Canon PowerShot S230 (Digital IXUS v3) review

[zanzara]

I bought the S230 over a year and a half ago and I must say I really love it. I also own an APS ELPH which doesn’t get much use now. It has been totally reliable and I have had no problems. Picture quality and video quality are superb. Functions are fairly intuitive and the first-time user shouldn’t have a problem understanding the different options. It is too bad Canon has replaced this model with the SD-100 but if you want this new memory format I am sure the optics and operation are much the same. I had two friends recently buy the Sony DSC-P92 a 5 MegaPixel plastic bodied machine and both aren’t happy when they compare it to the Canon. It was slightly less expensive than mine but they got free CD players (an in-store promotion) and were happy with their $100 free gift. Surprised by the poor quality of the Sony they now want to return their models for the Canon A80. Their cameras are not near the quality of the Canon and their AA batteries die in under an hour. The battery that comes with the Canon (Li-ion) it fairly good and has really only run out on me once while using the LCD display with over 100 pictures at 1024x768 while walking around a construction site. I currently use the 128Mb SanDisk CF card which I bought after the fact which came with a free reader. The video quality on the Sony was absolutely crappy – dark and grainy. With the Canon the difference was like night and day. The same movie shot was bright and crisp. It’s funny that when I bought the camera I never thought I’d use the video feature but it is rather fun at times to shoot a small clip. It is a little bit of a drawback though that it automatically stops after 3 minutes. Overall, I highly recommend this camera.