, and Konica Minolta A2); has a fast 28-200 lens (Olympus only goes to 140mm equivalent, Nikon doesn't allow wide angle); and allows for fine adjustment of focal length (Olympus and Nikon use a crude zoom lever that makes it difficult to zoom exactly as you want to). An additional important point is that the Powershot can actually be used in RAW mode: the Olympus, Sony, and Nikon cameras lock-up for a while after taking a picture in RAW mode (this means the camera is not usable for up to 12 seconds after a RAW picture is taken).

Perhaps the closest competitor to the Powershot Pro1 is the Konica Minolta A2, but the A2 has an old lens design that lacks the resolution of the Powershot Pro1, and the A2 is much bigger, lacks the high resolution LCD screen on the Pro1, and has limited movement of its LCD screen. The A2 has a very high resolution viewfinder, but with a good LCD screen (like the Pro1), using a viewfinder is not preferable (for me at least). The A2 also has been noted in online reviews to have quality control problems.

Comparisons aside, some reviewers here have suggested that the Pro1 has "slow" autofocus and that the LCD screen freezes for a moment as the autofocus operates. The conclusion given is that the Pro1 is therefore difficult to use with moving subjects. The difficulty, however, is primarily with photographic technique rather than the camera's autofocus system. Because of the sensor size and lens design, the Pro1 has a large depth of field, meaning that subjects will appear in focus over a fairly large distance. Even at the telephoto end, the depth of field for a portrait (e.g. 100mm) at f/4.5 will be sufficient that you can pre-focus the lens and follow a moving subject easily. The shutter response is very very fast when the lens is already at its focus point. This is a standard technique often overlooked by people who never used a manual focus camera. And this technique is far better than relying on the autofocus system in any of the 8 megapixel cameras: none of them is faster than intelligent pre-focusing! The Pro1 makes this even easier by allowing the user to store a focus distance in the Custom1 and Custom2 settings.

This is a terrific camera. No camera is perfect, but the Pro1 makes the best compromises in its class.

And for those worried about image noise when looking at photos magnified on screen: this is eliminated from actual prints using any of several noise reduction software packages. Don't be afraid to use 400 speed on the Pro1, put the file through good noise reduction software, and print it. The result will still be very nice.

I have had atleast 6 film slr's over the past 20 plus years, and when digital came out over 5 years ago, I waited for the right time to buy. The advantages of a digital over a film camera are obvious, but the resolution and lack of wide angle below $1000 was the main limitation. Now those are no longer as much an issue unless I was shooting something for a large poster.

Reasons I chose this camera at this time:
1. I pondered the Digital rebel because of the 17 odd EOS lenses I have, starting at the 20 MM wide. I find the wide angle most useful for scenery and indoors, the medium tele for people pics. The 1.6 lens multiplier for semi-pro DSLRs made all my wides except the 20 mm useless. That killed the Rebel idea.
2. I find 28 mm my MOST used wide angle since it captures scenery in a way I want to remember it. The 20 is great indoors, but for scenery, it really makes the background too small. This camera has 28 mm.
3. I find the 85 to 200 mm range great for people portraits, 85 being best. This has that range.
4. I didn't want to end up cleaning dust from my CCD with interchangeable lenses, especially on a camera I want to use a lot. That killed the rebel idea again.
5. The L lens really shines, with great colors and resolution. Look a www.dpreview.com and see for yourself. The color is definitely cleaner and the resolution fantastic.
6. For wideangle, the stitch mode really kicks (...). There is nothing as good as Canon's implementation of this concept.
7. With digital at 8MP, I can get a better picture into the computer than the best 35 mm slide film and home slide-scanning. Less artifacts, noise and NO DUST!
8. Once you get a high quality digital picture into the computer, the possibilities are endless. You can't add resolution in a computer, you need to start with it. You can do things with masks etc. to show highlight and shadow detail like no film could ever do, just not enough exposure latitude.
9. At 50 ASA, this camera blows the competition away, in ALL respects. Hence for the best digital shot below $1000, this is the camera.
10. Built like a tank, is compatible with all of Canons newer gadgetry, takes filters, polarizers (yes!) had built in ND filter, what more could you ask for under $1000.
11. I love the controls. Took a couple of hours reading through the manual and familiarizing myself with the camera.
12. Turn OFF the the continuous focus if you are not going to need it, esp. for things that are not moving, focusses beautifully.
13. The 2" 235K pixel CCD in the back is the best Ive seen, probably the same from the 4.5K$ new Canon Pro D1 MkII camera. Plus the 180 degree rotation is priceless. I use it when I do self timer shots with groups, macro etc.etc.
<14> Camera does focus bracketing, which I never had on my EOS Elans and isn't available on probably any DSLR. Manual focus is available just in case. <15> I checked moire and noise in Photoshop, none to minimal. Photos need no equalization and noise removal. A little moire removal on things like reflections on hair (only sometimes).
<16> The only thing I might add are..live histogram, but most time I know whats going to be overexposed, the camera only confirms it. Exposure latitude is wider than film.<17> The Depth of Field, the space in which everything is in focus, is much much greater than in a 35MM film camera. Hence f-stops over F8 that I used with my wide angles is unnecessary. At 28mm, I get depth of field from 9" to infinity on the Pro 1 whereas I needed F22 on my 35mm camera. This had held me back from buying digital until I dicovered this fact doing some research.

As a botanist/ecologist/photographer I do a great deal of plant photography. I have used Canon products for years and swear by them and rarely at them. The Pro1, though, leaves a lot to be desired for my purposes. The EOS 10D does far better even with lower resolution. The Pro1, for the purposes I need, is not very suitable. (See my review of the PowerShot S1 IS).
But as a photgrapher who has been published around the world, mostly medium and large format photographs, I think for most people the Pro1 would be a very good choice. It has excellent construction and the image quality is superb with very true color, much better than most. If you don't want to mess with RAW image processing, you can photograph using the Super high resolution Large (gives you a JPG image) and get excellent results that compare very favorably with RAW processing and none of the fiddling with RAW. The availability of a 28mm equivalent wide angle is also very nice and not all that common.
The sharpest aperature to use is f5.6 or f6.3. The images are just a hair softer at larger or smaller apertures. Even the digital zoom will produce a pretty decent image at 14x, but gets worse at maximum digital zoom. Usually digital zoom is pretty worthless, but when you start with 8 megapixels you can still end up with a suitable pixel count after all the digital footwork that goes on in the camera. But generally you are still further ahead shooting at maximum optical zoom (no digital) and cropping, if you don't mind some additional digital manipulation antics to improve things.
So, all in all, I highly recommend this camera to anyone who needs high resolution and compact size. It is a good buy. But for really good macro photography I recommend a digital SLR and a top notch macro lens. If you only do a little macro work and are not real fussy about having razor sharp images then this camera will do fine. Sometimes it would almost match the 10D, but not quite. For all other uses, the camera is great.

Having never owned a high-end camera I was a little intimidated by the various offerings on the market. I wanted a camera that I could use as a point and shoot and would also allow me to become a bit more "creative" with my photography. I started my research from scratch and had no preference regarding manufacturers, mega pixels, lenses, etc. I read every professional review and consumer review that I could find. I finally narrowed my selection down to two models. The Konica Minolta Dimage A2 and the Canon PowerShot Pro 1.

I made a point of visiting my local camera shop so I could get a hands on look at the various options, feel and performance of each camera. The salesman was a Minolta aficionado and tried steering me towards the A2 by quoting a multitude of statistics (many of which were erroneous or existed on both cameras). After holding the PowerShot and playing with it a while, I selected the Canon as my future camera and set about purchasing one.

I must say that I'm ecstatic with my decision. The camera weight and size is perfect as is the performance. During my research I came across two items which I have verified as areas of concern: 1) The camera has difficulty focusing in low light. This often includes indoor environments with 60w - 100w lighting nearby. I have overcome this by reading up on photographic techniques and how to manipulate a camera to obtain the shot I'm looking for. Took me a while to conquer something more than the Auto setting, but I'm doing it now and the low-light focus is no longer a problem. 2) Shutter lag seems long. In Auto mode, this is a definite problem if you're shooting any kind of action. Once again, photographic techniques have all but eliminated the shutter lag. Using the custom settings I have reduced the shutter lag to a point that it's no longer an issue. I simply make the camera do what I want rather that giving it complete control.

Over all, the PowerShot Pro 1 is superb. It's size, weight and performance are excellent and the options available are surprising. If you're looking for a camera that will do it all for you, beware of this one due to the low-light focus issue and shutter lag. If you're willing to take control of the camera, I highly recommend it!

I am by no means an expert photographer, but I know a little bit about ISO and aperatures and such.
Like the previous reviewer, I greatly anticipated receiving my Powershot Pro1 from Amazon. You can read many professional reviews on this camera so I will keep this short.
I thought I should mention that, exactly like another reviewer, my camera had DEBRIS inside the lens housing. Plus the lens appeared scratched or perhaps had some kind of coating flaw. I was extremely happy with Amazon's return/exchange procedure, could not have been easier. Well, I got my new camera and it looked OK, but after several zoom cycles, I noticed it too had some white flaky debris inside the lens. I carefully examined a photo taken afterward and believe it is not affecting the image quality, but I do not understand how an $850+ camera should have this kind of quality problem. There are only 1-2 small flakes visible, so for now I will keep the camera.
Other notes: Close-up image quality is stunning. Highly lit environments are a little washed out in auto mode, so you may find you are running the camera more in manual modes to improve image quality. Movie mode is a great feature.

I upgraded from a G3, an excellent camera, and looked carefully at the other 8Mpix cameras before choosing the Pro1.

The Pro1 has, for me, the best overall quality, versatility and ease of use of all the 8Mpix offerings. I have not found any trouble with the "lack" of an autofocus light due to the hybrid system, though focusing at long zoom lengths is troublesome in nearly all cameras.

Flash performance is fantastic, and the Pro1 has ETTL and zoom support with affordable Canon external flashes. The Nikon and Sony can't do this and the Olympus flash is horrendously expensive. I've found that adding an external flash to bounce the light has made a dramatic improvement in my indoor photography, so Canon's external flash support makes a huge difference.

NOTE: My Pro1 has the updated firmware which stops the screen freezing in continuous mode and from what I read below, improves focussing in low light dramatically. Some of the reviews here are probably for pre-update cameras. I think anyone used to a typical point-and-shoot will be impressed by the alacrity of the Pro1's focussing.

Like many people, my first couple of digital cameras piqued my interest in photography. But because they were fully automatic, there were times when I couldn't take the shot I wanted.
BETTER THAN AN SLR?
I fancied a digital SLR to get the flexibility I wanted, but bought the Pro1 instead in the end. Why? Mainly because I wanted a variable-angle LCD screen so I could frame shots in awkward places.
DISPLAYS:
The 2-inch vari-angle LCD monitor is very good in bright light, and at 235,000 pixels, probably the highest resolution LCD available on a camera. You notice the extra resolution. The viewing angle is more critical than I would like though, made slightly worse because it snaps into certain preset positions which make tiny adjustments impossible at certain angles. I like the electronic viewfinder, which shows all the menu items and settings, shutter speed etc. and has dioptre adjustment. I wear glasses and there's no problem. It's the same resolution as the main LCD and almost always good enough.
There's also a top mounted LCD that's nicely illuminated in orange and shows all the camera settings.
BATTERY:
You might think that the battery life would suffer on a camera with three LCDs, a myriad of blinking LEDs, a heavy lens with continuous focus and a long zoom... but I've found the battery life excellent. You can turn off continuous focus to make the power last a bit longer, but then the screen freezes while focussing.
LENS:
I suppose the outstanding feature of the Pro 1 is the lens. At 28-200mm equivalent, this is a very flexible zoom. And because the widest aperture at full telephoto is still f3.5, it's pretty usable handheld if the light's good.
An unusual feature is that you turn the ring on the lens barrel to zoom, or to focus in manual mode. I quite like this, but to me, it turns the wrong way, and I still haven't got the hang of it! That may just be me though.
There is noticeable purple fringing at wide apertures, but overall, this is a splendid lens.
SPEED:
Not as responsive as an SLR, but pleasingly crisp in action. Low light focussing is the best I've experienced on a digital camera. At the wide angle end, it seems to be able to focus in near darkness with no trouble. Manual focus gives you an enlarged central area on the display and a distance reading. But I found it still wasn't easy to tell if the focus was right. But the camera can sharpen up your manual focus attempt, which is useful.
FEATURES:
As you'd expect from a camera at this level, it is bristling with features. I won't mention them all. The only one I would've liked that it doesn't have is a live histogram display. Movies are at 640 x 480 but sadly only 15fps and you can't zoom. You get a remote control.
ERGONOMICS:
Very important on a camera like this. The best bit is the jog wheel right next to the shutter release. It's perfectly placed and you can change shutter speed, aperture etc. You can also use it to scroll during playback. Most often used functions are on their own button, so you very rarely need to go into the menu system. It's very convenient to get back to record mode from playback mode: you just half press the shutter - great. I find I need two fingers to turn the mode dial. You can change the battery and CF card while it's on a tripod.
ANNOYANCES:
Very few. A non-tethered lens cap that I've resigned myself to losing one day, a strap that always seems to be in the way of the swivelling screen, a manual focus button that's too easy to press by mistake and a screen that freezes momentarily while the camera focuses, unless you're in continuous focus mode. Super Macro mode forces the camera into 4MP mode, though the results are still outstanding.
I've heard of quality-control issues with this camera. Indeed, I had to return my first example straightaway because of a CCD fault. I'm totally happy now, but I'd advise you to check yours very carefully when you get it.
CONCLUSION:
This is a very well built camera that's satisfyingly simple to use, feels good in the hand, and most importantly, has a great lens. The photos I've taken so far have impressed me enormously: they're sharp, with great colour, great subtlety and naturalness. With 8MP, you have all the flexibility you need to enlarge and crop. And with a feature set like this, and the option to add conversion lenses and filters, it's a camera you can grow into if you're moving up like I did.

I really, really wanted to like this camera, but I can't. On the plus side, it takes nice, sharp pictures (although a bit noisy in dark areas), and is built like a tank. But that's where it ends because it is absolute torture waiting for this thing to focus! Honestly, my four-year-old Sony Cybershot focuses faster which I simply cannot understand. Also, the LCD viewfinder freezes for at least one second for every single shot while it composes the picture. This is fine if you're shooting a bowl of fruit, but if your subject is moving at all, you're going to want to pull your hair out! I really wish this camera were all it was supposed to be, but you have now been warned. I guess I'll keep looking.