Canon PowerShot S1 IS

Opinion: ***French man writing in english, sorry for mistakes***
I have been offered this camera 3 years ago. In fact i had chosen it myself and advised the buyer ;-)
I instantly loved the x10 zoom and IS. I soon realized two bad points : very hard to focus with low light and very small screen (nearly impossible to see if picture is good in the small LCD).
Anyway, before the first problem (see above) i had taken about 9000 pictures and missed dozens because of focus (that's part of the game, it's not a SLR), and mainly loved it : handly, AA power, and unlike many people i appreciated the viewfinder.
A few months ago the final problem occured, that's why i've just ordered the S5, hoping it will please me.

Opinion: This was my first digital camera, and I came to it from a string of Canon SLRs. I admire the heft of this little camera, and the picture quality is quite superb. As a non- video shooter by inclination and practise, I do find the video feature very nice indeed, and easy to use. But I honestly did not find all the features entirely user-friendly, (see below) and I'm now back to a SLR (Canon of course) which I like better. But this camera, and its successors, offer terrific value for money, and represent a great introduction to digital shooting.

Opinion: Until problem described below I was quite happy with my camera. I saw not reason to upgrade. Great images and the zoom worked, especially for portraits in candid situations.

Opinion: I've owned the S1 for about a year and a half now, and for the most part, I'm happy. 3.2 MP is enough to get pretty good 8x10 prints.

I'd love to get the S3.

Opinion: The camera takes very good pictures despite the limited resolution and can easily be
used to make good prints up to 8 x10. The range on the Zoom is awesome and the
handling is pretty good. It is also very easy to use.

Opinion: Good service, bad service.....
A perfect camera. Till some weeks ago.

The CCD suddenly mailfunctions for no reason at all. Nothing happened with the camera, no shocks, no moisture. I switched it on and from that moment on only "ghosts" appear on the display. The camera is about 2 and a half year old now and is not heavily used.

Here are the things that happend after that:
- I contacted Canon and send the camera to a service centre.
- For some weeks I did not here anything.
- When I called them they told me that it was not the ccd but the 10xzoom, which is, as I should have known, a rather delicate construction. I should pay Euro 180,- for repair, but, then I would receive a new 3S-IS. Ok, why the repair of the old camera then? And when I searched for the ccd-failure on the Internet, the same problem as I had are mentioned as a result of ccd-failure. So, I did not agree with the payment and they promissed to call me back.
- They did not call me back.
- When I called again they said there was a misunderstanding. I should receive the 3S-IS for no costs at all.
- Great news of course, but I do have a memorycard, a waterproof house and a wireless control for the 1S-IS, which do not work with the 3S-IS. No problem, they said. Send the waterproof house to Canon and Canon will send me a waterproof house for the 3S-IS.
- Great news again, and I received the new 3S-IS camera within a few days, but: The waterproof house did not arrive at all.
- Some days later I was called by Canon. There is no waterproof house for the 3S-IS. I told them that I had found one on the Internet and Canon told me to look at that.
- More then four weeks later: No message from Canon.
- When I contacted Canon again, the only answer was: There is no waterproof house for the 3S-IS. Period. End of message.
- I send them an email again, asking what can be done. They have my waterproof housing for the 1S-IS, I do have a 3S-IS-camera, but I do not have a waterproof housing for the 3S-IS.

So, what is next? I will keep you informed.

(Last update: 23 March 2007)

Opinion: After about 1.5 year of using,abruptly CCD damage observed, without any reason. Does anybody encounter with this problem too?

Opinion: Camera was OK for a year until the CCD just failed abruptly.

Opinion: Here are few things about S1 IS after using this camera for more than 2 years.

1. The Camera is really good with 10X
2. Zooming option during Video capturing is something new in this (when this was released)
3. I have shot more than 10,000 pics on this and are really good