A great camera for its size and price. I highly recommend it to all except the most discerning of photographers.
1. In auto mode, almost all photos taken are excellent. There are not many manual controls, but if you are looking for more, you are looking at the wrong category of cameras. You should be looking at cameras about 2 to 3 times bigger in size, priced about 50% more or higher. Anyway, I believe most people actually do not use the manual controls most of the time.
2. The 3.2 mega pixels resolution is just right. Not too little or too much. Good prints up to A4 size.
3. The movie clip with sound capability is way cool. You can shoot up to 30 seconds at 640 x 480, or up to 3 mins at lower resolutions. I use this very often, in lieu of my videocam. My friend went to New Zealand for holiday and she did not even bother to bring her videocam! But she brought two 512 MB CF cards and a spare battery though. And also her notebook to download all the pictures every night!
4. This camera is so compact and easy to use. You may not bring your videocam or G2/3 everywhere but you can certainly bring this camera everywhere. In your handbag or pants pocket. As said by someone, the good camera that you have with you takes far better pictures than the one you do not have with you.
5. This is one of only a few cameras that has an optional marine pack. I took some pictures and movie clips in the pool and they were fantastic.
6. The styling is subjective. Some like the brushed stainless steel look. Others hate it. I had no particular reaction to it but am beginning to like it.
All in all, a fantastic camera which you will not regret buying. I recommended it to some friends and all of them loved it.
There may be some people who do not like it for some reason or another. Some of them have particular priorities which are not met by this camera. Some have unrealistic expectations. You cannot expect a small jet to have all the features of a jumbo jet. Others may have some trouble with their camera or maybe their hands! And there will of course be the usual idiots.
Problems:
1. Battery life is too short. A spare battery is essential if you go on long trips. The battery runs out very fast if you take movie clips or use the flash. Outdoors, it ran out on me after about half a day. Indoors, using flash continuously, it ran out after about 2 hrs! Also, some kind of indication of the remaining time left (like Sony's) would be great.
2. The supplied 16 MB CF card is a joke. Movie clips take up between 10 to 30 MB each time. You need at least a 256 MB card. I recommend a 512 MB card. If you take movie clips, even the 512 MB card fills up very fast and you need to have ready access to a PC to transfer the files from card to PC. (This is not really a problem with the camera. It is common to all cameras.)
3. I find the 30 seconds limit on the movie clip at higher resolution a bit too short sometimes. If it could last 3 mins, even at the higher resolution, that would be great.
4. For pictures, the camera will auto-rotate the picture if you take the picture with the camera on end. It would be great if this could be done for the movie clips as well.
5. The x2 optical zoom is not enough. Should be at least x3. Make it x5. You can go up to x6.4 with digital zoom but for movie clips, why is it limited to x2 only? Also, while shooting the clip, no zooming is possible.
6. There appears to be some shuttle lag. I was told that you can overcome this by pressing the button to focus first, then hold to shoot.
7. Many of the words such as the make/model and commands are printed onto the camera body. I wonder if they will rub off over time. May have been great if they had been edged. Guess they may have to have 2 camera bodies in this case, one for the Ixus V3 and one for the S230.
8. You can replay the movie clips with sound by connecting the camera to a TV. But there is no sound if you replay the clip on the camera itself. Ok, I am asking too much.
1. In auto mode, almost all photos taken are excellent. There are not many manual controls, but if you are looking for more, you are looking at the wrong category of cameras. You should be looking at cameras about 2 to 3 times bigger in size, priced about 50% more or higher. Anyway, I believe most people actually do not use the manual controls most of the time.
2. The 3.2 mega pixels resolution is just right. Not too little or too much. Good prints up to A4 size.
3. The movie clip with sound capability is way cool. You can shoot up to 30 seconds at 640 x 480, or up to 3 mins at lower resolutions. I use this very often, in lieu of my videocam. My friend went to New Zealand for holiday and she did not even bother to bring her videocam! But she brought two 512 MB CF cards and a spare battery though. And also her notebook to download all the pictures every night!
4. This camera is so compact and easy to use. You may not bring your videocam or G2/3 everywhere but you can certainly bring this camera everywhere. In your handbag or pants pocket. As said by someone, the good camera that you have with you takes far better pictures than the one you do not have with you.
5. This is one of only a few cameras that has an optional marine pack. I took some pictures and movie clips in the pool and they were fantastic.
6. The styling is subjective. Some like the brushed stainless steel look. Others hate it. I had no particular reaction to it but am beginning to like it.
All in all, a fantastic camera which you will not regret buying. I recommended it to some friends and all of them loved it.
There may be some people who do not like it for some reason or another. Some of them have particular priorities which are not met by this camera. Some have unrealistic expectations. You cannot expect a small jet to have all the features of a jumbo jet. Others may have some trouble with their camera or maybe their hands! And there will of course be the usual idiots.
Problems:
1. Battery life is too short. A spare battery is essential if you go on long trips. The battery runs out very fast if you take movie clips or use the flash. Outdoors, it ran out on me after about half a day. Indoors, using flash continuously, it ran out after about 2 hrs! Also, some kind of indication of the remaining time left (like Sony's) would be great.
2. The supplied 16 MB CF card is a joke. Movie clips take up between 10 to 30 MB each time. You need at least a 256 MB card. I recommend a 512 MB card. If you take movie clips, even the 512 MB card fills up very fast and you need to have ready access to a PC to transfer the files from card to PC. (This is not really a problem with the camera. It is common to all cameras.)
3. I find the 30 seconds limit on the movie clip at higher resolution a bit too short sometimes. If it could last 3 mins, even at the higher resolution, that would be great.
4. For pictures, the camera will auto-rotate the picture if you take the picture with the camera on end. It would be great if this could be done for the movie clips as well.
5. The x2 optical zoom is not enough. Should be at least x3. Make it x5. You can go up to x6.4 with digital zoom but for movie clips, why is it limited to x2 only? Also, while shooting the clip, no zooming is possible.
6. There appears to be some shuttle lag. I was told that you can overcome this by pressing the button to focus first, then hold to shoot.
7. Many of the words such as the make/model and commands are printed onto the camera body. I wonder if they will rub off over time. May have been great if they had been edged. Guess they may have to have 2 camera bodies in this case, one for the Ixus V3 and one for the S230.
8. You can replay the movie clips with sound by connecting the camera to a TV. But there is no sound if you replay the clip on the camera itself. Ok, I am asking too much.
