A year later and a year smarter, Canon gives us the PowerShot S300 digital ELPH. The Canon design team has yet added more features to an already impressive ultra-compact camera... the original digital ELPH PowerShot S100. Still easily pocketable and highly versatile, many people will find the S300 highly desirable. Are you ready to start clicking with your digital camera?

So much packed in such a small package!

The S300 is a 2.1 megapixel camera capable for producing 1600 x 1200 resolution images in only a camera with dimensions of 3.7 x 2.5 x 1.2 inches. It weighs only 8.5 ounces before you plug in the battery. Wow! Not only that... you also have 3x optical zoom, a movie record mode with sound, what seemed like improved image quality over the S100, and including Lithium-Ion batteries with the package as well as a few more goodies.

We get a stainless steel body that has the dimensions of about 3 stacks of regular playing cards! The lens retract into the body with an automatic lens shutter/cover when the camera is off. On the back of the camera is a 1.5 inch color LCD along with the optical viewfinder and several controls. The left side of the camera has a little rubber flap covering the USB and A/V out ports. The right side has the CF slot (under a plastic door that locks) and wrist strap connector. The bottom has the compartment for the battery and a socket for a tripod. The top has a new mode dial, shutter button, and power button as well as the tiny microphone hole. Regardless, seeing the camera will tell all!

Photos overall had excellent color and good sharpness. There is a variety of 9 modes of picture compression which are a combination of Low, Standard, and High resolution and Super Fine, Fine, and Normal compression. 8 MB gets you about 7 images at High resolution (1600x1200) and Super Fine compression (least compression). A 2.1 megapixel camera should be good for making up to 8x10 prints... generally speaking.

Movie mode is a bit different... you can record at 640x480, 320x240, or 160x120 pixel resolution. As per the manual, you are recording movies at 20 frames per second. At 640x480 resolution, you get at least 4 seconds of record time as per Canon with the 8 MB CF card.

Switch Assist is the panoramic picture taking mode. You activate this mode and take your sequence of pictures... it's fairly easy. You can choose from two "modes"... left to right or right to left. All the subsequent photos, will follow the settings of the first shot of the series. The series can consist of a little more than 25 shots... I forget the actual number.

There is the option of the Continuous Shooting mode which I haven't tried yet. It supposedly allows you to take 2.5 shots per second when the shutter is left depressed and until the buffer is filled.

You get one Lith-Ion battery with a seperate charger but no AC adapter... that costs extra. Apparently, the Japanese model (named IXUS not ELPH)and I think the European model (IXUS name instead of Elph) do come with one. You also get an A/V and USB cable with the Elph package as well as a camera strap and a pathetic 8 MB CF card. You get 2 CDs worth of software as well.

At least the camera used CF media which can go up to 512 MB of memory... although that will be expensive.

The software included is the Canon Digital Camera Solutions ver. 4.0 and ArcSoft's Camera Suite. You get Windows and Mac versions. The two packages should cover most users needs quite easily... but it's still not the best for professional photographers... then again, this camera isn't the best for professionals either.

Any weaknesses?

The flash is fairly weak... night pictures at about 10 feet were still okay. My experiences with small cameras usually shows weaknesses in the flash especially for the size of this camera. Note that my experience in cameras isn't all that strong or extensive.

Movie playback on the camera only shows the picture but no sound. You have to attach the A/V cable to get the sound part.

The optical viewfinder misses alot of the captured picture. The captured photo is significantly bigger than what you see. The LCD is far more accurate showing the captured photo. So rely more on the LCD for accurate picture information.

A few other sacrifices were made though... the digital zoom is only 2.5x instead of the 4x of the S100. However, I think many won't miss it especially with a 3x optical zoom. You still get a pathetic 8 MB Compact Flash card included with the camera, which means you have to spend additional moolah to get a 128 MB CF card (average cost $120... lowest I've seen to date $79). No AC adapter... not too much of a problem for most but you may want an additional Lith-Ion battery instead. If you want the AC adapter, I have seen an average in price in the $60 to $85 range. Get the AC adapter if you plan to play movie straight from the camera.

Conclusions

All in all, I like this camera very much. Mostly due to excellent image quality for the small and highly portable size of the camera. If money is no object and you want the one of the most portable cameras out there, this is it. But be forewarned, you will have to spend additional money on top of the camera price for accessories. You will have to buy a larger CF card... I would recommend at least 128 MB. The average price should fall around $120 with the lowest price on the internet falling into the $80 range. I would also recommend buying either an additional battery or the AC adapter. If you have the cash, you probably should buy both. Considering the MSRP of the S300 camera to be $599 at sites like Photoalley.com and at Best Buy and other such stores. The additional CF with AC adapter and extra battery may well run an additional $250 or more. You're already looking at an $800+ price tag for this camera. I was very lucky to find a great deal on the S300 for about $450 with S&H included. I bought the 128MB CF card for $79 and able to get the extra battery and AC adapter for a little under $100 together. Still... that cost me almost $650 for the whole setup. This price can pay for many older 3 megapixel camera as well as some recent 3 megapixel cameras... like the Olympus 3000 or 3030 series camera (both excellent cameras and with better quality pictures in my opinion). On top of that, Canon also released news on a S100v model. A lower cost model similar to the original S100 except that there is a video mode with sound recording on the new S100v. This is supposedly set for release in May 2001. The price tag for this camera is the biggest drawback, but the extreme portability of the S300 does have big advantages!

P.S.-
I looked at reviews at PhotoAlley.com and www.dpreview.com before I actually purchased the camera. Both sites offer different recommendations of the S300 camera and get into the technical aspect of the camera. If you want to know extreme detail, read both of these reviews! The site www.dpreview.com also has a preview on the S100v if you're interested.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 450

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