Canon PowerShot S45

Opinion: Great lower-light camera. I used this camera a lot set on ASA400, and it was very sensitive, even the DPReview says it is more like ASA800. I upgraded to an S70 a little while ago, and sometimes I miss this camera. The new S70 is excellent at ASA50, but comparing the higher speeds, the S45 wins by a long shot with lower noise and higher sensitivity. Taking pictures of kids and people and want avoid using the flash? this is a great camera for that. Great camera, I loved it.

Opinion: Great quality pictures every time. Compared with my first camera a 3MP Fuji A303, another camera I've tried (cheaper Sanyo 4MP) and my sister's film SLR, the S45 has easily the best photos. Nice clean, smooth photos with good colour and low noise. The A303 has lots more noise & the Sanyo looks really solarised when you zoom in - as though it's sharpened the hell out of the pictures, they look like oil painings close up. Not so the S45.
It's also built like a tank - I (or my 1 1/2 year old daughter) have dropped it on the ground many times with no ill effects, only a few dents on the case.
Compact Flash cards are great because they're so cheap.
Great features. Love the mode dial - much easier than the Sony's. Nice long exposures. Good fun experimenting with manual mode.
A few things that can improve - video mode pretty low res, a bit of shading in corners of photos (only noticed it when making panoramas), lens is NOISY (sound) - can't take dicreet photos of toddler because she hears the camera start up, Macro 10cm is not close enough, battery life is good but you never know when it's going to run out - I have 2 batteries (Sony's are better at that).
Canon's PhotoStitch Panorama software is not very good (leaves shadows/echoes at the stitch marks) but 4 other panorama software titles I've tried are the same. The only good panorama software that actually works properly is PTGui.
Bottom line - great wonderful camera. I will definitely buy a Canon S series camera when I upgrade (am eyeing up the S70 already but may wait until Canon has a proper VGA 30FPS video mode - S80?). Wouldn't mind a Canon G6 or an Eos300D but I can't put either of those in my pocket. That reminds me, I bought it secondhand off someone who was upgrading to the S50 - tells you something doesn't it!

Opinion: Verry good Pictures. The Handling (Box) is good

Opinion: Great camera that has everything you wish for!

Perfect for point and shoot, but you can also do some serious composing due to all the manual settings.

I got mine in January 2003.

Opinion: Canon PS S45 is my first digital camera, and I chose it over other more recent and more compact models because it promised to offer more features for me to learn to operate. It provides more options for me to consider and try. And it did a great job; I have been using it for over 7 months, and I am quite sure that I made a right choice. It performs well and mostly satisfies my needs. When I bought it, it's ready to be phased out. So it's a great value. A wonderful digital camera for beginners who want to learn and to experiment with a compact model with great functions.

Opinion: It takes a licking and keeps on clicking! From European landmarks, to stunning close-ups of wildflowers, to night shots of wild fires, my S45 has exceeded my expectations. I've had my S45 for a year and a half and it's proved to be an incredibly durable camera. I go hiking and mountain biking on rough, dusty trails in 100 deg. summer heat numerous times a week and my S45 still works perfectly. It also survived a four week tour of Europe during last summer's heat wave and produced pictures superior to cameras costing a lot more. (At least that was the opinion of other people in my tour group who have viewed the pictures.) I keep fairly up to date on the latest cameras and I still haven't seen a better compact 4MP camera. The images are cleaner than most higher-priced 5MP cameras and the advanced shooting modes allow you to take professional-quality shots. (I never shoot in Auto mode.) I wouldn't recommend it to a casual user but for anyone looking for a compact but full-featured camera, it's still at the top of my list of recommendations.

Opinion: Big dissapointment (E18 error). Not recommended, unless you have money to throw away.
I considered Canon for the name and based on good references.
Overall it was a good camera: easy to use and pretty decent pictures.
The cruel reality is that the defect in the optical system (E18 error) makes camera inoperable (see problems)

Opinion: I am very amazed with the people at Canon. Something happened to my S45
camera when my kids used it and it stopped working. I ran through the check
lists from the support dept at Canon, nothing worked. I decided to send it in
since it still had one month warranty left. I thought they wouldn't accept it
since I had tinkered with it. I sent it off on Wed and got it back across country
in just over 1 week! It works great! What a wonderful repair department they
have. I will buy Canon now all the time.

Even though they stopped making this camera, I still love it. I know the newer
models have a quicker lag time. You know, when you want to catch
something and its busy auto-focusing etc so you lose your shot. I hear the
S60 is the newer version of the S45. I was planning on buying that camera if
this didn't repair. I was just so happy with my S45.

Opinion: Great camera. Better than "a" series, very crash-resist camera