Canon PowerShot S70

Opinion: For some of the work I do this camera is invaluable: getting in close and shooting
groups of people working - I need them to forget I'm pointing a camera at them. I
shoot a lot at 28mm at maximum aperture and the image quality is fine. I never
bother with RAW but I've blown up the JPEGs very large and they still look good.

Shutter lag when prefocused is excellent. Handling is a bit slow, though, and the
control system is a bit clunky, particularly when you want to do manual override/
exposure compensation.

Opinion: The search for the perfect point & shoot will forever be elusive.
But I have yet to find a better performer in the P&S market than the PS70.
I have two of these cameras and would buy another as they continue to produce cracking results when shooting in RAW.
I have yet to find a replacement for a camera that is physically beginning to show its age. I thought I had with the new Ricoh Caplio but then its 5+ sec write speed between RAW images makes it pointless for me.
Sadly the PowerShot S80 does not have RAW and is clearly aimed at a less demanding market.

Opinion: Superb camera!!!

Opinion: The camera that persuaded me to ditch my Nikon Coolpix 8800 and buy a Canon DSLR. I bought it to replace my S$0 which had died because of the E18 error message. The camera is fast, accurate focusing (with the wonderful DIGIC porcessor accurately highlighting the areas to focus on) and fast writing to CF even with my old Lexar x12 card.

Opinion: The S70 is getting old now so don't expect the AF speed and sensitivity of a Digic II cam like the A620 or S80 (Canon finally got AF in their compacts GOOD with Digic II - Hooray!) .. the ergonomics are way better than the S30-50 and it's full featured, the 7.1Mp CCD (same as the G6 and A620) is a classic, giving excellent pixel level detail, decent dynamic range and usable low noise..
The Fly in the ointment is the LENS, it's the same unit as the S60 (and the later S80) and still has the same issues ..

1:- sample variation.. Good ones have a touch of blurriness at the EXTREME corners only at F2.8 28mm but many have a whole dud side (common with Canon unfortunately, you have to keep swapping out til you geta good one)

2:- The long end of the zoom is painfully slow aperture at F5.3 and it's not sharp wide open as well as a bit on the dreamy side (three S70s, one S60 and two S80s tested), of course there is no IS to help out so it's best thinking of the S70 (or 80) as a 28mm camera which can zoom a bit, thought of that way, it's way better value (and better image quality) than the Ricoh GR-D which can't zoom at all..

3:- There are Duff spots in the zoom range, one which happens to be bang on 35mm equivalent, so don't compare an S60/70/80 to your G6 or A620 at the 35mm focal length!, the S70 will come out soft sided..

4:- the lens doesn't appear to have the same Anti-PF coatings of the G6 and A620 so expect more fringing (though in reality, it's not that bad) .. a Summary is that Canon ought to have redesigned the lens even for the S70 to iron out the bugs let alone using it again on the S80 !! - they could do with tightening up on QC too..

Where the S70 scores heavily over the S80 is in three very important ways .. 1:- it has a thick plexiglass panel over the LCD, the S80s is bared to the elements and the coating scratches at the drop of a hat .. 2:- it shoots RAW (use Rawshooter essentials) and 3:- Ergonomics - the S80s zoom lever is horrible (the Ixus, G & A series have the best ones), the S70s is better, also the button layout is better than the S80 or S50 too..

Other bits are .. The flash seems weak compared to the S400/500 (Ixus models) let alone the A620 .. it uses CF cards which is superb if you have a Canon DSLR (maybe C want to sell S80s to NIKON D50 or Pentax owners?) .. it uses the same Batts as its older brothers and the 350D .. the Sliding door is smoother than the S30-50 but is too loose and can switch off when holding.. It exposes more for the highlights more like the 1 series DSLRs than other Canon Digicams such as the G series or other S models - great for preserving highlights, not good for noise... It buffers loadsa JPGs and even more RAWs than some DSLRs !! let alone the sad buffers in Fuji & Sony cams!

All in all, a used S70 is a good buy, it reminds me of the Ixus S500, last of the CF card models in the range and made just before some serious bad changes (IMO) took place in the range... When thought of as a 28mm RAW shooting CF Card eating pocket outdoor cam which can zoom if desperately needed, the S70 starts to look good - in RAWshooter essentials, its capable of publishable results and the JPG engine is pretty damn good too .. A better option than the Ricoh GRD, that's for sure!

Opinion: Guidelines...

The camera must fit in my pocket.
The camera must have minimal shutter lag.
The camera must be robust.
The camera must take night shots.

With some disappointment this camera seems to be the best all-rounder.

Excellent:

Picture quality, features & functionality, 28mm Lens, RAW format, Remote operation - PC control via USB, Compact Flash format

Very Good:

Ergonomics, Build quality, IR remote, Flash

Poor:

Shutter lag still not good enough, Macro could be better, Flash performance could be better, Purple fringing is a problem (but can be mostly removed later), LCD is dim but it is not a bother to me, Video - why include video editing when the video quality is so poor, Canon website, 15 second exposure is not enough, Manual focus mechanism on the LCD is a joke!

I also considered the Olympus SP3xx, Ricoh GR, Panasonic Lumix LX1, Sony P200 and Canon A620. They all have there strengths and weaknesses and I believe often with intention; surely there is no excuse for such shutter lag & tardy operation as is the case with the Olys & Nikons. The Sony was excellent but I'm not playing the Memory Stick game - it is not that good. The Ricoh & Panasonic too costly The Canon A series are very appealing, a little bit bigger or at least more awkward for fitting in to a pocket though if one had a 28mm lens and RAW it would have been my choice.

Opinion: very good camera.
I bought this camera one year ago, and by now have taken some 3000 shots.

-The camera is of very solid metal contruction and quite small for its lens zoom range.
-Image quality is really very, very high and can nearly reach a dSLR. Only limit is its small sensor, causing somewhat higher noise. Some people complain about the purple fringing, but I consider it acceptable. Especially it can be removed efficiently with filters in i.e. Paintshop pro etc.
-good colours
-good exposure
-distortion is acceptable to me
-soft corners not as bad, as some people claim
-28 mm on the wide end. This is a huge advantage.

I would always buy this camera again. It is not the perfect compact camera, but quite close. And I can not see any better one with this zoom range and body size on the marcet right now. The only alternative, but quite identical, I consider the S80. However, it also costs more and has no RAW image support.
This camera is really good, and I am quite demanding.

Opinion: I desperately wanted to like the S70. On paper, it looked good, and had all the features that I was looking
for. I had a Powershot G3 for a couple of years and was very pleased with it, and wanted the same thing in
a smaller package. The writeup on dpreview was basically glowing, and the sample photos were some of
the best I've seen. My experience with this camera fell far short of expectations, over the year that I owned
it.

The purple fringing problem appeared nearly everywhere, not just the usual 'contrast zones' where
cameras with this problem tend to have it. Dynamic range simply sucked; pictures usually had under- or
overexposure at least somewhere (and sometimes both in the same shot!). Sometimes these problems
were overwhelming; I'd take a picture of a tree with blue sky in the background, and I'd end up with a black
tree-shaped outline, glowing purple around the edges, with a bright white sky. Focusing was consistently
horrible, either taking up to five seconds, settling on the wrong spot, or in the case that lighting was in the
least bit inadequate, simply failing altogether. The AF light was useless. Startup time was below average,
and spontaneous snapshots were essentially out of the question. Flash photography exposure was
seriously inconsistent in all but automatic mode, where the forced auto ISO usually made shots grainy, and
always used maximum aperture, which produced strong corner softness. Indeed, all four corners were
noticably blurry in virtually every shot unless f/8 was selected. Resolution was extremely high, in theory,
but the pictures had the feel of those taken with a much smaller sensor and then enlarged with Photoshop.
In other words, this camera's sharpness and detail simply couldn't hold up to its massive megapixel count,
and the extra pixels simply served to better underline its flaws. Additionally, its physical construction felt
fairly cheap: the flimsy plastic battery door was disappointing, and the sliding lens cover always felt like it
was ready to break off if you slid it too hard. Not that it matters, but the S70 is also probably one of the
ugliest digital cameras out there.

When conditions were perfect, this camera was capable of decent results, but in all I managed to take
about five shots out of several hundred that I was actually happy with, compared to about 80-90% with the
G3.

Perhaps I received a defective model, but since all of these problems were mentioned in passing in the
dpreview writeup, I think these were simply the limitations of this deeply flawed camera. The fact that the
review seemed to minimize and somewhat excuse these flaws, using terms like 'not visible in everyday
shots' when really these problems were abundantly visible even when zoomed out on the screen, gives
me pause. When was the last time you saw a Canon product receive less than a "Highly Recommended"
on this site? Canon does make some good products, but all companies occasionally turn out lemons; a
fact that this site does not seem to acknowledge in Canon's case. I will not speculate on motive, but
perhaps this is something to think about.

You'll probably be able to get a good deal on the S70 these days (compared to the $500+ it cost when it
came out) because people on eBay seem to be dumping them; just know what you'll be getting into before
purchasing.

Opinion: If you are lazy, and want a descent compact, yet versatile camera, go for this one. The image result will satisfy most. and with a little practise, one can get quiet creative. The price has gone down, as of writing this. Mine lasted 2 month...got condensation whilst sitting in one of those waterproof soft bags. A lot of crap. If
you intend to go near water, snow or fine sand, buy the hard waterproof case. I should have!