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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Digital P&S Camera, December 10, 2002
The Cannon PowerShot S330 is my first digital camera. I had it for about six weeks so far and I just love it. As a result of getting this camera, in the past six weeks I've taken more pictures at family events then probably the last 6 years combined using conventional cameras. To me, the best thing about digital photography is the instant feedback. You can see your picture as soon as you take it. And if you don't mind wasting some battery, you can use the LCD screen to frame your shots so every picture comes out exactly the way you like it. And downloading the pictures also makes things easy. Basic Features
The camera is capable of 2.0-mega pixel resolutions and it has a 3x optical zoom lens and 2.5 digital zoom. The camera is small, I would say a little bigger then a cigarette box and fits in your hands or pickets easily. Both the front and the back of the camera are finished in metal so it weights a little more then other cameras but not to the point where it is heavy to carry. The S330 also comes with a very bright 2.5" LCD screen in the back. Even in direct sunlight you should still have no problem seeing the screen. With the LCD screen on all the time, I estimate that you should be able to get about 100 to 150 pictures depending how much flash you use. The S330 doesn't come with an AC adapter kit so when you need to recharge, you have to take out the battery and put it in the special battery charger that plugs directly to the wall jack. I thought this was kind of awkward but has since gotten use to it. Advance Features
The PowerShot S330 is very easy to use as a point-and-shoot camera but it also has a number of advance features like shutter speed and ISO settings if you need it. It also has a number of white balance controls which helps compensate the different lighting conditions such as fluorescent, cloudy and etc. I've tried to use this features a couple of times but haven't quite master it. I would imagine that most people would never need this feature but if you are a tweaker, there should be enough options in this camera to keep you satisfied. Besides the regular camera like features, it also has a movie mode and stitch assist mode that are interesting. The stitch assist mode is for panoramic shots and it's best to do this with a tripod so at the points where the pictures are stitched together, the object wouldn't look warped. The camera does not stitch the pictures, that process is done separately when you connect the camera to the computer. The stitched pictures will have a stitch line linking them together indicating that these pictures were shot in stitch mode. Clicking on the stitch line would launch the software program to for the panoramic picture. And you can stitch as many pictures together as you want. The movie mode is something I've only used a couple of time. The camera stores short film clips and it limits how long you can shoot depending on the resolution of the film. The clips are limited from 10 to 30 seconds and in 640x480 resolution (which is the largest), it would only record for 10 seconds and not 30. Pictures
In terms of the quality of the picture, I am pretty satisfied with it. Sometimes the picture is a little soft around the edges or kind of fuzzy but that's not every single time. The color of the photo is decent but IMHO, not 100% true to life. There are quit a few pictures I've taken the found it to be too red or yellow. But most outdoor shots in daylight that looks just wonderful. The flashlight packs a big punch for something so small. Anything within 8 feet is no problem at all in dark situations. The focus light has a slightly shorter effective distance so sometimes the camera can't focus so when you push the shutter and nothing happens. This is kind of frustrating but just try to take a few steps closer to your subject and it should be fine. Just about every picture I take with this camera, I take it in 1600x1400 resolution and in fine mode. This way, any pictures that I like I can have it developed and look just like it was taken from a conventional camera. In this largest format, the photo is about 1MB each. So with a 128MB compact flash card, you can still store plenty of pictures. Unfortunately, Canon only provides a 8MB CF card with the camera so make sure you buy a CF card if you don't already have it. Also, because of S330's small size, it is only capable of accepting Type I CF cards and not Type II. So like IBM's 1 GB MicroDrive is not compatible with this camera. Issues
Maybe I've missed this in the user's manual but I have yet to find a battery meter that shows me how much juice is left in the battery. When the power is running low, the camera would just shut down with very little warning. I guess Canon just didn't think this is a critical issue since the pictures are all already saved in the memory so advance warnings on the battery running low is pretty useless. But just be prepared and the best solution is to have a second battery so you can just switch it when one runs out. For such a well build camera it's very disappointing to see the cheesy flap it uses to cover the USB and video ports on the side of the camera. Not a major issue though. Canon did not include any bag or pouch for the storage of this camera. Even though the camera is small enough to fit just about anywhere, the metal finishing is brushed and can be easily scratched. A soft pouch would be perfect to protect the surface but not included so protect your investment and get one on your own. I am not going to complain about the 2-mega-pixel limit because it's more then enough for an average user. A well taken 2-mega-pix pictures developed on 4x6 film would look no different than if it's taken on a 35mm camera. So don't buy more then you need because the higher the resolution, the more memory it needs and more time it takes to save a picture. So take a closer look at the Canon PowerShot S330 because it might be just what you're looking for....
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