Great fun, high quality (Canon Powershot S3 IS)

Member Name: aweandwonder

Product:	Canon Powershot S3 IS
Date:	01/09/06 (239 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality, feel, ease of use, zoom, video mode, swivel display.

Disadvantages: LCD is hard to see in bright sunlight

This camera has a wonderful feel to it and takes great pictures. A DSLR with a 12x optical zoom with image stabalisation would be both expensive, cumbersome and wouldn't take videos. This camera won't fit in your pocket but it's not much of a burden. The balance and proportions are wonderful. The controls you need are one button away. Low light performance can be noisy but I found I could often take good indoor photos without the flash - better colours and without hurting people's eyes. The optical zoom just gi9ves so many more options. The swivel display makes it so much easier to take interesting angled shots. I don't need the display to be any bigger. The EVF is too low definition, but still I enjoyed it, except in bright sunlight.

The video mode is excellent: 30fps VGA with good stereo sound means in most cases you don't need a camcorder for home movies. Because video is at VGA resolution this is the only mode where the digital zoom is worth using giving 48x. You can take still images whilst videoing but this messes up the video by pausing the action and putting a big click sound in.

A fun, quality camera I've taken some very pleasing photos and videois with that I couldn't have with any other single camera that I know of.

Summary: Zoom, swivel display, vido mode and feel make this camera a joy to use.

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