Rating: 
Summary: The best point and shoot out there
Review: After extensive research my wife and I chose the canon s400 for our digital camera investment. We could not be happier. Don't waste you time researching, if you want a point and shoot model get this camera!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Poor focusing indoors - otherwise OK
Review: It's a nice looking little camera. I was looking for a portable one to replace my aging Fujifilm digital, so I tried this one. I ended up sending it back, since it performs worse than my old one in low light (i.e. indoors).The problem is the focus. By default (and always, it seems, when in full auto mode), the camera uses a special "AI" autofocus. This puts up a series of green rectangles (when the shutter is half-pressed) on the LCD indicating focus zones. For one thing, it sometimes picks rectangles that represent differing distances, which doesn't make sense to me, but... Anyway, some of the shots I took indoors, especially candids, did not come out as focused as I am used to from my old camera. Note that I did not notice where the green rectangles were, since a couple of these shots were taken quickly by pressing the shutter all the way and not carefully analyzing the pre-focus. I did not try center focus mode (similar to the focusing method in many other cameras) too much, since I did not really give the camera much of a chance after getting some blurry pics. But unless I misunderstood the interface, it seems that it is impossible to make center focus the default for full auto mode. Take these comments with a grain of salt, since I did not perform any really scientific tests, and I did not have the camera long. One other thing I didn't like was the shutter button - if pressed off-center (tilted), it seemed to catch a little, giving it a slightly cheap feel. Otherwise, the quality of the images is pretty good for such a small camera (beats my old Fujifilm in image quality for sure - of course that was a circa 1999 1.3 megapixel model!). Bottom line is it's not a bad camera, but it seems to have some issues that bothered me.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera, Lackluster Product
Review: As a camera, my Canon S400 delivered on everything it promised: wonderful photo quality, great ease of use, and extreme portability -- the size is just right. However, as a product, the Canon S400 suffers from lackluster reliability and product integrity. After 6 months of use, my S400 gave up the ghost in the middle of a family holiday, leaving me with the dreaded Canon "E18" failure warning. So, no more picture taking, no way to get my photos out. I've had to send my camera back to Canon for repair. All of this for a camera that I babied, packed carefully, and always carried in a case. Now, I don't know if the S400 is any less reliable than any other brand of digital camera, but I do know that it let me down in a big way that is going to cost me big $$$. A simple web search on the phrase "Canon E18" will show you that many other individuals have experienced similar problems.
Rating:
Summary: Lovin' It!!!
Review: I searched long and hard for a digital camera for my husband. He often goes to various places and wanted a small camera to take with him. He loves the quality pictures I could get with my Nikon N65 and wanted the same ability, but with less bulk. We've gone several places and taken some awesome pictures with this camera. We're still learning all we need to know about using a digital camera, since it's our first, but so far the quality hasn't let us down.
I would strongly recommend this camera to anyone who wants a good digital camera, with good quality pictures, and small enough to fit into your pocket (although I suggest a bag to keep it from getting damaged).
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: After opening the box on this baby, I knew it would be good. It has an all metal body, with everything you need to get started. After I charged the battery (which takes like... an hour and a half) I had this camera mastered in about an hour. Now tht can be good and bad. For folks who want a great camera for vacations, the holidays and just for fun, this camera is the one to get. If you are a professional photographer, you won't find a whole lot of manual control. You'll find some though. Now, at the highest resolution, which is what you'll want to shoot with, pictures come out absolutely fantastic! I would suggest getting a memory card to hold these (the one that comes with it only holds 14 pictures). I have a canon s9000 photo printer, and it prints amazing 13x19 shots. That's big! I only have two complaints with this camera... Poor red-eye reduction (It comes with tools to fix it but it's a bit of a hassel when 1 out of 5 pictures come out with red-eye) Poor background lighting (when you take close-ups with people the background always turns out dark. This is because the flash doesn't have as big a range as it could have.) All in all this camera is worth the money! (and that's saying something!)
Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect (and that's dammed good)
Review: After opening the box on this baby, I knew it would be good. It has an all metal body, with everything you need to get started. After I charged the battery (which takes about 90 minutes), I had this camera mastered in about an hour. Now that can be good and bad. For folks who want a great camera for vacations, the holidays and just for fun, this camera is the one to get. If you are a professional photographer, you won't find a whole lot of manual control. You'll find some, though. Now, at the highest resolution, which is what you'll want to shoot with, pictures come out absolutely fantastic! I would suggest getting a memory card to hold these (the one that comes with it only holds 14 pictures). I have a canon s9000 photo printer, and it prints amazingly clear 13x19 shots. That's big! And it's all due to the outstanding performance of this miniscule camera! I only have two complaints with this camera... Poor red-eye reduction (It comes with tools to fix it but it's a bit of a hassel when 1 out of 5 pictures come out with red-eye) Poor background lighting (when you take close-ups with people the background always turns out dark. This is because the flash doesn't have as big a range as it could have, but I can deffinitely live with it.) All in all this camera is worth the money! (and that's saying something!)
Rating:
Summary: Nice portable camera
Review: This is a nice well built and well designed compact camera. The review screen is very clear and sharp. This camera has many features in the manual mode. My only complaint so far is battery life, and no display of battery life until about 2 minutes before camera shuts off. Having said that though it is a lithium battery which means you don't have to totally discharge it before recharging (no memory build up). Good idea to take an extra charged battery for convenience. You probably won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent compact camera
Review: There are plenty of reviews written on the qualities of this camera in and of itself, so I will not go on about its small size, well designed interface, excellent optics, and so forth. I will, however, compare it to the S330, which is the older, 2MP/3X optical model that was the previous top of the line Canon elph. Versus the S330, the S400: - Has a stepping zoom (7 steps) instead of a continual zoom - Is much more sensitive to camera jitter (shake) in no-flash low-light photography. If you plan to do that sort of photography, you WILL need a tripod. This is the most sensitive (to shake in no-flash low-light photography) digital I've used yet. Conversely, if you do use a tripod, those no-flash pictures come out REALLY well for the same reasons of sensitivity. - Has a less-easily scratched exterior material - Has different (better) laid out controls. - Has greatly extended battery life (improved battery and lower power consumption both). - Has a more intuitive menu for controlling features in manual mode such as ISO, whitebalance, etc -- and the menu can be manipulated on the LCD while shooting (without having to switch to the menu and then back to shooting). - And of course, the S400 is 4MP vs 2MP for the S330. What I'd love to see in a future ELPH: - Support for higher-speed flash memory, such as CF2. Some elphs now support SD memory, but it's easy to design a camera to use both CF1 (what the S400 uses) and CF2 both. - Manual aperture control. - Better compensation for jitter during no-flash photography. Otherwise, this camera is wonderful and hard to beat without spending a lot more money for a bulkier camera. In its size class, the S400 can't be beat.
Rating:
Summary: Digital Elph S400
Review: This is one of the best 4.0 Megapixel cameras on the market!
Pros:
Small size (fits in your pocket)
Excellent photo quality
Stylish body
Good features for price Cons:
slow processing of digital photos (there is a slight lag when you push the shutter button)
slight overexposure sometimes
need better software Conclusion:
If you are a novice photographer and like to travel with your camera, then this camera will work for you! It is small, lightweight, and the quality is very good for the price. I compared this camera to a higher model by Sony and decided to buy this Canon because it was designed better (the 5.0 megapixel Sony camera had a design flaw with its placement of the flash).
The software needs more features.
Rating:
Summary: rocking little pursecam!
Review: I bought this so that I could leave my G3 at home and still carry a little camera in my purse. I recently took it to a concert and was pleasantly surprised at how decent photos looked with the digital zoom on...I probably won't be printing many of the close-ups, but they are pretty darned good for sharing with friends over the Web. The ability to take little Quicktime movies is a plus. Its super-portability makes this the perfect camera for taking EVERYWHERE with you. I mainly bought it in anticipation of an upcoming snowboarding trip...I knew I didn't want to take my larger digital camera on the mountain with me, but I can wrap this teeny thing in some fleece, stick it in my pocket, and be ready to capture images and movies from the first run to the last. The metal casing feels very solid and I have no worries about damaging it. I also bought it with the plan to stash it in my small "going out" purse to capture fun moments at dinners, nightclubs, and other fun social situations. The only con I've found so far is that it's very difficult to avoid red-eye, but with most ultracompacts you'll find a similar issue because the flash is so close to the lens. This is my third Canon digital camera, and I also own a Canon miniDV camera...I've never been disappointed in their products and am happy to say that the S400 meets and even exceeds my expectations!
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