Customer Reviews

Canon PowerShot S410 4MP Digital Elph with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

For about 80% of people, this camera is going to be a dream come true.

Simply put, it's the pinnacle of ultra compact digital camera technology. With a 4 megapixel resolution with a better sensor than almost all of its competitors in a body the size of a pack of cigarettes, the Canon S410 is fabulous. The buttons and other physical factors of the interface are all well designed: the zoom and shutter button are in the same place for ridiculously easy one handed operation. The function knob on the upper right provides easy access to several shooting & playback modes. Compare this to other recent sexy, ultra-compact powershooters by Casio & Fuji (Think Z4U and A340) and you'll understand why this is a superior camera.

Other pros:
-Canon STILL uses Compact Flash media, which is significantly cheaper than xD and sD, which a good 90% of other brands use. I have yet to see a downside in everyday use (don't ask me about extreme temperate conditions or whether the various media survive prolonged exposure to electromagnetic fields of varying strengths, as I won't know, and most people don't care).
-I personally like Canon's picture quality far better than that of most of its competitors, within the same style of camera.
-The auto-focus system is superior to all other cameras of this size and strength. VASTLY superior.

Cons:
-Canon's movie mode is growing steadily outdated. This is one area where you may be able to find another camera that serves better: This camera is limited to 3 minutes of 15 FPS 320 x 240 resolution motion capture, regardless of the size of your memory card. I do, however, think that if you're that serious about wanting to record digital movies, you should look to a device more aimed at that sort of thing, like the new Panasonic digi-video-cams that take still images as a secondary function.
-Memory door is made of plastic, not metal like the rest of the camera, and I have seen it break.
-1.5" LCD leaves something to be desired (esp. compared to Casio's line of 2" LCD ultracompacts).
-No easy, pre-set scene modes like Fuji or Minolta have.

Reasons why you would NOT like this camera:
-If this is your first digital camera. I can understand how you may be disappointed by the fact that 99% of point & shoot digital cameras do not make film-quality prints. This is something you will just have to deal with, or not use digital cameras: short of a $700+ SLR digi camera, you will NEVER consistently get film-quality prints, and even then, you will not get the same quality as a comparably priced film camera.
-If you are a photo enthusiast. Canon's Digital Elph line of cameras is designed around every day snapshooters that do not need or know how to use things like manual white balance, various aperture settings, add-on lenses, etc. The similarly priced Canon S45 is much more along the lines of what you're looking for, if you insist on remaining in the compact category. Otherwise, invest in a digital SLR camera, as you will be much happier.

The Canon PowerShot S410 is a slightly upgraded version of the immensely popular S400 model, which has been discontinued and can be found for close to three-hundred bux. I think since the S410 is only slightly improved -- it is slightly faster than the S400 and sports a new print/share button which I'm not sure you'll be using a lot if you are the typical user -- the S400 is a much better buy.

That said, the S410 will be the new standard bearer for 4MP digital cameras. It has a compact form factor, although not as small or light as offerings from Minolta or Pentax or Casio, and it's a bit heavier than you might have expected from the size. It puzzles me why Canon continues to use the older CompactFlash memory card as opposed to the more-standard Secure Digital format. Maybe they simply wanted to save money in upgrading the S4xx series. The plus side is, CF cards are a lot cheaper than SD ones for the same capacity, although the difference is shrinking as expected.

Like the S400, the S410 produces excellent image qualities, both indoors and outdoors. It's got the best color and exposure balance from automatic programs among all the cameras I have tested/used. The S410 is slightly faster in taking pictures than the S400, but image quality is largely the same. You won't be disappointed.

And as before, the S410 is easy to use, with buttons that aren't too small like on ultra-subcompact cameras from Casio or Pentax. Battery life is about the same as before, which is pretty good and should last you a whole day of moderate shooting. As always, turning off the LCD (via a simple press of the Disp button), turning off the flash, avoid zooming in and out frequently, and using a lower resolution and lower quality will all help preserve battery life (this comes in handy when you realize the battery is about to run out).

I wish Canon had increased the optical zoom. 3X is standard but not adequate in a lot of situations, e.g., shooting a stage play your kid's in. But this is only a minor complaint for a camera in this price class.

For another hundred bux more, you can get the 5MP S500 model. Should you go for this or the S500? I think for most consumers 4MP is plenty enough, with room for cropping and enlargements. 5MP is only necessary if you really crop a lot. The S410 strikes a great balance between pixel count and price -- it's a good value.

I've owned the S410 for a couple of months and I give it 4 Stars. This camera targets a particular kind of consumer and it does a great job of it. I've seem some hard-core enthusiasts portray a negative picture of the S410 as well as it predecessor the S400, and I believe it is unfair.

This camera was a gift for my wife. My wife will carry a camera only if,
1. It is relatively light in weight,
2. It is compact (fits in her pocket-book), and,
3. It will think for itself.

The Canon does these well, and is meant for consumers like my wife. Switch on and shoot!

My wife upgraded from the Canon Elph (APS) to the S410. If the SD110 had a 3x zoom, we'd probably have gone with it. The S410 is built in stainless steel and is built like a tank. You will feel this in the weight of the camera. It is not the smallest or lightest out there, but it's one of the best when it comes to balance between weight and size. It feels very comfortable in the hand.

The buttons are sized and laid out very well. I like the mode-select wheel, which is particularly advantageous to people with large fingers. People who have not used Canon P&S cameras will be pleasantly surprised by the zoom controls. The zoom encompasses the shutter-button and is extremely intuitive.

The menus are self-explanatory and relatively simple to use, though it does take a little getting used to the menu mechanics.

The most used controls, macro mode, flash modes, metering modes and timer functions have hot keys and are selectable without accessing menus - a big advantage to accommodating last second changes.

There is a short startup lag, so don't expect to just pick-up and shoot. The auto-focus is fast. There is a delay between depressing shutter and capture, but is about the same as other cameras in this class. There is also a slight lag between shots, but again, is the same as other cameras in this class. One glaring issue is that the red-eye reduction is not very effective. To speed up shot-capture, switch this mode-off. It really helps!!

The photos are AMAZING! Indoors and outdoors, the photos are crisp, the colors vibrant and life-like, and, this was very surprising to me...the camera could capture depth. The photos are truly a pleasure to look at.......you can experience Canon's over 50 years of optic and technology expertise at work here. (FYI, I'm a NIKON person...it is huge for me to say this!!)

Why only four-stars?!!

1. Strong, over-powering flash. The flash is SO strong that it hurts subjects 5 feet away. You can literally feel the heat. There is a high possibility of flash-spots or wash-outs in case your subject is in front of a reflective surface.
2. This might be related to the strong flash...the front of the camera body becomes "very warm" but not "hot" after taking a few photos (approx. 10), with the flash on, in succession. I guess the metallic body heats up.
3. Auto-Focus. The auto focus can get annoying at times, especially if two subjects are nearly the same distance from the camera. It'll keep shuttling between the two subjects. The multi-zone AF is one of the reasons I did not buy a Canon SLR a few years ago. I find it inconvenient.

Overall, I think this is a great camera. It balances mega-pixel resolution, optics, technology, size, weight, price, and features-functionality in a compact package.

If you're the kind of person who likes getting great photos without working for them, this is the camera to buy.

Compact, light, affordable, and quality are the 4 words that describe this camera. The Canon S410 provides top-notch photos with vibrant colors and amazaing detail. It is one of the smallest cameras in its class contained inside a rich, strong metal body and an excellent rigid shape designed for the use of one hand. It provides adequate night shooting (wide range of shutter times), great macro shots (closeups), and a good host of functions (rapid shots, photostitch) needed for the beginning/intermediate photographer. Although it does not have many of the advanced features of other cameras in its classes, most users will not need them as point-and-shoot is generally what is desired. This camera will not disappoint as it's quality and size will make picture taking an enjoyable experience. This 4MP camera with its adequate functions will be the camera that will last for a lifetime.

Pros:
1) Small, light, good looking
2) Excellent quality, zoom, colors, macro shots, night shots
3) Easy to use, good battery life
4) Great beginning/intermediate functions

Cons:
1) No battery display indicator (only displays when time to recharge)
2) No advanced functions
3) No scene modes

Recently my girlfried and I decided to purchase a new digital camera to go with our new computer. I wish I could speak to the process of getting information on digital cameras from the big box stores. (Man, talk about uniformed.) Basically I decided on this model because of many friends' reccomendations and the reviews I read online. Let me assure you that the reviews are all correct. This camera is nearly bulletproof in it's pros and the cons are no different that any other digital camera- battery life is a little short. Just buy an extra battery. I chose this model because it uses cheap media to record the images and does so very quickly. I compared this against the Olympus 410 splashproof. The reviews were also correct that the Olympus lags so much in taking the photo that the moment is gone. With a simple menu change one can activate," Quickshot," on the Canon S410 and picture response time increases significantly. This camera is extremely easy to use and within a day you'll want to start experimenting with all the extra modes. The color is so vivid the it makes my 17" LCD monitor look like a window. I really want to thank the other reviewers of this product. You were all a great help in my purchase decision. I do not regret purchasing this model in any way!

I spent months (2) reading reviews and going to stores knowing it was going to be a lot of money for a digital camera and knowing that I would have it for years-so I didn't want to get one that wouldn't fill my needs.

My main need was something relatively small. As one reviewer said so insightfully, if you don't have your camera, you can't take pictures and having a camera I can put in my jeans pocket means more fun taking it to parties, dinners, to school (I am a teacher), and everywhere. If I want I just strap in on my belt with a case and extra battery, and off I go.

Other than that I wanted to make 5x7 prints that are near photo quality.

This camera easily does both these things. So here's the breakdown:

Pros:
Small
Long battery life
Video
Near photo quality (I can't really tell the difference)
good construction
Easy to use
Easy to charge and quick charging
Easy to upload photos onto PC and do simple editing

Cons:
Proprietary battery (bought two for long outings
Ignore digital zoom, it's worthless
Not too inexpensive
Comes with too small a memory card (I went up to 512, been great!)

In the end this has been a great camera. I CF cards are taken everywhere and are really stable and don't have exposed connections, and the camera is easy to use and carry

I have been riding the digital wave since its beginnings with my first casio digital camera that would only print postage stamp sized photos. Since then I have owned my share of digital cameras and this one fills a niche I didn't think could be filled.

I use two cameras on a regular basis, this camera (S410) and a bulkier digital SLR (Canon 20D). This camera is exactly what it needs to be. A point and shoot camera that will fit in your pocket. The pictures it churns out are not of the same caliber of that of the 20D but that is to be expected in the price diffrence ($1500 to $240). I take this camera everywhere because of its ability to fit in almost any pocket.

The camera is easy to learn out of the box but there are a few modifications you might want to make to the settings to optimize the camera for what it is really made for. First of all never, and I mean never use the full auto mode. This is because of the lack of options. Sometimes it is nice to cut down on the options to choose from but this camera is designed not to be a professional camera so it really dosent have many options to change. In the (semi) manual mode there are new flash options (i.e. night mode) a multiple exposure option for getting more shots in (great for sports when timing needs to be perfect) and even another focus mode (the full auto only allows for portrait mode)

With this camera it is all about accessability. Because of its small size it is really meant to be used as the moment arises. This makes shot to shot time and start to shot time (from when you turn on the camera to when it takes its first shot) a big concern. You can decrease the camera's time by turning on the "quick shot" option. This makes the camera focus faster but sacrifices the ability to see the camera focusing on the LCD in real time. This cuts the focus down more than half in some cases. This was a real good option put in by Canon.

Another option you might want to change is to set the camera to auto ISO in manual mode. Because of the small size of the camera there is not a dedicated button for changing ISO speed (another nice part about SLRs) This makses it nessicary to change it through a menu system. This is not something you want to be doing with a point and shoot. You really want to "point and shoot" not "mess around with ISO and shoot" The camera gets the ISO right almost every time and usually it knows better than you. Let the camera do this for you.

There is a mode on the dial for stiching together pictures (like a landscape) by taking multiple shots. The camera has you take one shot which it then moves over a little and allows you to line up your next shot. It allows you to string together shots like this until you run out of memory. All and all, this is a pretty useless setting and really has no business being on the mode dial

A more usefull feature is the movie mode which allows you to take a movie for as long as your card will allow. These movies are low quality but it is a fun feature for a camera like this.

The battery life of the camera is amazing. I can get more than 500 shots of the highest quality (not using flash) on one single charge. If you are using a 512 MB card (or less), your card will run out of memory before the camera runs out of batteries.

All the buttons are well placed and easy to use after spending an hour or two with the camera. Those will large hands will find the camera hard to use due to the lack of a good place to put your hand but this is something you sacrifice for such a small size. One thing I dont like about the design is the difficulty of selecting soemthing (i.ei delete). The set (okay) button is in an awkward place and so a frequently used button is hard to reach. If canon put the set button where the "pict-bridge) button is it would have been a useful improvement (if Canon removed the pict-bridge button it would have been an improvement, most useless feature ever for a camera that has the megapixles to crop images)

More on design the optical viewfinder is useless. It does not cover the full size of the picture, does not show you when the image is in focus and makes you squish your nose when you use it. I guess it would be useful if you need to save batteries but because the battery life is so good that really isn't a concern unless you are traveling and forgot to bring the charger or a couple spares.

As for image quality it is pretty high for a camera of this size. It isn't near the size of quality of my 20D but for the price, I would give it an 8. There is a small problem with purple fringing in high contrast areas (i.e. taking a picture of two buildings with some sky in between) but this is pretty usual. Photoshop (or another image editing software) can usually take this out pretty easily. Another problem with image quality of this camera is the image degrades a lot when exposed at high ISO settings. Because of the small size of the chip the sensors are tightly packed together causing a big ISO problem.

All together this is a great camera for those who need to take something with them. It will easily fit into a pocket or purse and is tough enough to resist small drops or your keys (the lens is covered when not in use by an automatic cap). The LCD could be bigger if you wanted to sacrifice some battery life (which is great) and the buttons could be a little better placed, but the image quality, shallow learning curve, and speed of this camera make up for that (and more).

If you're looking for an ultra-compact camera at a good price that is very versatile, I'd highly recommend the S410. I recently purchased one before a long trip to the UK and was impressed with it's many features and how easy it was to get familiar with them. It's nice to see more manual settings (e.g. ISO, shutter speed) available compared to earlier digital Elph models. The 3x optical zoom is great, and although the LCD screen isn't as large as with some competing cameras, the ability to zoom in and out in review mode more than makes up for it. And, the smaller screen size keeps the camera nice and compact and is easier on the battery. I also like the bundled ZoomBrowser software (it's a nice improvement from earlier versions offered by Canon). The S410 is fairly priced, and with CF media slowly losing share to SD cards you can get tons of storage at great prices. And most importantly, I've been very pleased with the picture quality...it takes sharp pictures and rarely requires manual settings for optimal results. Night/low light performance is particularly impressive.

I have been using Canon Powershot for around 3 years now and I think I am in pretty good position to dissect it's features, pros and cons.

I started out with Canon Powershot S100 and now upgraded to this one. And it's been pleasure all the way. Let me explain why.

1. It's incredibly rugged and the aluminium-steel body is way classy then most plastic-bodied cameras out there.
2. The picture quality is awesome and I can rival Webshots in photography with this tiny little camera. I am a lot satisfied with the quality of photographs I have been taking all these years. Shots at night are perfectly focussed, thanks to focus-assist light that turns on when you press the shutter halfway down.
3. The movie mode has been upgraded over earlier versions and this one lets you shoot clips of upto 3 minutes, with sound. The number of movie clips you can shoot is only limited by your card size. The sound quality is not great, but okay for amateur shooting.
4. Ease of use is not really a very important criteria coz I believe no one using a digicam is that dumb. But I believe this one is really easy to use.
5. The battery charger doesn't have dangling wires and the prongs are collapsible. Not a great thing, but pleasant.

Cons: (What canon could have done to make it better)
1. Should have a battery level indicator. This is important and can give you heartbreaks when you run out of power in the middle of a great shoot. It does have a low battery warning, but that comes too late.
2. It's not plug and play. You can't just connect this camera to your Win 2K or XP pc and download the photos. You need canon software or a CF card reader. Can be an annoyance sometimes.
3. The 640X480 movie resolution doesn't look great and doesn't really make sense to shoot in that mode. It looks as if 320X240 mode is digitally enlarged. The picture quality in 320X240 is satisfactory.
4. The text near controls got erased by use a little too early I guess. They could have used better technology for printing text onto the camera's body.

The facts:
Fact 1. When I purchased this camera, my friends had none. Now after 3 years, I can see atleast 10 of them who own Canon Powershot. This makes me believe this is the best of the lot.
Fact 2. I recently went to a store and wondered if a Sony or a Nikon would be better choice over Canon Powershot. The store guy told me this - "Are you insane!"

Now the verdict: Everything has cons. But ultimately I believe for a digital camera, the quality of photo matters. That stays as memory. Everything else is history.

You can take my word and get this one. You will thank yourself!Good luck.

I own a 10D which I absolutely love and was getting tired of using my old Olympus Epic (a GREAT film camera) and was looking for a good digital point and shoot. My two major candidates were the S410 and the S50 and possibly the new S60 (not yet released at the time of this review).

If you follow the photography boards at all you realize that this is a fairly common dilemma - the S410 or S400 vs the S50. The S50 offers excellent manual controls while the S400/S410 is significantly smaller without any manual control whatsoever other than exposure compensation. I just LOVE the look and feel of the S410 though if anything it could be argued that it is TOO small. If you feel it is and you are looking for a carry everywhere camera it is well worth the effort to get used to the small size because the camera takes beautiful pictures.

The S400 is simply beautiful. I can live without all the manual controls since I own the 10D and since this camera is primarily for my wife and for me when I don't want to lug the 10D around.

Several have pointed out that since this camera is so small it will always be with you whereas the S50 would be less likely to be carried along because of its increased size. This is a very good argument! The camera is SUBSTANTIALLY smaller than its bigger brother the S50. The form and size factors are what finally won me over.

One criticism of the camera. Low light focusing is less than ideal. You need to work with the camera to understand its limitations indoors.

I am a huge fan of the Canon cameras and I would advise anyone looking for a camera, whether a point and shoot or a DSLR to carefully consider the Canon line since, in my opinion, Canon currently represents the state of the art.