Pros: Big and fast zoom, SLR-like features (MF, etc), flip LDC, standard AA batteries.
Cons: Ok EVF, lousy lens cap, almost no extras included, LCD useless under bright situations.
The Bottom Line: This is a great camera, it has an amazing zoom and there are a lot of SLR-like features, but, remember, don't expect a dSLR, it's still far from that.
ajrs's Full Review: Canon PowerShot S2 IS Digital Camera
The Canon S2 IS is a 12x zoom camera with 5 Mp, silver color. There are other very similar cameras in the market, I will talk about the S2 IS comparing with what were for me the other 12x zoom candidates (Panasonic DMC-FZ7: 6Mp and Sony DSC-H1: 5Mp and DSC-H2: 6Mp). I didn’t consider the FZ5 because it didn’t have manual focus, and for me that’s very important. The S3 IS is the same as the S2, but with 6 Mp, and added ISO 800, black color and some minor improvements, and it was much more expensive.
This is my second digital. I consider myself an advanced photographic amateur. The one I usually take with is my 25 year-old Canon AE-1 and I love it, never had a problem and takes really really beautiful pictures (that’s what counts for me), I like to travel and I am surprised it hasn’t been robbed yet. My first digital was a Canon Ixus II and it’s a nice small camera, limited, but you can take it anywhere, and that’s why I bought it, I finally gave it to my family since we got a Nikon 3100 as a present (the same size) that has lasted only two years. When the Pro 90 appeared 5 or 6 years ago (2.6 Mp and zoom 10x), I became interested on this type of large zoom cameras, then it came the Panasonic DMC-FZ1 and others, I have followed all of them.
I have read a lot about these cameras and tested them in the store, the first thing I have to say is that if you expect something close to a SLR, forget it, they are not, so if you want the quality and features of a dSLR, buy a dSLR (the Nikon D50, Pentax ist DL or Canon Rebel have very reasonable prices) or the closest thing: the Panasonic FZ30. I chose this camera because I needed something “hybrid”: an easy compact camera for my wife and nice features (manual, large zoom, etc) for me.
If you don’t care too much about manual mode, exposure, etc. and would like something smaller than these three with a big zoom, you should consider the Panasonic TZ-1, it’s a small 5 Mp with a 10x zoom point-shoot camera, and very pretty too (and I have read somewhere most of it is metal construction, but, check it).
Body construction & what’s on the box
All of them are made of plastic, the H1 has some metal in the ring but that’s it (I guess because it’s more exposed due to the design). Older cameras bodies (e.g. Minolta 7Hi) were made of alloy magnesium (and they were much more expensive), but now it seems that only dSLRs are made of that material, and they are introducing new dSLRs made entirely of plastic (like the new Sony, and I don’t like it). The three have compartments that feel a bit loose (e.g. the one for the memory card in the Canon and the one for the battery in the Panasonic). Conclusion: you have to be careful with all of them. The seller told me that they were made of good plastic, my usual answer: when you compare a metal and plastic, there is no good plastic, it’s that easy.
Concerning the size, the FZ7 is slightly smaller (shorter) and the H1 is slightly larger (1.5 cm deeper) than the S2. The three are pretty cameras, for me, the prettiest was the Panasonic, it had a very beautiful design and it was black (H1, H2 and S2 are silver). I didn’t like that the barrel was a bit exposed in the Sony, and I prefer the Canon and Panasonic classic SLR-like design (a box with the lens more or less centered).
In my hand the Canon felt the best, it is very well ergonomically designed. The FZ7 felt really well too and it’s the lightest by far of the three. The least comfortable for me was the H1 (deep grip), but I have a small hand, so, before buying go to the store and see how it feels in yours, it’s important to feel comfortable with your future camera.
At first, I really liked the Panasonic. The H1 and the FZ7 have a nice grip rubber that the S2 doesn’t (and Sony took out in the H2). The lens cap in the S2 is really bad, it falls all the time since it doesn’t have a clip to the ring, I guess it is Canon’s cheap way of solving the problem of extending the lens when the cap is on, Panasonic solves it in a more elegant way: A warning in the LCD tells you to take out the lens cap when trying to turn it on.
Canon includes few things on the box (4 disposable batteries, neck strap, USB cable, lens cap, video cable, 16Mb card, manuals and CD), it doesn’t even include a battery charger. Some reviews say that’s because of the low price, but Panasonic and Sony are more or less at the same price and they also include the lens adaptor to adapt other lenses and filters (for the S2 you have to buy it) a useful hood for very bright situations and the battery charger. BTW, to the manufacturers: to include a 16Mb card, better not to include any.
In conclusion, I felt more comfortable with the S2 but it was the one with less details (no rubber grip, lousy lens cap and no much extra stuff in the box).
Menus and buttons
Canon’s menu is similar to all Canon cameras, I feel comfortable with it since I had an Ixus. Sony and Panasonic looked very nice too.
The Canon has a lot of buttons, I like it, since it is like having a lot of shortcuts and for me it is easier (I don’t like menus). Buttons have a different function depending if you are in camera or review mode. To start the camera, it has a wheel-like ON button at the top, you can start in camera (left) or in review mode (right), the OFF is on top of it. Also on the top of the camera you have the selector for Auto, P (Program AE), Tv (Shutter speed conducted), Av (Aperture conducted), M (Manual) and C (Custom: saved selections). And of course, the programs: Night, landscape, scene, my colors (looks like a filter), SCN (select different scenes: party, foliage, …) etc. On the top of the camera you’ll also find the shutter and the zoom control surrounding it. On your left is the flash/voice recording button. Macro and Manual Focus buttons are in the lens ring.
On the back of the camera, close to the LCD you have a button for movies, another one for a fast access to several very useful functions (change ISO, EV, continuous mode, etc), this button is the Trash in review mode. Below an Image Size (photo mode)/Transfer (review mode) button and in the bottom, the Disp (change LCD-EVF). On the right you have the Menu button and Set button, due to their location, it is not difficult to press them accidentally when having the camera in your hands. Close to them, on top, a joystick kind of button lets you travel in the menus and is useful for manual mode.
You have even a button for yourself (you can program it), I am deciding what’s going to be, something for when I need to take a fast picture for sure.
EVF and LCD
Panasonic and Sony H1 have a 2.5” LCD (2” in the Sony H2) and Canon is 1.8” but you can flip it. I don’t care too much about the LCD size, for me the S2’s size was fine, and the possibility of flipping it could be useful, I asked a friend (he has a G2) about if it is useful or breakable, he told me it was very useful for different occasions and that never had a problem, and well, it feels sturdy and the LCD seems to be more protected. I have read in reviews that in very bright situations you don’t see much, my Ixus II had that problem, so in four years Canon haven’t solved the problem. I think the Panasonic’s and Sony’s LCDs were better.
I use mainly the EVF for my shots and keep the LCD flipped in. The EVF (electronic viewfinder) on the three are close, they are the cheap alternative to a real viewfinder and I am not a fan of it, but there is no choice. For me, the Sony EVF’s looked better, the S2 has a feel of looking behind a very thin net.
Lens and zoom
This is the star feature of these cameras, they are 12x, they say it’s 35-432 equivalent in a 35 mm camera, but it doesn’t feel as much (or I expected more).
Panasonic has a deal with Leica, and these are the lenses we find in the FZ7, a great Leica lens F2.8-3.3. Canon mounts her own (F2.7-3.5) and Canon lenses are always good lenses. The H1’s and H2’s is a Carl Zeiss, this is a brand I didn’t know before Sony started making cameras, but from the pictures I have seen I can say the are pretty good lenses too.
Sony has a W and T buttons for Wide and Tele, it takes approx. 1.8s from Wide to Tele, I personally like more the wheel-like zoom control of Panasonic and Canon, Panasonic takes 2.5 sec from W to T, and the Canon has two speeds: 1 sec. at high speed and 5.5 sec. at lower speed, I think this is a great feature, if you are in a hurry, go all the way in 1 sec. or go slower to find the zoomed image you want. When you go from W to T using the fast zoom in the Canon or the Sony zoom, at the end it is out of focus (you have to press the shutter to focus), while using the slower speed in the S2 is on focus all the time. Finally although the FZ7 zoom may look slower, take into account that the FZ7 is the fastest of the three when focusing.
The S2 macro is the best of the three, you can shot in two modes: regular macro (10-50 cm) or super-macro (0-10 cm), I have tested it and it’s great. Sony’s 2cm and Panasonic’s 5cm sound really good too.
Image Stabilization
I think this is a great advance and not only to take pictures in tele. I took a night picture (cloudy moon, some buildings far away), with my S2 in manual (ISO 200, 2 sec. shutter speed, wide open aperture, no zoom) standing up, and wow: 2 seconds standing up and the picture came really well (a bit of noise due to the ISO 200), not moved at all. The usual rule is that you can’t take a picture standing up for longer than 1/60 sec. (you’ll end up with a moved picture), so you’ll need a tripod, if you are good (as I am), you can go up to 1/30 or even 1/15. But never took a picture for 2 sec. that didn’t come moved, till now. For me, Image Stabilization is a great invention. I am pretty sure that the Panasonic and Sony performances are equal to Canon’s. So, I don’t recommend a camera without Image Stabilization.
Resolution, image quality and ISO levels
With the Canon you can take pictures in Large (L: 2595x1944), Medium1 (M1: 2048x1536), Medium2 (M2: 1600x1200) and Small (S: 640x480) at different levels of compression: Superfine, Fine and Normal. Images are saved in JPEG (no RAW or TIFF, folks). With a 1Gb you can take approx. 700 images in L mode with Fine quality and almost 400 in L with Superfine quality.
ISO values go from 50 to 400 (50, 100, 200 and 400), the H1 goes from 64 to 400 and the FZ7 from 50 to 1600 (they have an additional ISO 800 and 1600). After ISO 200 it appears noise, we can say the same for the Sony and the Panasonic. I like more the way of solving noise in Canon and Sony: they leave it (you can use a nice software to get rid of it in your computer), the Panasonic tries to take it out and you end up most of the times with losing some detail forever, this has been very criticized in some reviews (take a look to some pictures www.dpreview.com, www.dcresource.com or www.stevesdigicams.com). Here is my opinion: I don’t see it so bad, it would be better to leave the noise, but Panasonic thought in another way. And consider that is the only one that has ISO 800 and 1600, don’t try to print it larger than 4x6 (usual picture size) due to the noise, but it’s good to have the option, and in some situations an ISO 800 is useful.
About colors I find Canon’s more vivid. We can conclude that image quality is almost the same in the three, a bit better noise treatment on one than the other above ISO 200, but they take very similar pictures.
Also, take a look at any low-level dSLR pictures at ISO 1600, or even ISO 3200, and they are way cleaner than any of the three at ISO 200, this is what I was telling you at the beginning: if you want quality, spend several hundred more in a real SLR.
Shutter speed, exposure and metering
The Canon lets you the fastest shutter speed of the three: 1/3200, compare to 1/2000 in the Panasonic and the 1/1000 in the Sony. But well, you need a really bright day to shoot at 1/3200, so you won’t use it much, but as I say, it is always good to have the option. With flash, the maximum is 1/500. The slowest speed is 15 sec. (Sony is 30 sec.). You can select the shutter speed in Tv mode and the camera will select the exposure.
You can modify exposure in 1/3 steps from -2EV to 2EV or go to Av, select the exposure and the camera will select the shutter speed for you. You can even take a same shot at three different exposures.
Three different meterings can be selected in this camera: evaluative (evaluates light conditions), center-weighted (light average with higher weight at the center) and spot AE: at the center or at the AF point. Also, for white balance, different light conditions can be determined (tungsten, day light, cloudy, etc, even a custom one using a blank reference).
Focus
The Autofocus is fast (not as fast as the Panasonic, though) and in low light may not work very well. I was testing it at night inside home without flash, and 4 out of 10 were misses, although we have to consider that it was a human subject against a yellowish background (subject and background were similar). From what I’ve read, the slowest AF seems to be Sony’s.
In the S2, There are different AF modes and you can even select the AF frame (where to place the focus point). You can also use Manual Focus, just press on the MF button in the ring (not in Auto mode) and with the menu button go up and down. MF is ok, but this is another one of the many things where these cameras are far from SRLs.
Flash
The flash is on top and you pop it up. The Sony’s seem to be more powerful, but pops up automatically (some prefer it that way), Panasonic has a button to pop up (this is the way I liked most). I find the S2’s flash quite powerful and subjects look quite natural, you may get some red eye but barely noticeable. Flash can be adjusted from -2EV to 2EV and the distance can be changed too. None of the three have a hotshoe.
Other nice features I liked
A thing I really like from this camera is continuous mode, you can take pictures at 1.5 frames per second or 2.4 fps (high speed continuous). The Panasonic is even faster (up to 3.3 fps), with both you can take pictures until the card is full (Panasonic in what they call infinite mode). Sony is the slowest: 1.3 fps. And more: you can program the camera to take pictures every 1 to 60 minutes (e.g leave it there at she will take pictures from a blooming flower or different times on a street, etc).
Another nice feature is that you can take a same picture three times at 3 different apertures with one pressing of the shutter (Auto exposure bracketing) and the same for focus (Focus bracketing). You can also use locking exposure, this is useful for example when taking a picture of someone on the left under a bright scene, to avoid underexposure of the person, you first focus at her, half-press the shutter and the metering button, and you can take the picture with those settings, the subject will not appear underexposed. There is locking flash exposure too.
You can record sound attached to an image, I find this useful when you are traveling: take the picture and say where it was or if you tested some combination of exposure, time, etc and got a nice picture, you can save what you used (it’s like a note to yourself).
Movie mode
For me, movie mode is not very important, so it doesn’t have much weight for the decision, but since I don’t have a camcorder, it has some. Canon has a button for movies, so you avoid going to the menu and can shot right away. You can film up to 640x480 and 30 frames per second, I think is really good and the same as Sony and Panasonic.
As with most of the things, the S2 has an advantage and disadvantage over the H1 and the FZ7. The good: you can zoom while filming, the bad: only avi mode, no mpeg, while Panasonic and Sony have it. Canon has a limit of 1Gb (approx 7 min in 640x480 and 30fps), the limit for the others is the card. Sony needs a memory stick pro card for movies. Canon records sound in stereo, I am not sure about the other two.
The reviews I have read seem to agree that Canon’s movie mode is the best compared to the others, I don’t think there is a big difference, but although I enjoy photography I don’t like filming much, so I won’t make much movies and in this chapter any of the three would have been enough for me.
Power, Memory, connectivity and software
The S2 needs four AA batteries (NiMH recommended), it says it can last for 550 shots (you know, not using the LCD, no powering up too many times, etc), I would say 250-275 shots in a regular use. Panasonic’s batteries last 300 shots (so, ~150 in real life), the same for Sony (uses two AA batteries). You may read that Canon’s lasts longer, but that’s because it uses 4 batteries (Sony uses 2), so it has that advantage, but the disadvantage is that you need 4 batteries to make the camera work (and a bigger charger). The FZ7’s disadvantage for me is that it uses a proprietary battery, this mean you can’t use a pack of alkalines if you are in a pickle or that if you travel, you will need to buy an extra battery from Panasonic. I already had a charger and 8 AA NiMH batteries, so, for me, that was an added advantage for Canon or Sony.
Panasonic and Canon use SD cards (I had CF cards, so I had to buy new cards). Sony uses its proprietary cards, it can be a disadvantage if in the future you may want to change, but if you already had a Sony that’s even better. I have read some people say that Sony’s cards are much more expensive than the others, the difference I have seen are small (~$5) since it is something you also consider when buying a camera (I had to buy new cards anyway). Info transfer in Canon to the card was fast, but if you choose SuperFine and Large and try the highest shutter continuous speed (2.4 fps), after 5 shots the transfer slows the continuous mode (or maybe it was the card).
Connectivity is USB 2.0 and the software is good and easy to use. You can print directly from the camera with PictBridge (to a printer with this feature: you avoid the need of a PC).
Conclusions
The three are great cameras. They are not SLRs, but cover a new nice segment of “hybrid” cameras, where you have a compact camera with a lot of SLR-like features and a big zoom (the star feature). My Canon S2 IS has surprised me, I don’t usually get excited after a new acquisition (it was a week on the box after I bought it), but after the tests I have been performing I can say it has started to grow on me and I am enjoying this camera.
In my case the H1 and S2 were almost at the same price, the FZ7 and H2 were a bit more expensive, and the S3 was much more. I would have taken the S3 for $CAD 70 more and mainly because it’s black an the added ISO 800 than for the extra Mp, but not for the $150 more it costs now since it’s almost the same camera as the S2.
Both Sony looks like “more camera” and have some better features than Canon: Bigger LCD, better EVF, the H1 has rubber in the grip. But from a photographic point of view I think Canon and Panasonic are slightly better: faster continuous mode, zoom, faster AF, …
In my case, the battle was reduced to the FZ7 and the S2, I would have happily paid the $CAD 70 more for the FZ7: it’s 1 more Mp, it’s black, faster AF, even higher speed continuous mode, higher ISO available, and grip rubber. But there were two important setbacks for me: a) Treatment of noise, I think Panasonic spoiled a bit the results of that great Leica lens; and b) proprietary battery, that means you better buy another one: ~$CAD 80 more. And I still felt more comfortable with the S2 in my hands, I like the AA standard batteries, the flip LCD and the 2-speed zoom. I added the pros and cons and went for the Canon.
The FZ7 is at a very reasonable price and since the 6 and 7Mp versions of the other two are entering the market, you can get a good deal in the S2 and H1, it won’t be difficult to find them on sale, but, they won’t be there long (The H1 was already difficult to find). If you live in the Toronto area, I got my S2 at Aden Camera for $CAD 480 with a free 1 Gb card (an approx ~$70 value), the FZ7 was $490, the same price as the H2. For the H1, Henry’s have some left at only $425 and Vistek at $475. Funny enough I liked more the H1 than the H2 :-). The S3 was around $575.
I would recommend buying extra warranty (try to get a good price), I don’t trust any of them to last long (plastic construction and lot of electronics inside), but I hope it lasts since it costs you an important amount of money that you have had to earn after hard work :-).
--- Update 25 Sept ---
I went recently to Greece with my wife. She took the S2IS and I took my film camera Canon T90 with me (a huge camera compared with the S2IS). I wasn't a fan of the EVF (electronic viewfinder), and definitely I hate it, the same thing would apply to any camera having an EVF (the Sonys and the Panasonic), nothing compared with the amazing clarity of my T90's viewfinder. Also, the LCD was useless under very bright conditions as well as the EVF. Finally, we have gotten some red eye, not always, but sometimes you get it, most of the time with some kind of glasses people wear.
But well, I was carrying this bag with this big camera (the T90:almost one kilo and no flash), 3 lenses (let's say 2 kilos more) and several filters, my wife was with this small camera (the S2IS) and even so a longer tele than what I had with those 3 lenses :-)
The S2IS has taken really beautiful pictures, but I think I am going to keep travelling with my Canon AE-1 or T90. But my wife really loves it, it takes better pictures than our previous digital and she has discovered what a big lens can do. For her it has supposed even a new interest in photography, she is learning a lot of stuff I am showing her because she want to take those pictures where the automatic mode is not enough and I am happy for that, definitely her camera.
From the great quality of the printed pictures you can see the really good quality of the lens, and for me that's one of the main reasons to consider this camera.
So far, we are happy with the choice.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 330 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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