Canon Digital IXUS 300 (AKA. S300 ELPH) Review
Phil Askey, March 2001

Review based on a production Digital IXUS 300

First off, names, the Digital IXUS 300 is this cameras European (and SE Asia) name, it is known as the PowerShot S300 Digital ELPH in the US and the IXY Digital 300 in Japan, the cameras are identical apart from the name. The Digital IXUS 300 is a progression from last years Digital IXUS, with the same 2 megapixel sensor the new Digital IXUS 300 now features a 3x zoom lens and a moderate number of improvements:

Improvements in the Digital IXUS 300 compared to Digital IXUS

	Digital IXUS 300 (S300 ELPH)	Digital IXUS (S100 ELPH)
Lens	3 x optical zoom, 35 - 105 mm equiv. (F2.7 - F4.7)	2 x optical zoom, 35 - 70 mm equiv. (F2.8 - F4.0)
Focus range	Normal: 76 cm - Infinity Macro: 16 cm - 76 cm	Normal: 57 cm - Infinity Macro: 10 cm - 57 cm
Resolutions	1600 x 1200 1024 x 768 640 x 480	1600 x 1200 640 x 480
JPEG modes	Super-Fine Fine Standard	Super-Fine Fine
Design	New designed case, new shutter release button, improved exposure dial, new power button, new zoom controller
Volume	179 cm3	133 cm3
Weight (inc. batt)	275 g (9.7 oz)	210 g (7.4 oz)
Digital Zoom	Smooth up to 2.5x	Either 2x or 4x
Colour filter	GRGB	CYGM
Movie	160 x 120, 320 x 240, 640 x 480 (with audio)	None
Direct Print	Yes	No

Those are the specification / design differences, lets get on to examine the camera in a little more detail and see what other improvements have been made...

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this review (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Photographs of the camera were taken with a Canon EOS-D30, images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (normally 960 x 720 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Adobe Gamma at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This review is Copyright 2001 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey.