Canon PowerShot S10 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

by Canon

Product Details

Product Manual [1.93mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 4.1 x 2.7 inches ; 11.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004SYN1
• Item model number: S10
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,351 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 26, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Canon PowerShot S10 is one of the smallest 2.1-megapixel cameras in its class. The charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor creates full-color and B&W high-resolution images up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels. It offers a 2x zoom lens and a range of shooting modes. It features an extremely compact design that is only 4.1 inches long, 2.7 inches high, and 1.3 inches wide (with lens retracted). In addition, the PowerShot S10 weighs just 9.5 ounces excluding battery and CompactFlash card. Despite its small size, this camera offers large, easy-to-use control buttons placed just where you'd expect to find them. The Omni Selector centralized button offers advanced functions logically arranged in one place.

The Canon PowerShot S10 uses CompactFlash type I and II memory cards. The Canon PowerShot S10 also supports IBM's 340 MB Microdrive, capable of storing the equivalent of 10 rolls of pictures at a time.

Another user-friendly feature of this camera is its USB (universal serial bus) connectivity, which allows the PowerShot S10 to communicate with your computer 20 times faster than standard serial port connectors. You can connect directly to USB or use the RS-232C serial port.
The PowerShot S10 is powered by a lightweight 2CR5 lithium (or NB-5H rechargeable NiMH) battery and an internal CR2016 lithium battery that ensures date/time stamp backup.

The Canon PowerShot S10 comes with a comprehensive software package that is fully compatible with PC and Macintosh computers and includes Adobe PhotoDeluxe and PhotoStitch for both Mac OS and Windows. It also provides a wrist strap, a video cable, interface cables, a lithium battery, an 8 MB CompactFlash card, a case for the CompactFlash card, and a user's manual.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

165 of 167 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good things come in small packages, October 18, 2000

By 

"wcharlief" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon PowerShot S10 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

After reading some of the other Amazon reviews, I felt compelled to write my own.

First off, I'll get the only bad thing about this camera out of the way. You MUST buy the optional power supply kit, otherwise you will be spending an extra 20 bucks for a Lithium CR5 battery every couple of weeks. The power supply kit, from what I have seen, goes for about 60-80 bucks, and includes the rechargable battery, charger, and A/C adapter (for operating without a battery when plugged into the wall, which comes in very handy).

Without buying this kit, the camera does come with the required lithium battery, serial cable for PC, serial cable for Mac, USB for PC/Mac, video cable, and an 8MB compact flash memory card. (Wrist strap, CD-rom, manuals and camera also included, obviously) First of all, the 8MB memory card can hold a lot more than 12 pictures, as quoted by one of the reviewers. If you read the manual, you'll find that the S10 can take pictures in 3 different resolutions, as well as 3 different compression ratios. In other words, 1600x1200 is a huge picture, and most normal people find 800x600 (the smallest setting) to be plenty sufficient for taking everyday pictures. Most people's computer resolutions are set to 800x600, and a picture that size would fill up the whole screen, if that gives you any idea. If you set the camera to 800x600 and high compression, you can put 61 pictures on the 8MB card. These are only a couple of the good customization options I found by reading the manual. This camera also 4x digital zoom and 2x regular zoom, which was not clarified by another reviewer. This feature can be enabled if you turn it on in the camera settings. It's not enabled by default.

Besides the zoom and large amount of picture storage, this camera can do a ton of stuff that I couldn't do on my old Fujifilm camera. Aside from the resolution and compression options, and the 4x digital zoom, the S10 can be set to manual mode and adjusted for specific situations. You can adjust the white balance, exposure level, object focus, and lighting condition options. If you don't feel like fooling with all these individually, there's an "Image" mode which allows you to set the camera for specific conditions, like Landscape, Fast shutter, Slow shutter, Night scene, and Black and white. And even further than this, there's a regular picture-taking mode for amateurs that allows you to just point and click while the camera automatically adjusts to the best settings. To top it all off, there's an included slide show option that cycles through all the pictures or a specific line-up that you make, which when hooked up to the TV (via the video cable) can make for great, quick entertainment, without having to download all the pictures and show them to someone on a computer. And for the outdoor photographer, there's an included photo-stitching mode that allows you to take several pictures, vertically or horizontally, and stitch them together seamlessly with the included software. (I.e. taking 3 pictures of a long beach and pasting them together)

In summary, after reading the manual included with the S10, I found that nearly everything is included into this durable, pocket-size camera. I'm extremely glad that I bought it, and it far outperforms my Fujifilm camera in picture quality, useablity, and transfer speeds. (with the USB cable). Even the LCD display is much brighter and clearer! Plus it looks cool! It's hard to go wrong if buying this camera. You won't be let down.

142 of 143 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Convenient and high quality, May 15, 2000

By 

Russell Belfer (San Mateo, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canon PowerShot S10 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

The S10 is a fine little camera. In automatic mode, it quickly snaps 1600x1200 shots with medium level compression. You can fit about a dozen on the 8MB CompactFlash card that comes with the camera; I get around 55+ on my 32MB card. These shots are fairly high quality; in good lighting conditions, I can print them as 4x6 photos and they look at least as good as my cheapy 35mm camera.

You can put the camera in manual mode for greater control over compression, image size, gain, digital zoom, etc. This can be useful, but this camera is not targeted towards the person who wants elaborate details control. It does contain some easy-to-use sophisticated features: the panorama stitch mode is extremely easy, and the black-and-white and other "special effects" shot types are also just a twist of the dial away.

What are the weak points? Well, for one, it's pretty appalling that the camera doesn't ship with the Canon rechargable battery. You will need to purchase that and a recharger right away (at an additional cost of around $100). Also, although it isn't horrible, I would prefer a 3x optical zoom. 2x just doesn't do that much. Number three, the optical viewfinder doesn't align very tightly with the actual shot -- you can use the LCD display, but that drains the batteries. Finally, I was disappointed that there is so little tactile feedback when you snap a picture. I'm wary about having a stranger take my photo with this camera because I fear they won't realize when they've taken the shot!

I've found that having a digital camera fundamentally changes they way I take photographs. I'm much more likely to snap 3 or 4 shots of a particular view and then immediately scan over them and pick the best 1 (or 2) and discard the others. This was a lot of fun and I think it improved the overall quality of photos that I take. (Of course, I could just try to become a better photographer...) The Canon S10 is easy to use and carry around, and I'm happy that I purchased it.

99 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing value..., May 31, 2000

By 

Andre Stechert (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canon PowerShot S10 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I just bought one of these S10's. As a 2 megapixel camera (where thegeneral classes are 1, 2, and 3 megapixels..., respectively at the time of this writing), I've been very happy with my purchase. My main reasons for choosing this camera were:

1. It has a USB connection. Very important for speedy downloads. Do NOT get a 2mp or greater camera without one. Warning: Win98/Win2000 are your best bets - NT doesn't support USB and neither does win95.

2. It supports CompactFlash Type II. I like CF better than SmartMedia. It's cheaper, supports higher capacity cards, and is more durable.

3. It supports the IBM MicroDrive 340 CF type II card (which would be a reason to buy this camera over the new digital ELPH S100, which is too small for that drive). 340MB = about 500 pictures for about $300. How huge is that!

4. My lower bound was 2 megapixels. The 3 Meg cameras JUST came out, so the prices on these two megapixel cameras all dropped by about 50% a few months ago. 3 megapixel cameras are still pretty pricey...

5. The review on dpreview was very good. Phil Askey explains in great depth the pluses and minuses of these cameras. I value his opinion a lot and he highly recommended this camera.

6. Battery life is reputed to be about 50 shots with regular use of the LCD preview and scanning shots. That seems about right in my usage so far.

7. Extremely compact and rugged, fits in your pants pocket. Has a sturdy non-plastic tripod mount.

Biggest surprises after buying the camera:

1. The software that came with the camera is surprisingly good. Thumbs up.

2. The batteries that you use are about $12 a pop, unless you get the rechargeables. The recharging device is a little under $100 and comes with one battery. Everyone recommends this as the first accessory followed by purchase of two more rechargeables (for a total of three) at about $35/ea. With this setup, you can take about 150 pictures - teamed with a 340Mb MicroDrive you can fit the entire vacation on the camera with room to spare!

3. I'd like to find a nice protective case for it, but they don't seem to be available :(.

4. You can't do the flash upgrade of the camera's firmware without the recharger kit. Fair warning!

5. The 340MB drive had some minor incompatibilities with the camera until the software patch released the first week of May 2000.

6. The LCD panel has the best anti-glare of any digital camera I've ever used. Big FAT SORT.

Hope this helps!