If only one, this is it.
Pros:
Pocketable, full manual controls, optical viewfinder. Durable, excellent human engineering for larger hands.
Cons:
Lacks features available only in larger bodies. Can't find a reason to complain.
The Bottom Line:
If you can find it, buy it. Its successor Canon S80 loses the essential RAW format. I lost my first, bought a second, and would buy again.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I love it. I have had two in the last three years because I lost my first and can find nothing better. So let's not mince words: if you can only have one, the Canon S70 is the one to have. In a few words about what is really important, here's why.
The Canon PowerShot S70 provides an optimum balance of manual and automatic features otherwise only found on higher end equipment. For me, that means complete manual control over all essential settings - white balance, ISO (speed), quality (resolution), flash, shutter speed and aperture with constant preview screen and a real old fashioned optical viewfinder - all within an optimally designed and pocketable chassis containing a simple two-level function menu, and well spaced switches for my big thumbs. For the skeptics who prefer a large LCD screen over an optical viewfinder, I say the viewfinder is worth 5000 high-resolution images saved by steadying the camera against your nose and cheekbone compared to waving it in the wind snapping what flashes by in the LCD screen. It is a fundamental law of photography that while the shutter is open to let the picture in, the camera needs to be very, very STILL.
With a steady hand, you get poster-ready sharpness with 7,000,000+ pixels and RAW files at your option and brilliant colors common from Canon. With less firmness of grip, you get 7,000,000 pixels of mush, still colorful and pretty on the LCD or a wallet photo but useless for blowups. And although I could care less, this Canon S70 even does movies, silent or with sound in TV screen resolution - a nice toy that I admit to using once or twice.
So what is there not to like? I cannot say except the lack of bells and whistles such as a flip out LCD screen that would bloat its size beyond pocketable. Sure it has some well judged compromises, but its usability and brilliant images in practice are almost impossible to beat among today's crop of competitors of any size. Even when I finally graduated to a Nikon D70 from old Nikon film cameras, I still carry my Canon S70 as security. I guess I'm just a 70's person, although the 80's are beckoning.
