Canon PowerShot S60

Opinion: I agree with the below post. I got it in 2004 also, loved it forever, until recently I lost it somewhere and had to replace it with Panasonic LX1.

for 5 years this camera has rarely let me down. I have dropped it on concrete floor (it was a hard fall!) and it is still solid as ever. the slide-open lens cover works well for me for those quick shots.

Opinion: Canon PowerShot S60 - what's there not to love? Got it in 2004. Now 5 years later it's still our most-used camera. (My Canon DSLR is not seeing much use). This little Canon S60 has been to the mountains, swimming pools, playgrounds, water parks, and many other places. The best camera is the one with you, right?

Things I find useful:

1. Excellent image quality (sharpness, colors)
2. 28mm wide angle (how many P&S cams have that?)
3. F 2.8
4. Good quality movie with sound
5. Ability to use Type II cards
6. Manual control (aperture priority, shutter priority, and full manual)
7. Manual focus
8. Macro mode
9. RAW format
10. Custom white balance
11. Optical viewfinder

...and some others.

a sample:

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/1254/screenshot1n.jpg

Opinion: I'm pretty much a "recreational" photographer and got this camera for a good price
a few years ago.

As to the construction: In July I was in a bicycle wreck when I had the S60 in my
back pocket. I landed flat on my lower back (and the camera) and ended up
cracking two vertebra. Somehow the Canon was totally unphased by all this. I took
it to Italy for three weeks in September and it worked like a champ.

During that trip I cut the image size back to 1600 x 1200 so I wouldn't fill up my
memory card. The pix I took still look superb, including several that were blown up
to 8 x 10. (This was after tweaking most of them in Adobe Lightroom.) In fact
several professional and serious amateur photographers have rave about them and
asked me what kind of camera I was using. One said, "Killer results! Man, why
would I drag along a 5D with all the trimmings when I can do just as well with 15
lbs/$5000 less gear?"

My only complaint would concern the measly 3.6x zoom, which now has me
salivating over the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 and its 18x zoom.

Cary

Opinion: Superb little camera that I still use frequently today. Takes nice images which I have printed at up to 8by12 inches with no visible noise/artifacts. This camera records in raw format which is useful when post processing (why on earth did Canon get rid of this from its newer compacts?) 4 cm macro mode is good.

I have taken something like 10,000 pictures with this camera since I bought it 2 years ago and I have never had any problems with it. Recommended for both novices (who can start off in auto and gradually learn the manual functions of this camera) and for those who need a compact camera as a DSLR backup.

Opinion: I own several Canon film backs and L lenses, but carrying them is a pain in the
sholder not to mention that given their value, I can not let them out of my sight.
To get rid of this problem I purchased the S60. It takes reasonable pictures, but
Canon could do better if they offered a larger sensor and OIS. If Panansonic
can solve their noise problems their cameras in this category will likely surpass
Canon. I know that Canon makes more profit on SLRs, but there are a lot of
serious photographers, like me, that have been there done that and await a
better image quality compact with a 28mm W and OIS.

Opinion: I own several Canon film back and L lenses, but carrying them is a pain in the
sholder not to mention that given their value, I can not let them out of my sight.
To get rid of this problem I purchased the S60. It takes reasonable pictures, but
Canon could do better if they offered a larger sensor and OIS. If Panansonic
can solve their noise problems their cameras in this category will likely surpass
Canon. I know that Canon makes more profit on SLRs, but there are a lot of
serious photographers, like me, that have been there done that and await a
better image quality comact with a 28mm W and OIS.

Opinion: I regret buying this camera for one reason only. The sliding door used to turn the camera on/off is really a bad idea. When taking pictures my right hand is on this door, and I frequently turn the camera off by accident when framing a shot. I have to be very careful to avoid doing this. We were recently on vaction and we would ask strangers to take a picture of us, they also turned the camera off by accident. This is extremly annoying and seems like a poor design.

I like everything else about the camera, but this one problem is such a big issue that I wish I would have selected another model with a normal on/off button.

Opinion: I've been used the camera for a year, bought it instead of stolen Canon S45.
The camera is very well built and though it has plastic battery door, this is not a problem. Wrist strap sometimes prevents lens cover from turning the camera on, but that's not a big problem either.
It has a full set of standard Canon features, very easy to use either for point-and-shoot or for some more skilled shooting delivering good images, but:

It seems Canon doesn't do homework.
I mean S60 is not that better than S45 as it should have been. I'd say, i't not better at all. The only problem Canon fixed is that weird 'set' button.

The problems remaining are described below, sorted by descending importance:

Conclusion:
Not perfect but Very good camera, still one of the best on the market. Too bad companies always have to issue new but actually worse products to remain market leaders.

Opinion: Great for travel, good compact camera.