Rating: 
Summary: A great choice
Review: Unknowingly my son-in-law and I both bought the same camera a day apart and for the same reasons. This is by far the best camera for the money around. Its flexibility is enormous. Its size is perfect to carry and not be burdened.
I love it and will probably never use any thing except "Auto" but I still have the oher features is I want. I use a Viking CF card reader to download to photoshop which works perfectly for me. Far and away the best buy around
Rating:
Summary: G3 comparable at a significantly lower price!
Review: My camera choices were narrowed to a Canon G3 and a Canon S45. They are both terrific cameras and I had a difficult time deciding which would be the best product for me. However, upon close review (and after reading many other reviews) I found the G3 and the S45 to be so comparable in every aspect that the only true difference was in price!The S45 takes incredibly clear, smooth pictures, and it's loaded with functions. Reportedly, it is bad at focusing without flash/bright light but if given the chance (half shutter-button hold) it will auto-focus to a crispness unlike any other [same price range]camera. The final selling point on the S45, for me, was the fact that the casing is metal, and not the typical plastic found on many other cameras, such as the G3. If you want function, portability (it is a good pocket size), quality pictures, and durability, choose the S45.
Rating:
Summary: little risk in purchasing a S-45
Review: The adamfblock (from SF) review above was just about perfect. Everybody likes this camera. But nobody thinks any camera is perfect, a rating should be given relative to peers, meaning in this case 5 stars. If you research this camera you will find no strong argument that any camera in its class exceeds the S-45 in quality/features. The G3 is a better camera, but too big for my purposes. I would miss all those spontaneous surprise shots if I ony had a G3, because I would not have it with me. And while size of aternative really tiny cameras is nice, everyone agrees that the loss of features/quality in those is rather significant (at this point). The S-45 is small enough to carry around most everywhere, I got the little leather container that can be worn on your belt like a pocket knife, that is nice. If you only have one camera, and want to avoid any driving desire to replace it in the next 5 years, this is a good bet.
Rating: 
Summary: Feature-packed, but a little bulky
Review: I recently picked up the S45 in Japan. I own a Nikon Coolpix 2500, which I love for its compact size and rotating lens/flash unit, but wanted a camera with resolution to match my photo printer, a Sony DPP-SV77. My requirements for the new camera were: 4 megapixel, optical finder along with an LCD, 3x optical zoom, and a very compact size (roughly equivalent to the Coolpix). After reviewing the available options, the S45 seemed to be the best fit. Now that I've owned it for a week, I can say definitively that is an outstanding camera, with more features than most users will ever take advantage of. The software in the camera is extremely well thought out. The viewfinder display is clear and comprehensive (but with an option to reduce the complexity by eliminating unnecessary icons), and the various exposure modes are so complete that the S45 easily rivals the new generation of 35mm SLRs in terms of metering and exposure options. This includes aperture- and shutter-priority, the ability to change exposure values instantly even in Program mode, a range of ISO equivalents, EV compensation, and of course a fully manual option. Of course, the digital-only goodies are here as well, including a 15 fps video mode (with sound and *in-camera editing*), a panorama stitching feature that is extremely cool, and voice tagging of the still images. Image quality is excellent, with only a hint of that traditional digital low contrast that seems to be prevalent in all but the ultra high end (6mp) cameras. (Intriguingly however, you can store pictures in RAW [rather than JPEG] mode and change the contrast and brightness in PC software after the fact without quality loss.) My only complaints are minimal: first, I love the fact that my Coolpix shows up as a removable drive directly in Windows Explorer; with the S45 you have to use Canon's included software (which is excellent) to transfer images from the camera. Second, the lens cover (also an on/off switch), while it feels solid, doesn't always close firmly, which makes me worry a bit about its durability. Finally, the camera is somewhat thicker and heavier (denser-feeling) than the Coolpix, which is the trade-off you make for far far more features (at an admittedly higher price). I limited my brand choices to Nikon, Canon, and Sony, and I think that in this form factor there is no camera that even comes close to the S45 (except perhaps the older S40). If you are a sophisticated amateur (or even a pro looking for a backup digicam), you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Quality
Review: My S45 has broke twice in the 6 months I have had it. I am very disapionted. I've always bought Canon but will look somewhere else next time! Very poor quality.
Rating: 
Summary: For snapshooters only!
Review: I use this camera mainly to shoot small art objects, since I'm an art dealer.
On average the quality of photos you can take with this camera is pretty good considering the price. It has a good array of advanced options as well, like RAW format, that later you can convert to a 11MB TIFF file (on average, for 8 bits) or a 22MB TIFF (on average, for 16 bits). Tiff's are uncompressed files, and are the best option if you want to use Photoshop to manipulate your shots.
Very well built metallic case. I drop it from 4 feet twice and not even a dent occurred. Well done Canon!
The custom option in the shooting menu is also very welcome. You can store all your shooting parameter, like aperture, speed, colour balance, bracketing options, ISO and etc. Very handy!
In good light conditions the quality of photos is excellent for a 4 Mpixels camera. Both colour balance and sharpness are excellent. Better stick to ISO 50 or 100 or you will get above average noise though.
So far so good. But ...
Below average flash. If you use it outdoors as a fill in flash be prepared to get your main subject washed out and overexposed. If you use it indoors, on a birthday party for instance, the flash is not powerful enough even for small ambients. Be prepared to get underexposed photos with excess noise when you blow them up. But I have to be fair, if you take snapshots only, you would not notice it probably.
And now about the software that comes bundled with the camera. Remember that in digital photography the software to manipulate your shots is almost as important as the camera itself. And that's the point were the S45 fails to my requirements.
The File Viewer Utility does what it should do, but will present to you an interface that would be outdated when Windows 3.1 was the king. Zoom Browser has a better interface but is a jack of all trades and master of none sort of software, not integrated at all with the rest of the bunch. But I could live with both and still rate this camera well.
But then there is Remote Capture, which was one of the reasons I bought this camera. As I take pictures of small art objects, light control is top priority and the possibility of connecting the camera to a computer using this software and get a bigger image with all the control options of the camera was really appealing. Forget it! Remote Capture is a prehistoric, poorly designed, not properly tested and buggy piece of software. I do not understand how a company with the reputation like Canon supplies this sort of software with one of their products. I am sure it is only damaging the confidence the customers have in the brand.
Remote Capture is ridiculous. You can not save your shooting preferences, so every time you connect the camera you are back to the auto everything default. When you connect the camera, Remote Capture takes total control control, bypassing the camera controls, but without presenting the information that you usually get on the camera's LCD. There is no on-line information of speed, aperture, the focusing area marks, the auto-focus options, nothing! To know if a photo will come out in focus is a lottery. You can only trust in your visual perception from what you see on your monitor.
There are so many limitations that I would need too much space to describe. So I will only mention one more: Remote Capture freezes very easily (and I am using XP-Pro!), mainly if you use it in conjunction with a photo manipulation software, like Photoshop or PhotoImpact.
Final conclusion: This camera is adequate and a good value for money if you are a casual snapshooter. For this purpose I would rate it as 4 stars camera. But for semi-professional use I can only rate it 3 stars at the most.
Rating:
Summary: Get one before they're gone!
Review: I'd been waiting for the five megapixel version of the digital Elph, but when the first reviews of that camera came out, I was a little disappointed. It seems that Canon is having a bit of a problem cramming so many pixels on such a small sensor, resulting in noisy images. What does this mean? It means that the four megapixel cameras are taking better looking photographs with smaller file sizes. I decided to get the S45 over the S400 after a little research. The S400 will probably suit most users fine, but if you want to have manual control while still retaining a reasonable camera size, the S45 is great. The S45 also has the capability to shoot in RAW mode and the S400 does not. This allows you to store images in an uncompressed state, with all the data from the sensor intact. I wanted a camera that I could grow into, not a camera that I would completely master in an afternoon. Right now I'm using it in auto mode and experimenting with the many manual capabilities. Downsides? While the camera is small, it doesn't fit comfortably in your pocket. If this is really important, buy the S400. After all, you won't get a shot if the camera isn't with you. I don't mind carrying a camera, so it's no big deal. I bought this a few weeks ago when Amazon was closing them out at less than 300 bucks. They're gone, but still can be found elsewhere.
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