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Canon PowerShot S45 review

Started Feb 19, 2003 | User reviews thread
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HWLee Forum Member • Posts: 66
Canon PowerShot S45 review

I've been through tree Canon S-Series models in the last two weeks. The first two where S30. The first one had a fault in the viewfinder. Took it back and got another S30. This one had a stuck pixel and the metal around the shooter-button would make a creaky sound if you would press slightly. Apart form this, oth S30 cameras had huge AF problems in basically all modes if you would like to take a picture in the evening inside the appartement and the light would only be a bit low.
So I went to the dealer one more time. He told me Canon AF generally is good (which I believe, had a Canon SLR which I traded for the S30 because of too little use and never had problems with AF) and that the S45 has even been improved in terms of AF (quicker, 9 focus-points). OK, so I took the S45 and paid the difference.

Unfortunately, with the S45 it's not better. It does focus, yes, but the camera always focus excactly the things that you don't want. We have a cat that hardly stands still and is very lively. We have not been able to take a damn sharp pic of the thing the whole evening - no matter what mode we tried. Pics where always soft and blurry.

So at the moment I'm really pissed off. Also I start to doubt if Canon has still the quality they had some years ago. The battery/CF door of the S45 dosesn't close as firm as with the S30 models mentioned above. When I hold the camera and my fingers touch it, I always get the feeling that it will jump up because you can feel that the door is not firmly stuck.

I don't know - tree cameras and all have some damn quirks form new.

Problems:

As mentioned above - I start to doubt Canons quality.

Each of the tree cameras had some issues. The AF on all models has huge focus problems in only a bit lower light conditions.

The pictures are not sharp but rather soft and often blurry.

Last but not least, even if I'm a beginner, compared to the pictures of my Canon SLR which I traded or even my Yashica T5 which I still have, I start to think that no matter how many Megapixels a DigiCam has, picture quality is still way below any 35mm film camera, even with the much more expensive models.

As soon as you take pictures of geometrical objects with fine lines, straight walls of buildings etc. there's no comparison.
I think a DigiCam is good if you want to learn how aperture, shutter speed and all these things work without having to wait for the film-rolls etc., but in terms of picture quality, I think there's still a big difference, no matter how many Megapix the camera has. Just my opinion.

I'll take this camera back tomorrow - the third time - and will get me either some cheap 2 MP model or I take my old camera back.

Honestly, I've had enough for the moment.

Canon PowerShot S45
4 megapixels • 1.8 screen • 35 – 105 mm (3×)
Announced: Sep 16, 2002
HWLee's score
3.4
Average community score
4.4
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