330 HS ?

I am a fan of Canon P&S cameras.  I had owned every one of the S series, from S70 and up.  I still have a S90, S100, and S110, in addition to a G1x, G1xMK2, and T3i.  I in particular love the relatively small size and their quality pictures.  Recently I ordered a refurbished ELPH 330 from Canon website for $99 and I look forward to check it out.  From what I read, 330HS is better than the newer 340HS but may be not as good as the S100/S110(but distinctively smaller).

The 330 is a fun and capable little camera, but I don't believe you'll find much in the way of manual controls.  You can select from a fairly robust menu of settings and options for types of shooting conditions, but that's about it.

gloaming wrote:

The 330 is a fun and capable little camera, but I don't believe you'll find much in the way of manual controls. You can select from a fairly robust menu of settings and options for types of shooting conditions, but that's about it.

Well, I'm not after a lot of manual control, but just some basic stuff like being able to control the ISO, EV, control of the flash, 1/2 shutter lock, that sort of thing. I think most any of them have those. I just want to be able to compensate for lighting conditions when the camera doesn't, and i want it to do that automatically better than my Z80 which is garbage at P&S as lighting goes.

I have had great luck using my 330HS for a small camera it takes great pictures. The WiFi works well I would sure check it out.

Seems like from what i'm hearing here and reviews i've been reading this may finally be the one i've been looking for in the last 4 or 5 years. So does anyone know where the best price is on a new in box one ?

brianj wrote:

The ELPH 330 /IXUS 255 is an amazing little camera, I own two of them.

Take a look at the daylight and night photos in these albums:

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/5128303546/albums/ixus-255

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/5128303546/albums/cruising

You can't go wrong considering the low price of these.

Brian

I was already pretty convinced, but those pics sealed the deal ! On a side note, i posted a few more posts that seem to have disappeared and i don't know if theres a view that shows/hides my own posts or what but if there is i can't find it. Anyways, in one of them i asked if anyone can point me to a low price on it. So far the best i've seen will come to about $200 shipped/tax if any. Thats more than i was hoping to spend.

Figures, i finally find one i want after years of looking at canons only to find the prices i saw were not available. The best was $179 and i hoped to find better. I not only couldn't, but the $179 was bestbuy and they even have it on ebay. But when i try and buy it i can't because it must be "shipped to store" and it won't allow me to ship to any stores in my area. The next lowest prices for a non refurb is about $230. Then i see it's one of those discontinued ones that everyone apparently liked so some places are asking far more than the original list price. Well that was a letdown ! Is there anything else in my range as good or close?

The 330 is a great little camera. Last years choice mag compared about 40 PS cameras and it came on top overall and also for image quality. I use it for family snaps etc. Brian's shot shows what it can do. Its also good in lowlight up to ISO1600 you can get decent shots with low noise.

Cheers

Steve.

Man, i dunno if i got lucky or i'm missing something. But these are going for about $400 for new in box ones and there aren't a lot left. But i found it in canons web store refurbished and i called and asked about it. Refurbs are mostly returns due to minor things often not even camera related like open boxes returned to a store by people who decided they wanted something different and sent back for repackaging after being inspected. It has full warranty and are as new. The kicker....$99+tax and free shipping, $108 ! I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a 340HS but i couldn't get past the fact they aren't nearly as good according to reviews.

So I'm relieved to have finally gotten a canon ELPH after all these years. My 1st digicam many years ago took pics that were awesome even if only 4 MP. Then when i wanted to update it i bought a different brand and after that i went thru a few non canon cameras,  but always wanting to go back to canon. But every time i tried the reviews on the P&S pocket cams canon had out at the time would either be too much $ or bad reviews. This was the first time in all these years i found one that lived up to what i wanted in the reviews. So i can't wait to get it !

know wrote:

Man, i dunno if i got lucky or i'm missing something. But these are going for about $400 for new in box ones and there aren't a lot left. But i found it in canons web store refurbished and i called and asked about it. Refurbs are mostly returns due to minor things often not even camera related like open boxes returned to a store by people who decided they wanted something different and sent back for repackaging after being inspected. It has full warranty and are as new. The kicker....$99+tax and free shipping, $108 ! I was almost ready to pull the trigger on a 340HS but i couldn't get past the fact they aren't nearly as good according to reviews.

So I'm relieved to have finally gotten a canon ELPH after all these years. My 1st digicam many years ago took pics that were awesome even if only 4 MP. Then when i wanted to update it i bought a different brand and after that i went thru a few non canon cameras, but always wanting to go back to canon. But every time i tried the reviews on the P&S pocket cams canon had out at the time would either be too much $ or bad reviews. This was the first time in all these years i found one that lived up to what i wanted in the reviews. So i can't wait to get it !

Congratulations. I look forward to seeing some photos when you get it.

Cheers

Steve.

One thing thats always puzzled me is that year after year canon updates each model, at least in the lower price ranges with a successor thats always worse than it's predecessor. It's stunning how consistent they are at that because you would think after a few years they'd be so bad they'd never sell another. And i kept thinking to myself they have to break the trend now and then and do true upgrades that really shine or they'd downgrade themselves right out of the P&S business. Thats the only thing that kept me looking at canon all these years....the thought that they must break that trend or die. So i always look at the latest models with that glimmer of hope in mind and it never materialized till now. When i started reading about the 330 and seeing the galleries, I began to realize this is the one, they finally did break that trend ! It's about time. I fear we may see another 10 years of downgrades tho ! For me no big deal tho, as in 10 years i'll be either dead or too old to care. Hopefully the 330 will last me till then.

brianj wrote:

know wrote:

One thing thats always puzzled me is that year after year canon updates each model, at least in the lower price ranges with a successor thats always worse than it's predecessor. It's stunning how consistent they are at that because you would think after a few years they'd be so bad they'd never sell another. And i kept thinking to myself they have to break the trend now and then and do true upgrades that really shine or they'd downgrade themselves right out of the P&S business. Thats the only thing that kept me looking at canon all these years....the thought that they must break that trend or die. So i always look at the latest models with that glimmer of hope in mind and it never materialized till now. When i started reading about the 330 and seeing the galleries, I began to realize this is the one, they finally did break that trend ! It's about time. I fear we may see another 10 years of downgrades tho ! For me no big deal tho, as in 10 years i'll be either dead or too old to care. Hopefully the 330 will last me till then.

Yes, and I think canon frighten themselves too, because they know that a small pocket gem that makes to same pucture as their own S and SX models selling for 2-3 times as much is a real problem, so best to dumb it down for a while.

The thing that attracted me to the 330 was that I owned a SX260 that I thought was fantastic, but the lens assembly failed with errors, so when stevenic demonstrated his 330 I investigated and found that it contained the same sensor and DIGIC5 chipset as the SX260, except that it had a different lens assembly, 24-240 instead of the superzoom 25-500. I realised that it should be able to produce the same quality images, and it does.

Brian

Thats fantastic. Can't wait to get my hands on this camera. Video sample looked incredible too. I remember my 1st camera, a canon that took 10 seconds of i think 15 FPS video @ 230x340 I believe. If you didn't move it around too much and it didn't have to record too much data and you got lucky, it might go as long as 30 seconds. Ridiculous.

I completely agree! I think Canon did scare themselves with the 330 by making a very inexpensive camera that produces IQ almost on par with the S-series (definitely on par in the right hands!) and certainly equal to the more expensive SX-cameras. The 340 sure seems to be their effort at correcting the mistake of making the 330 as good as it is. I'm hanging on to mine for sure!

Andy

Looks like i got lucky and jumped back into the market just in time !