Great photographic tool for £25. I use it for urban/landscape type subjects - mainly static scenes. Good quality lens, good zoom range, well thought-out control system, nice amount of manual control, flexible and small raw files, tiny and lightweight, easy to carry anywhere, snappy in use, solid build, reliable, cheap to buy but not in feel. Image quality is enough for exploring ideas, trying things out, and for outputting to screen or smallish prints. I also much prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio over 3:2.
Things may have moved on in the 12 years since its release, but it's still a versatile photographic tool in a tiny package, and now with the advantage that it can be bought for virtually nothing, so you don't have to worry about it too much. Cost me £25 on the auction site, which is more or less the standard price in the UK.
The 1" compacts do offer an improvement in image quality generally, but even the cheapest of these is around four times the price of the S95 on the used market. On top of this, they are mostly a bit bigger and heavier, the raw files are twice the size, and I'm not convinced they all offer as good a shooting experience. The S95 makes great use of its 10 megapixels and gives me nice compact raw files with lots of detail, which don't take up much space or processing power to edit. I bought a G1X (£95) at the same time, which gives me higher IQ when I want it and don't mind the extra bulk. They make a great low-cost portable team.
For me, being used to 'proper' cameras and never shooting on a phone, the S95 was a revelation - suddenly I could go out and do photography without having to prepare mentally, or make choices about lenses, or think about a bag or strap. Just put it in a pocket and go. I could get it out anywhere and do some photography without 'looking like a photographer' (which I hate). I'm sure smartphones fulfil a similar role for many, but not for me - I just don't get on with them - and in any case, anything approaching the IQ and versatility of the S95 is going to cost a lot more money.
Image quality is of course limited by the small sensor and relatively slow lens, but it's good enough for many things and most importantly, makes me a better photographer because it's easier to get out there and keep up that photographic engagement with the world. It limits some choices, which is actually quite liberating, but still leaves enough control to feel ownership over the process. The ability to output unprocessed raw files is key to this, and is one thing that sets it apart from many phones. The slow lens isn't much of a restriction for me since for landscape subjects, I nearly always want wide depth of field.
So anyway, if you shoot urban/landscape scenes in daylight, want something you can take anywhere which is enjoyable and easy to shoot, gives a good amount of control and produces good raw files reliably for very little money, you could do a lot worse than get one of these.
That's the summary. For anyone that's interested in more detail, my full review is below. Warning: it's quite long, and done entirely from the perspective of my own requirements. Maybe it's crazy to put so much effort into a review for a 12-year-old P&S camera, but I happen to think it's worthy of the effort (and I don't think of it as a P&S anyway).
DETAILED REVIEW
Handling
Handling is generally good, easy, enjoyable. The biggest thing for me was getting used to composing on a screen, which I really wasn't used to. My close vision is poor, so I need glasses to use it. Turns out this works quite well - I keep my glasses around my neck and put them on when composing. I can look over them at the subject and through them down at the screen. Using the screen has a number of limitations, as with all screens, but it generally works well enough for accurate composition. Small subject details are invisible, highlights are often blown out and shadows blocked up (on screen), but I can see these by looking directly at the subject. There's a shortcut button to boost screen brightness to maximum, which is useful. I find the screen adequately bright in most conditions, and visibility is quite good from awkward angles, which makes up somewhat for the lack of articulation.
While I constantly feel I would like another dial, that's probably too much to ask for on a camera this size. Overall, settings are easy to manipulate. I find I have to alternate the function of the rear dial quite a lot - especially when manual focus is engaged, but it works ok. Luckily the rear dial has excellent feel and accuracy (it's metal), despite its tiny size.
I find the front dial a little awkward to use, but it's still great to have it. I tend to have it set to 'step zoom' so that I know what equivalent focal length I'm using. The equivalent focal length is not shown when using the standard zoom rocker, which I find an annoying oversight - you get an unmarked bar graph instead.
Generally the buttons and dials handle great for a tiny camera. I don't find I make accidental presses very often. It could use a bit more grip, but it's adequate and so far I haven't dropped it.
Focusing
I only ever use single-point AF, which means I use focus-recompose most of the time, as the AF point can't be moved from the centre. AF is easily fast enough for my purposes - it never gets in the way. Accuracy is pretty much 100% reliable in terms of getting the object focused-on sharp. Despite this, I nearly always shoot a focus bracket to ensure I get optimum depth of field in one shot. Yes, it has auto focus bracketing! This is an excellent feature - Canon didn't even put that in their DSLRs. There are three levels of focus variation. It's very easy and quick to set up and ensures you always get the best from the lens - brilliant.
Inability to move the focus point is a bit of a compromise, but if you're hand-holding, focus-recompose works well enough. It is a major limitation when on a tripod, but I don't do that too often with this camera.
The camera lacks a true back-button AF option. The shortcut button can be assigned to perform AF and then lock, but if you change display modes, which I do frequently, or make an exposure, the lock is lost. There's no way to disable AF on the shutter button completely. Therefore I have to go into MF as a way of getting a 'permanent' focus lock which persists between shots. This is a bit fiddly to do, and as I use this for every single exposure, it's an irritation.
Manual focus mode is mainly useful as a way of locking focus across a number of shots. It's not very usable for actual manual focus because the magnified view just doesn't have enough detail in it. It doesn't show full pixel-level readout, maybe due to lack of processing power. This is a real shame, as I would have found this useful for fine-tuning.
Exposure
I find the exposure meter to be very consistent and predictable, which makes it pretty easy to get good exposures. The live histogram is pretty helpful with that, as are the RGB histograms in playback. There are also blinking highlights in one of the playback displays. None of these aids show enough detail to show very small blown areas, but they are good enough to judge things pretty well. There's a decent exposure bracketing feature, but I rarely use it, preferring to bracket for focus instead.
I use the camera in aperture priority most of the time, just occasionally in manual. Honestly, there's not much need to change aperture most of the time because even at max aperture there's usually enough DOF, and stopping down beyond 2.8 starts to increase diffraction effects. At 28mm the corners are slightly improved at f/2.8 compared to f/2, so I tend to leave it at f/2.8. It stops down when you zoom in but comes back up to 2.8 when you zoom back out.
Exposure comp is needed commonly, and this is quick and easy to set.
Auto ISO is there but is not usable for me, because it does not take into account focal length or even whether IS is on or off. Could be better but no big deal - I've never used Auto ISO in other cameras either. ISO is easy to set manually - either set it up on the front dial or use the Func menu.
Lens
Overall, it's a very good lens. 28-105mm equivalent is more or less perfect for my usage. I rarely miss 24mm - especially the highly distorted variety generally found on compacts. The main limitation for me is the small aperture at the long end (f/4.9), which forces higher ISOs in dimmer daylight conditions, and causes a mild drop in sharpness and contrast due to diffraction.
There are actually only 10 focal lengths which can be used, as the zoom range is 'stepped' rather than continuous. Occasionally these steps are further apart than I would like, but the granularity is enough in most cases. Think of it as having 10 primes available at the flick of a switch and be happy.
Approximate equivalent focal lengths and reported max apertures are as follows:-
28mm/2; 32mm/2.2 ; 35mm/2.5; 40mm/2.8; 45mm/2.8; 50mm/3.2; 60mm/3.5; 70mm/4; 85mm/4.5; 105mm/4.9
CA is present but not too strong. Clarity could be a bit better - there is a fair bit of flare generated by bright objects within the frame. This may be as much to do with the small sensor and reflections behind the lens as much as the lens itself. Rarely a problem as such, just reduces image quality a little.
Purple fringing can be quite prominent - best to avoid trees/foliage against bright overexposed areas of sky where possible. Again, I think this is as much a function of the small sensor as the lens.
Cross-frame sharpness is generally very good. There is some loss in the corners at widest angle due to correction of the quite heavy barrel distortion. However, it's fairly mild at 28mm and low by 35mm. I often under-correct wide angles to reduce this effect and retrieve parts of the image (the lens is wider than you think).
There is some focal plane curvature/tilting at longer focal lengths, which can reduce sharpness a bit in parts of the image. That's one reason the focus bracketing is so useful - it will generally compensate for these things and give you one shot where all important elements are sharp (or allow you to composite two images to get everything sharp, though mostly not needed).
Sensor/image quality
It's a small 10mp sensor. Compared to a larger sensor, there's more noise, less dynamic range, rougher tonal gradation and less fidelity at the pixel level. However, it's enough for many subjects. If you avoid subjects it can't handle, keep ISO low, shoot in RAW, process carefully and use good technique, it produces good images. The camera makes it quite easy to make full use of the 10mp resolution, making the small files pretty 'efficient'.
I actually find the dynamic range to be quite good for the sensor size - it's enough for most subjects that I shoot. Getting exposure bang-on is important to maximize DR though. Fortunately, the camera makes that quite easy. I avoid excessively contrasty subjects, but mostly I don't find this too limiting.
There's a fair amount of noise even at base ISO (80), but I don't mind a bit of noise. I'm happy using it up to 200. I'll use it above that if I'm desperate, but generally avoid it. The image stabilizer is very helpful in keeping ISO down. I find the raw files to be quite responsive and malleable, within limits. I rarely use any luminance NR, and usually turn the colour NR down from defaults (Adobe). I actually process most images from the S95 using RawTherapee, because I find its detail rendering a lot crisper than I can get with Adobe with this camera.
Menus and displays
The menus are great. Fairly simple, and mostly not needed, but when you do need them, they are really quick to navigate and very responsive, with minimal clicking required. The zoom rocker switches between menus - nice. The customizable menu is also nice. Only thing I might have suggested is to split the shooting menu into two, as it's fairly long and there's room for another one.
The quick function menu is also great, and gives easy access to ISO, bracketing and WB, with easy shortcuts to things like bracketing steps, WB fine-tuning and other stuff.
The display options whilst composing work pretty well. There are two screens you can alternate between and have some control over what appears on each. A third one would have been nice. Generally, screen icons get in the way of composition too much, as they are a bit large, but it's workable.
Focal length (either equivalent or actual) is not displayed except when using the front dial for step zoom. This is unfortunate because this info is needed to make decisions about minimum shutter speed.
Playback
Playback is very responsive, and you can zoom into images to check details very quickly using the zoom rocker, and panning is pretty quick too. Zooming in and out is far quicker and easier than on Canon's rebel series DSLRs. Once zoomed in, you can flick to the previous/next image to compare focus at the same point, like you can on their DSLRs, which is very useful. Unfortunately there's no option to zoom straight to 100% at a chosen point, but it's not a big deal.
One thing to note is that raw files are not shown in full resolution, so you can't check critical sharpness if you shoot raw only. The workaround for this is to shoot raw + large JPEG, which is what I have it permanently set to. This is a shame, as it slows writing times a little and means you have more files to manage.
Most relevant info can be accessed by pressing the display button to cycle through screens. The image on the blinking highlights screen is very small, making it easy to miss blown details. Not sure why they couldn't implement this on a larger image. Again, there's no display of the focal length used.
One nice touch is that you can go directly into play mode when the camera is off without turning it on and extending the lens.
Other details
Self timer - this is a great implementation. Better than on most Canon DSLRs. There's a dedicated button and you have full choice over the delay in seconds, plus the number of shots to take at the end of the delay. Great for tripod use, or even for minimizing camera shake when hand-holding.
Image stabilizer - pretty effective. I get a good hit rate at 1/half effective focal length, though I tend to go a bit higher than that for safety. I leave it on all the time in single-shot mode. The continuous mode gives you stabilized composition, which can be useful when holding at awkward angles or long focal lengths.
Battery life - good enough to cover most outings I've done with it. I've got a spare which I always take out but rarely use. You're given fair warning of a low battery.
JPEGs - Pretty decent but not amazing. Sharpening is typical wide-radius Canon and noise reduction is a bit heavy-handed. Dynamic range is limited. Raw increases the quality potential substantially. I only use JPEGs for eBay sales images.
Speed - I find the camera very responsive generally. The only time when it's a bit slow is when shooting brackets - shots are a bit under 1 second apart, which means you have to hold the camera very steady to avoid the composition drifting. There's no live view during this time. I manage, but faster shot-to-shot times for bracketing would have been nice.
Shutter - so quiet and vibration free you need a simulated shutter sound to know you've made an exposure. Luckily you have control over the volume. Nice to have a camera where shutter/mirror vibration is not a concern.
Lens retraction - the lens retracts after 1 minute in playback mode. Unfortunately, this means your zoom and locked focus position are lost, so you have to set up your shot again. This is annoying and not conducive to considered work. They really should have given you the option of more time before retracting the lens.
Final thoughts
The beauty of this camera for me has been in allowing me to 'keep my eye in' and keep some creative flow going at times when I would have been too busy/preoccupied to go out photographing with more 'serious' cameras, which tend to require more mental and physical effort to take out. And the images are actually good enough to use if I ever wanted to sell small prints or show at a local cafe. When I do want better quality, I have other cameras for that, and I think my pictures will be better because I've had a lot more practice finding subjects and composing with the S95. Very glad I bought it.
Here's an example image, shot at ISO 200 in quite dim conditions, 45mm equivalent. Not an amazing image, but gives a good idea of noise and lens quality. Full res, uncropped. Converted from raw in RawTherapee, with basic edits in Photoshop ACR filter. No luminance NR applied.
