Perfect Camera for Family AND Travel Pics!

I bought this camera in October '04 as a replacement for my Canon S40, which broke when it was finally dropped one-too-many times by my 4 year old. It wasn't my first choice, as the video mode only does 15frames per second instead of the standard 30fps. But, it did have the widest angle lens of any of the fairly compact point and shoots. And we were about to leave on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Thailand. As it turns out, the camera is absolutely fantastic.

I wanted to write this review, though, mainly to point out the incredible durability of this camera. I have three children ages 3, 5, and 7 who are always trying to get their hands on this camera. Despite trying my best to keep it out of reach, it frequently finds its way into their hands. As you can imagine, they are not very gentle with it. But despite the rough treatment, it hasn't shown one flaw. My previous camera, the S40 (same body style just a few years earlier), was covered with scratches and dents before it finally drew it's last breath.

I mentioned this camera wasn't my first choice. The Sony P-150 was, and I bought it very happily and went home to test out some shots. That night, while testing shots in the car in dark light, the camera slipped off the seat into the floorboard of the car and broke. Kaput, it was gone! And it was in a soft case, at that! I knew immediately it wasn't the camera for me. The store happily returned it for me, and I went right out and bought the Canon S70.

I am so happy I did. My children have their pictures taken almost daily, and our Thailand trip is very well documented with some fantastic photos. The video mode could be better, but I still use it and email clips to my family.

I fully researched the cameras before I bought this one, and the picture quality is fantastic. You do have to practice some with the autofocus, but it does a fantastic job in general. Also, the flash is a bit overdone in some indoor shots, especially for closeups, but nothing to get worked up about. I do lots of cropping, and with 7mp pictures, you can crop all you want and still print out a nice picture!

I'm updating this review after owning the camera for 8 months. I still think it is a great point and shoot camera, but after upgrading to a D-SLR (See my review on the Canon Digital Rebel XT), I have to say that for family pictures, point and shoot cameras are not ideal. Because of the shutter lag inherent in all cameras of this sort, it's really tough to get those fantastic shots that come so easily to SLR cameras. However, this camera comes at half the price of a SLR.

Since upgrading to the DIgital Rebel, I haven't used this camera even once. I'm not sure if it will even go on our next trip at all!