Canon PowerShot S410 (Digital IXUS 430)

Opinion: Pros:

Built solidly - with a beautiful finish and design

Slim - pocketable

Excellent battery life

Great image quality for a camera in this class; great 4 MP resolution

Quick performance

Very easy to use/ get to know

Durable

Highly recommended for a point & shoot if you don't mind having minimal manual controls.

Opinion: This is a great camera and takes the best quality pictures that I have seen from a camera with the same mega pixel and price range. I recommend this model to anyone looking for a good quality camera for a good price. Canon is the best!

Opinion: Wow, I've had this camera for over two years now. Who knows how many pictures I've actually taken, but I've saved over 20,000 of them. The construction is solid. I've dropped it numerous times, maybe 5 or so directly onto solid rock (which put some stratches on it), but it keeps working great. What has really caused me to love this camera is the image quality -- AMAZING for a compact point and shoot. Outdoor shots with sufficient lightning are realistic and life-like color, without being too sharp/over-processed. I like the "vivid" setting, which ups the color slightly while still keeping it life-like.

Opinion: Really like this camera, bought it for my daughter and she is thrilled with the pictures it takes and also likes the compact size.

Opinion: I am an Inspector for a refinery and need a camera that is small, rugged and a no brainer to use. This camera more than fits the bill. Photos are bright and sharp. Macro is good too.

Opinion: Hello.
This is the 4th or 5th ELPH I have owned, dating back to the S110. About a year ago I sold my S400 and have frequently regretted it. Just picked this one up at Circuit City on close out, and could not pass it up for the great price.
I feel these cameras need to be used with the full knowledge that they are not for the novice, they require a solid understanding of how they function along with the dexterity to achieve consistently great results. The lens is slow (common to all small cameras) and combined with the small size, slow shutter speeds are often selected by the camera and can lead to poor results as the camera is not always securely held. Also, with the slower lens comes some focus problems, but this is nothing uncommon, and should not be unexpected with the slow lens. If these factors are understood, decent results are not all that hard to come by. Supporting the camera against a post, rail, on a table, or the user's arms will provide a much better support. Even the use of a small tripod will help.
While the small size is the key attraction, the price of admission is learning how to hold it. There is a great temptation to go off snapping images of everything in sight, but the fundamentals of good photography need to be practiced ever more so with these small cameras. All of the compacts are more difficult to get a decent image from than their larger brothers (sister?) owing to the minuscule size and slower lenses.
The key advantage though is that great small size and huge ability to resolve and render great images. It is a camera that can always be along for the ride and live to function when you need it. The S410 continues on where the S400 left off and is a great imager. Tough, smooth and reliable operation. Great lens and sensor combo. I don't think there is another camera on the market that can match across the board.
No compact camera will deliver fantastic results if fundamental camera handling techniques are not understood and practiced.
This is an excellent a compact camera as is available on the market.

Opinion: I received this camera as a gift directly from Japan. I use it in auto mode to take snapshots. I love the size and the way I can take photos with one hand. The LCD is small but very bright so I can see it in average daylight. The images can be very sharp but there are autofocus errors. The macro is very good and sharp. The controls for the flash and the macro focus are very simple and easy to find.

Opinion: I bought this digital camera last year.
This model seems more likely to deliver nice sharper shots than Canon's new iteration series (Ixus 40) when it comes to sensitivity / noise ratio.
Night shots captured with this camera are pretty nice, thanks to the long shutter mode.
If you plan to buy the Ixus 40, you should consider purple fringing as well : The Ixus S410/430 produces less chromatic aberration than the Ixus 40.
No enhanced video recording, but who cares ? If you prefer video, go for a real video camcorder, instead of a small camera unable to zoom in and out when filming.
Kudos : this compact pocket-sized camera still accept the excellent CompactFlash media (the very last of his kind, since all its competitors jumped into the SD/MMC bandwagon).
Both the viewfinder and the small anti-reflective TFT monitor are quite confortable.
And the 36-108 mm equiv. optical zoom makes this compact camera a very affordable must-have as a quick and easy-to-use picture-taking tool.
If you are hesiting between Ixus S410/430 and Ixus 500, go for the Ixus S410/430. The extra 1 Mpixels is not woth the price and deliver noisier pictures (especially at ISO 200-400).
Battery life is no more a problem, compared to Ixus S100 (the first Digital Ixus I bought), and all the interactive menus feel more intuitive now.
The solid build feeling added to the nice silver finish is very appealing (but not as good looking as the Ixus SD110/IIs in my opinion).
I let my friend take my camera for his trip in Thailand and expect him to come back with very nice pictures...

Opinion: I take it everywhere. I do not use this for my primary camera. I bought this camera with the intentions on having it in my bag at all times to catch a shot of things at a seconds notice. Mostly my children. I have taken hundreds of shots so far. Not all of them have turned out as good as they could have but my goal was to capture the moment not an award winning photo.