Canon S1 IS

I purchased this camera about a week ago. I previously owned the Minolta DiMAGE Z1, but was unhappy with that camera's flaws (such as very bad chromatic aberration, and audio/video out of sync). On paper, the Z1 was great, but my experience was less than ordinary. The specifications of the Canon S1 IS are so similar to the Z1, that it appears to me as having been designed as a Z1 beater, hence my interest. Where possible in this review, I'll make reference to the Z1 for comparison purposes.

Although sporting a plastic body, the Canon S1 IS seems solidly constructed. The primary feature of this camera is its 10x optical zoom lens. Camera lenses with this level of magnification tend to suffer from more chromatic aberration problems than cameras with lower-powered optical zooms. I have seen some CA in my S1 shots, but it is nowhere near as frequent, nor as bad, as it was with the Z1. The zoom is quick, taking about a second to go from wide to tele.

Most digicam manufacturers now have an ultra-zoom model like the S1, but only one other brand features image stabilisation as found on the S1. The IS feature is great. It allows you to use a slower shutter speed than would normally be possible in a given situation. Without IS, photos taken in low-light, or at the telephoto end of the zoom are more likely to blur. One way of counteracting the blurring is to use a faster shutter speed... but with faster shutter speeds the chromatic aberrations are worse.

The camera takes CompactFlash cards. At first, I wasn't too happy about this because I only owned SD media. But frankly, it's not really an issue because CompactFlash are the cheapest memory type. I paid AUD$269 for a Sandisk 512MB Ultra card. Fast cards like this are recommended for use with the camera to facilitate its continuous shooting mode (around 2fps), and the excellent video mode.

The video mode of this camera deserves special note. You can record 640x480 resolution video at 30 fps, which is almost DV camcorder specification. The audio is 16-bit 22KHz, which is pretty good for simple applications. This camera allows you to zoom while recording, because the zoom motor is fairly quiet (as well as fast). The file sizes are huge (512MB card = 4.5 minutes of video) but the quality is awesom. And there are no audio/video sync problems like with the Z1 (if you use a fast card).

There are some other really great features like:
- an intervalometer, which allows for time-lapse photography
- a great panorama mode, which overlays the previous shot when taking photos that you later intend to stitch together
- remote control software that allows you to control the camera from your computer.

You can also get some cool accessories:
- an infrared remote control
- an attachment that allows you to attach filters and wide-angle/telephoto lensesallows you