Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

The S10 packs a lot of features into a compact form. As a tote-around point-and-shoot, it's a good choice. The retracting lens and automatic cover make it easy to pack, and the ability to take high capacity memory cards or IBM disk devices allow you to take quite a few pictures (even at 2-megapixel resolution) without downloading.

On the downside, the S10 consumes battery power at a higher rate than other digital cameras I've used, and the specialized batteries are expensive. The rechargeable battery pack from Canon is helpful, but it's not included with the camera, upping the cost of a useable configuration.

The 2x optical zoom is a bit short, given that many of the competitors products give you 3x. I often find that missing magnification requires me to shoot at a higher resultion and crop the result.

Most disappointing is the S10's inabilities to accurately capture colors in the red-orange range. Flesh tones are often rendered incorrectly, and flash pictures often end up leaving skin looking pasty. No amount of adjusting the cameras controls seems to solve the problem. I've read reports by others who've suffer the same results, so I'm inclined to think it's a software problem, rather than an issue with my individual unit.

In addition to the rechargeable battery pack, I'd recommend using this with a computer that has a USB port (and getting a USB card if your machine doesn't have one!), as downloading pix, expecially high-resolution shots, through the serial port is painfully slow.

I just bought the Canon S10 digital camera and so far it has beenworking great!

S10 comes in a 8MB CompactFlash card which can hold up to 12 large pictures (1600 x 1200) and it is compatible with the 340MB card and connects to your computer using a USB port; if you have a Window95 or Windows NT system, don't worry, it also comes with a serial cable though using it would really slow down the actual download speed. S10 is also very compact compared with many other digital cameras, which is an excent choice if you have limited space on vacations. The feature I like most about this digi cam is that it has its own slide show built-in which you can hook up to your television with another cable that is provided in the package. Plus some other feature including Black and White photographs, slow motion, red eye reduction, etc.

Here are some of my regrets: 1. The software that is provided with the digi cam is very poorly put together and crashes alot on my Toshiba notebook.

2. The CompactFlash that is provided is TOO limited I would buy the 340MB card or buy a couple more of those 8MB cards.

3. S10 uses to much power, you will need to buy the recharger for around $100 because the Canon is so desperite to get more money, or you need to buy a dozen of those batteries at $12 each

3. 2x zoom is just not enough, you need at least 5x or greater...

If you are serious about buying this product I am sure that you already know all the specs on it and such so I will just tell you why I bought it and what I use it for.

The reason I chose the Canon S10 over other similar digital cameras was mainly the size of the camera. I can easily fit this camera in my pocket on my way to the great outdoors.

While I am outdoors this camera is very sturdy. When powered down the lens retracts and is enclosed away from any harm.

Now this is how I use my camera, usually I take my pictures at the highest quality and when my 48mb cf card fills up I go through my pictures on the viewfinder and delete the ones that I don't like so much, and I fire away with my memory free'd up.

Back at my computer I upload with the USB connection (must have, anything else is WAY to slow). The photo company I print with is ofoto.com, they are great! They have software where you can crop your photos for the desired size, this is great when you take a picture with something that you didn't originally want in the photo. Then I upload the photos and have them printed out and sent to me, what a great service, I can also send out email with links to the photos albums I wish to share.

At almost the last minute before leaving on an Alaskan cruise, I decided to dump my usual point-and-shoot camera and go digital. Amazon got the camera to me the day before I left - needless to say, I was reading the manual and taking test photos on the plane to Anchorage! I found the S10 to be very easy to use, and very difficult to take bad pictures with. I'm still discovering new features. One of my favorites is the ability to connect the camera to any television set and show your pictures within seconds of taking them. We did this several times on the ship. The compact size of the S10 makes it more likely that I will carry it with me on outings, rather than leave it at home. I've not yet gotten into the computer/software side of digital photography, but I'll attack that soon - I just got back from Alaska yesterday. Three recommendations: 1) you MUST get the rechargeable battery set, and probably an extra rechargeable battery. It's unfortunate that the charger outfit was not included with the camera (and included in the price). For this reason, if I had it to do over again, I would look very closely at the Canon S100. 2) You should consider getting a larger capacity compact flashcard - I got a 32Meg, which holds about 140 snapshot-type pictures. 3)Think about getting a soft case for the camera - Canon makes a leather case - you can also get nylon cases that work. I worry about scratching or otherwise damaging the LCD screen while carrying the camera unprotected.

I really have enjoyed the performance and ease of use of this camera. Its small size makes it very easy to have available when it's needed. Sure the S100 is smaller, but it sacrfices a few features such as an auxilliary status screen (saves batteries). Canon really should include the power supply/recharger as the camera is not practicle without it. There is one feature that I should point out (haven't noticed it in other reviews here): The S10 is compatible with the IBM Microdrive (as certified by both Canon and IBM). This Microdrive replaces the meager 8MB flash memory card that comes with the camera. It is 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of the equivalent number of flash memory cards. Just plug in the 340MB or 1GB version and watch the picture capacity counter go through the roof. With a 340MB Microdrive, I can take over 280 pictures of the highest resolution and least compression. I could get over 3000 pictures at lower resolutions and quality, but why settle for sub-optimal images? Monitors and other displays are going to improve and get bigger in the years to come (think wall-sized monitors). Image resolution will become more apparent. I'm planning on my digital images lasting longer than me or my children. This is a great camera for the price.

The Canon S10 camera is an excellent value at the current price (...). The class of camera has some limitations (only 2x optical zoom), but compared to other cameras in the same price catagory, I rate it at the top. You may also want to consider the Nikon CoolPix 800 which is neck and neck (although no USB).

Some good aspects:

1. The image quality is excellent. See ... a review which rates this as equal to or better than Nikon digital cameras (even the more expensive ones). Also, see the image quality for yourself at the online gallery.

2. The camera is very compact and the lens automatically retracts and covers itself (!) when not in use.

3. Autofocus is very good and the camera has a red light which allows it to focus in the dark. Trying to focus with digital cameras using a range finder or LCD is difficult if you haven't tried it, so this is important. I didn't realize this as I am used to 35mm SLR cameras. There is also a focus lock which allows some override.

4. Red eye reduction feature, a macro mode and rapid shooting feature.

5. Camera case is metal! Doesn't seem to scratch easily as metal has a mat finish with some kind of 'kryptonite' coating. This kind of attention to quality is something that supposedly isn't around any more in consumer products. Congratulations Canon on refusing to compromise on this (I'm not a 'things ain't what they used to be' person).

Not so good:

1. Canon rechargable kit neccesary - a must buy so figure into the total cost. This kit apparently comes with the camera outside the U.S.

2. Connector for downloading to the computer has a release button to remove the connector which hurts my thumb/is difficult to remove. This is not an issue if you take the CompactFlash memory out and use a cardreader to download your photos (My particular connector may just be defective).

Overall, very happy with this purchase. Realize that the total price for your setup with the power kit and extra rechargable battery can be additional ~$... (That is not to mention the additional cost for all these cameras: more/greater memory cards)

I have owned a cannon s10 for almost a year. I am a REALTOR with a Century 21 franchise and use my camera for business and for fun. It takes wonderful pictures at all resolutions. It's single greatest asset though is its size. It will fit in my jacket pocket and can be powered up and used any time. I paid almost nine hundred dollars for the camera, power pack/battery and case when the camera first came on the market. At it's current price point it is a bargain. The s20 may even be worth the extra for the higher resolution depending on your needs. Also the software is easy to use and the photo stitch program for panarama shots works very well. I wish there was an affordable second battery available. Sometimes when your traveling it is not always easy to recharge the battery. Do not buy the camera without buying the rechargeable battery kit.