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Although a bit pricey for a 2MP-class camera with a very small lens, the S300 makes up for it in portablilty, durability, and reliability. This thing feels like it will go almost anywhere, and so far it has. It has a very, very solid feel -- nothing creaks, cracks or groans. The only flimsy things about the camera are the little rubber piece covering the connection points and the plastic battery and CF doors. But overall construction is EXCELLENT and very solid.
On the photography side, automatic mode isn't bad for most average shots, making this camera a good "point-and-shoot" camera. Manual mode allows most settings to be changed but what's most conspicuously missing is a setting to change ISO speeds. The flash does well under 10 feet or so in most situations, but quite often it has coverage problems where the center is bright and the edges are quite dark. This camera does well in the dark if you are taking pictures of well-lit or self-lit subjects (like Christmas lights, etc.), but other than that it's pretty much a daylight camera. The 3x optical zoom is sufficient but nothing special. The 2.5x digital zoom is seldom used, and I have never kept a photo that I'd used the digital zoom on. (I'd rather operate on an optically-zoomed photo later on in Paint Shop Pro than take a picture with the digital zoom.)
Operationally this camera is very, very easy to use. Its menu system is laid out very nicely and is very easy to read and navigate. It's simplistic but it does what you need it to do, and quickly. The S300 is not cluttered with buttons and seems to have only what you really need where you need it -- layout is very good. The LCD panel is small but works quite well, even in a good amount of sunlight.
The battery lasts long enough for my purposes although I have just ordered a second one for backup purposes and for long trips, etc. I also ordered a Mr. Flash 128MB card with a PC-Card adapter, which saves battery life; especially when you have to download more than just a few MB. I also got a compact camera bag (by Targus) to hold the spare battery, the original 8MB CF card, the PC-Card adapter and the AV cable. Everything fits nicely inside and the whole package is quite small, although I often leave the bag in the car and pocket the S300. But my spare stuff is always close enough if I need it.
Another thing that's actually impressive is the video mode. I always thought that a video mode on a still camera was a complete waste of time. But this thing does pretty decent video! At 320x240 you get 20fps and about 15 seconds of video with mono 11kHz audio. Not bad at all, and the audio picks up conversational sounds very well indeed. I was very impressed when I could hear the people who were in the video, and I could easily understand what they were saying -- even at about 8 feet away! And the video records with MJPEG compression and saves in an AVI "format," so it's pretty editable and much easier to handle than most Quicktime video.
All in all I'd say that the S300 does quite a good job at doing what it was meant to do -- go anywhere and get decent pictures. It may not be a 4MP like the Olympus D40, but the Elph feels as though it could outlast the D40 easily. And it's other primary competitor, the Nikon 885, is much less pocketable and didn't feel as solid as the S300.
Problems:
In manual mode with the zoom at 3x while shooting in indoor/medium-to-low-light situations the camera seems to be affected easily by even the slightest shakiness, and needs to be mounted somewhere more firm than in my hand. I suppose this is due to the S300 automatically selecting a slower shutter speed to compensate for low light, but I wish I had control over that setting.
Also (as the DP Review noted) the color seems to be more accurate when EV is notched down to -1/3. Another slight annoyance is that there's no way to turn off the AF lamp, and unless you're already half-shuttered then this means that you may miss the exact moment that you were waiting for. However, if you can anticipate the shot and have the shutter held halfway then the Canon gets shots of relatively quickly; at least I thought so.
One last improvement I would make in the next model is switching to a thinner media, like SmartMedia or something like that. I do like CompactFlash because right now it is about half the price of SM stuff, but when you look at the CF slot on the S300 you realize that it's taking up about 1/5 (if not 1/4) of the entire side panel, and that Canon had to actually make the case bump out in the back just to house the CF card slot and its mechanism. It's very, very trivial but it's a design change that I think I would make in the next model around.
If I come across any malfunctions or anymore design flaws I will post them.
On the photography side, automatic mode isn't bad for most average shots, making this camera a good "point-and-shoot" camera. Manual mode allows most settings to be changed but what's most conspicuously missing is a setting to change ISO speeds. The flash does well under 10 feet or so in most situations, but quite often it has coverage problems where the center is bright and the edges are quite dark. This camera does well in the dark if you are taking pictures of well-lit or self-lit subjects (like Christmas lights, etc.), but other than that it's pretty much a daylight camera. The 3x optical zoom is sufficient but nothing special. The 2.5x digital zoom is seldom used, and I have never kept a photo that I'd used the digital zoom on. (I'd rather operate on an optically-zoomed photo later on in Paint Shop Pro than take a picture with the digital zoom.)
Operationally this camera is very, very easy to use. Its menu system is laid out very nicely and is very easy to read and navigate. It's simplistic but it does what you need it to do, and quickly. The S300 is not cluttered with buttons and seems to have only what you really need where you need it -- layout is very good. The LCD panel is small but works quite well, even in a good amount of sunlight.
The battery lasts long enough for my purposes although I have just ordered a second one for backup purposes and for long trips, etc. I also ordered a Mr. Flash 128MB card with a PC-Card adapter, which saves battery life; especially when you have to download more than just a few MB. I also got a compact camera bag (by Targus) to hold the spare battery, the original 8MB CF card, the PC-Card adapter and the AV cable. Everything fits nicely inside and the whole package is quite small, although I often leave the bag in the car and pocket the S300. But my spare stuff is always close enough if I need it.
Another thing that's actually impressive is the video mode. I always thought that a video mode on a still camera was a complete waste of time. But this thing does pretty decent video! At 320x240 you get 20fps and about 15 seconds of video with mono 11kHz audio. Not bad at all, and the audio picks up conversational sounds very well indeed. I was very impressed when I could hear the people who were in the video, and I could easily understand what they were saying -- even at about 8 feet away! And the video records with MJPEG compression and saves in an AVI "format," so it's pretty editable and much easier to handle than most Quicktime video.
All in all I'd say that the S300 does quite a good job at doing what it was meant to do -- go anywhere and get decent pictures. It may not be a 4MP like the Olympus D40, but the Elph feels as though it could outlast the D40 easily. And it's other primary competitor, the Nikon 885, is much less pocketable and didn't feel as solid as the S300.
Problems:
In manual mode with the zoom at 3x while shooting in indoor/medium-to-low-light situations the camera seems to be affected easily by even the slightest shakiness, and needs to be mounted somewhere more firm than in my hand. I suppose this is due to the S300 automatically selecting a slower shutter speed to compensate for low light, but I wish I had control over that setting.
Also (as the DP Review noted) the color seems to be more accurate when EV is notched down to -1/3. Another slight annoyance is that there's no way to turn off the AF lamp, and unless you're already half-shuttered then this means that you may miss the exact moment that you were waiting for. However, if you can anticipate the shot and have the shutter held halfway then the Canon gets shots of relatively quickly; at least I thought so.
One last improvement I would make in the next model is switching to a thinner media, like SmartMedia or something like that. I do like CompactFlash because right now it is about half the price of SM stuff, but when you look at the CF slot on the S300 you realize that it's taking up about 1/5 (if not 1/4) of the entire side panel, and that Canon had to actually make the case bump out in the back just to house the CF card slot and its mechanism. It's very, very trivial but it's a design change that I think I would make in the next model around.
If I come across any malfunctions or anymore design flaws I will post them.