Rating: Summary: Average Quality, but small package (a plus!) Review: Hey i bought this camera because of the other reviews but it did not live up to its hype or its price! The cons of it are: -Terrible shots at night (when it needs flash) If you want to go to nightclubs and take shots, or take shots at night, you are limited to 6feet distance. The good cameras for night shots are the Nikons and Olympus. -The video mode will only goes to 30 seconds maximum. It should go to as long as the memory card allows, but it doesnt. For that feature get the Canon A60. -Only 2x Optical zoom, digital zoom should not be used with any camera. -The picture quality is not as good as it should be at the lower pixels levels such as 800x600. But a plus is when you shoot at higher pixel levels. But at that level all digital cameras shine.But on the positive side: +Small(its really compact)!!!! I take it everywhere. I took it to me when i go places where i 'should not' be going, and it was so small i had no problem taking it out, shooting a picture, and putting it away in my pocket (pant pocket, or jacket pocket, or even shirt pocket) and no one was the wiser. Its really useful when shoping and i need to take pictures in the store of merchandise. Most stores(especially Frys, Walmart, etc) dont allow that but its so small the stores dont even notice. All in all for the price premium, if you can wait till better small cameras come out, or if you have to buy a compact camera now, this is an average quality compact camera. For a good compact camera go for Nikon, they have better night time flash, then i would recommend Olympus, then the new 'Pentax Optio S 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom.'
Rating: Summary: Good Camera. Small. Practical. Review: I purchased both a Minolta Dimage F100 and this Canon S200 for work. We compared the two as close to Apples-to-Apples as we could. The Minolta has a little more optical zoom (3x) and more mega pixels (3Meg) as opposed to the Canon 2x optical zoom and 2Mega pixels. Comparing similar photos though, the Canon holds its own. The Canon is also easier to use - the Minolta had better internal software for setup, etc, but that didn't help that much. This Canon is a bit smaller than the Minolta, a nice easy fit in a pants or shirt pocket. It's kind-of heavy for it's size, but it seems well built. The lens motor is louder on the Canon and the LCD screen appears a little rough, but none of that matters to the end resulting photos. The battery life was pretty good (all digital cameras now-a-days seem to eat batteries) - the Minolta went through batteries at a ridiculous rate, that's the killing factor on that Minolta for me. Overall, this Canon S200 was a good purchase. Good quality photos for a 2x optical zoom and 2Mega pixel camera. PS A nice feature on playback is the Histogram telling you how the light exposure is for the photo. PPS The only thing I might wish for is 3x optical zoom, but I'm not willing to pay another 100+ bucks for it.
Rating: Summary: Terrific Little Camera for the Money Review: Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, and easy enough for a complete technophobe, this little camera packs a lot of features into a very sleek, compact package. Photos taken with this are crystal clear and look as nice as the ones I've taken with another digital camera that was 4X the price. Battery life is limited, so purchasing an extra to keep on the charger is a must. The camera seems rugged enough to handle everyday wear without breaking, although a protective case would have been a nice addition. Canon, you got it almost 100% right with this little guy.
Rating: Summary: An excellent business tool Review: This camera is my xerox machine on the road. Using the macro feaure I can capture hundreds of text pages and either display them on my computer later or print them out with excellent clarity. I can capture white-boards full of designs and concepts and review them at my leisure. I use it to photograph parts and assemblies and get good detail. I also use it to build relationships by photographing my contacts in other organziations and e-mailing the photos to them. They really like that. It's small enough to keep with me. It's rugged enough to take the beating of constant travel. What's more, it's a great piece of equipment. It just feels good. I'm delighted by it each time I use it. It's good in low-light. It can catch just about anything I can see. I usually find I get a better picture avaliable-light that with the flash anyway. Downside - you will not take action pictures with this camera. There is a delay of almost a second from the time you press the button until it actually snaps the picture. But that's not how I use it.
Rating: Summary: Camera is GREAT, zoom stinks. Review: Pros: *Small and compact. *Decent picture quality. *Very solid, quality construction. *Feature laden camera. *Excellent software & documentation. *Looks great, nice feel. Cons: *Zoom stinks! *You need to walk forward ten feet to a quarter-mile to zoom this camera. Note: I use this camera as my "second" digital camera ("first" is an Olympus C3040) - great for snapshots, not for anything that requires any hint of a ZOOM. I love this camera!
Rating: Summary: On the a working of family trip? Review: This camera works exactly as expected. Price-functionality ratio is perfect. The 2X optical/3X digital zoom is enough for working or with-the-family trips. If you are traveling with your laptop and-or the family's typical pile of bags, you will love to place it anywhere, including you shirt pocket (do not bend), without sacrificing pixel resolution (OK...2 megapixels are not too much nowadays, but is enough on these kind of voyages) However, be aware that standard battery is not eternal. You can solve this problem playing with the LCD on/off or buying a high-capacity battery and adding up muscles enough for longer trips, or too much to see. A greater MB compact flash card doesn't hurt too.
Rating: Summary: UNIMPRESSED... Review: I beg to differ with all the raving reviews. There is something very wrong either with this camera's light metering in 'auto' mode or its ability to register a wide range of tones - or both. It will work acceptably in diffused light, i.e. with an overcast sky. But try to shoot people in bright sunlight and you get pictures that are far too contrasty: Eyebrows, nose and chin shadows come out far too pronounced. Things are worse if there is a somewhat light background, like lots of blue sky or any non-dark wall. The system goes bezerk and yields pictures where the background is 'burned out' while your darling spouse is a dark silhouette. The same happens if your son happens to wear a white T-shirt and you attempt to shoot a waist-up portrait: his face will come out underexposed. There are ways to overcome such problems (to a degree!): Switch to manual mode. But who really buys a point-and-shoot camera to fiddle with manual settings? If to get acceptable pictures I have to exercise 'creative control' I might as well stick to my old Minolta Maxxum. The result will not only be acceptable but PERFECT pictures. But back to the S200 Elph. Another criticism is that parallax correction is way out: Unless you're shooting landscapes there's very little in common between what you see through the viewfinder and what the lens sees. Of course you can always discard that and compose through the camera's small LCD back panel - but try seeing anything clearly there in sunlight! Two minor negative points concern the flash (you get more 'red eye' pictures than usual in point-and-shoot cameras) and the Elph's accompanying software. This is annoyingly basic. As an example, if you 'correct' a picture's contrast (or colour or brightness) and save it over the original you lose all camera settings data (including date/time of shooting). Much has been said about the Elph's features. It is certainly impressive that so many are crammed in a camera this small. I am, however, unimpressed with the result. Any film-camera in the S200 Elph's price range will yield vastly superior pictures in auto-mode. All the features in the world cannot hide that.
Rating: Summary: Great camera value. Review: This is an excellent value in a digital camera. I bought one after admiring a friend's, and then bought another one to give to my daughter for her birthday. After years of owning high quality film cameras, I am impressed with the S200's excellent optics. For prints up to 8 x 10", you're in great shape. But, what I like almost as much is the camera's diminutive size and wonderful portability. You can stick it in your pocket and take it anywhere. Because of that, you'll tend to shoot more pics. So, be sure and buy at least a 64 mb flash card, because the 8 and 16 mb cards are far too small.
Rating: Summary: Love this camera Review: Purchased this last year for around $325 or so. This is a great little camera, fits neatly in the palm and is fairly easy to get used to. Pictures are superb, for the price is a great camera, no plastic, all metal body. I have a 35mm Minolta that I left home for my recent trip to Maui and have no regrets. This is a great camera for a non professional
Rating: Summary: Excellent Camera - Great Price! Review: I purchased this camera for a trip to the UK. It is my first digital camera and for the $ the features are fantastic! Although I did purchase an extra battery, I did not have any problems during my 10 day trip. The quality of pictures is fantastic and even in lower light this camera performs. Granted I am not the most well-versed digital camera owner. I am learning as I go and, for a beginner, this is the perfect camera. Each feature is easily attainable in the manual and there is no confusion when trying something new with your camera. So buy it, enjoy it, and spread the word. This is an excellent digital camera with superior features and quality for the $!
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