blackx's Full Review: Canon PowerShot S2 IS Digital Camera
I am only an amateur photographer, but I started to like hunting without weapon, so I decided to buy a new better camera (I owned compact Minolta G400 before). After reading many reviews for very similar cameras in this category I chose Canon S2 IS. And it was a good choice.
Camera and recommended accessories
Alongside the camera it is good to buy some other things for better comfort. Particularly, high capacity memory card is vital. I stick with Transcend 80x 1 GB, which works flawlessly. Slower cards (40x) may have problems while recording movies or in sequential photography (I haven't tried such card though). I also bought 8 AA rechargable NiMH batteries, a small bag - Tamrac Digital 3, and a small strap designed for compact cameras. There is a neck strap included with the camera, but I hardly used it and it was mostly hanging under the camera and obstructing when I was putting camera out of the bag.
Operating the camera
Most of the camera functions are intuitive, however sometimes you will have to look into the thick manual. While someone finds this annoying, I don't mind at all - I read the manual one day and after that I only needed one look to find how something works (time lapse photography). Otherwise it was absolutely without problems.
In many reviews I also read about the lens cap, which is pretty loose. When I tried the camera in the shop before buying, the cap fell off two times during trying the proper bag. However, if you are aware of this inconvenience, it is very simple to avoid loosing the cap. So again, after some getting used to, I don't find it a problem anymore.
The camera is very responsive, when changing menu settings or reviewing photos. That's probably because of the new DIGIC II processor. (It's a pity we still don't have real-time histogram with such a powerful processor.)
Pictures
The camera makes sharp pictures thanks to the picture stabilization feature. However it is not almighty - I still can't expect to shoot professional photos at night without tripod.
The pictures are nice with good colors, although there are slight problems with chromatic aberration or purple fringing. Also, automatic exposure time seems to be a little long, so it is good idea to set -1/3 EV. I have found this tip and several others on DCResource page ( http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10364 ). I really recommend to read it before shooting.
The camera probably doesn't have any internal noise reduction, so pictures in ISO 400 a 200 are quite noisy, but capturing even small details. You can use a sophisticated software in your PC to remove the noise and get relatively nice picture.
One thing I don't understand is the absence of "Sport" mode. Granted you can sets the parameters manually (high ISO, short time), but then you must consider settings for each shot.
The pictures can only be saved to JPEG. There is no RAW or TIFF. I personally would like to see the RAW support, but sadly, we will probably need to wait for S3 to come.
The 4 AA batteries lasts very long, sometimes more then 600 shots.
Movies, sound clips
You can take nice movies at 640x480 at 30 fps. But there is a drawback: No compression is used, so you can store only about 8 minutes on a 1 GB card! Similarly, no compression is used for audio, so the WAV files are very huge too.
Conclusion
Of course, the Canon S2 IS has some disadvantages. But so do every camera on the market. In this case the disadvantages was outweighed by the beautiful pictures it can give you. I can really recommend this product.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 700 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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