Overview
The Canon Powershot S1 IS is a digital camera with an extended zoom lens (10x). It can take pictures with a resolution of 3.2 megapixels. It is well made and has an extensive range of features.
The camera is most likely to appeal to people who have a keen interest in photography. To get the most out of the Powershot S1 IS you will need to dedicate time and effort to understand how to use its many features. With the length of the lens and the range of features the camera is not really aimed at the casual photographer who is looking for an easy to use point and shoot model.
Image Quality
The image quality produced by the Powershot S1 IS left me disappointed on the whole, especially when the zoom was being fully utilised. If you look closely at the outdoor shots you will notice a loss of detail, particularly in the bushes and trees. This is especially noticeable on the third outdoor shot with the zoom fully extended. On top of this there is a tendency for light coloured objects to suffer from purple fringing. This is where purple colouring appears at the edges of an object.
Both of the portrait shots, indoors and outdoors come out well. In fairness the indoor shot comes out particularly well. It is quite normal to lose detail in the darker areas of the hair, but this has not happened with the Powershot S1 IS.
The colour shot is another photo which produces above average results. The colours are more vivid than those produced by a number of other digital cameras.
Although clear the macro shot also suffers from a degree of purple fringing. There is also a very light blue caste to the picture.
The indoor shot in poor light is a disappointment. This is the type of shot that can cause problems for a digital camera. In this instance it was very difficult to get the right balance of flash. In automatic mode the flash is over powering and leaves the picture overexposed, as highlighted by the test shot. I tried to compensate for this by rerunning the test in manual mode and adjusting the flash brightness. Using the manual setting I found it difficult to get the flash to produce enough light. No matter which setting I used I struggled to come up with a well focused shot despite a number of tries.
Features
Whilst I may have reservations about the image quality in some shooting situations I have to say Canon have packed a truly wide range of features into the Powershot S1 IS.
As I mentioned at the top of the review the stand out feature is the 10x optical zoom lens. The lens has an Ultrasonic Motor (USM). This makes it extremely fast to zoom in and on a subject and then focus on it. In fact it is so fast that it takes some getting used to. You can additionally purchase tele and wide converters, plus a lens adapter/hood set. Image stabilisation is also available. This helps you to reduce camera shake and therefore the possibility of blurred images in dark conditions or when the lens is fully extended.
The closest focusing distance is 10cms away from your subject. The Powershot S1 IS also has manual focusing and focus bracketing.
For composing the image there is an electronic viewfinder with dioptre correction, always a welcome feature. The LCD screen is 1.5" and you can adjust the brightness. This can help in low light or bright conditions. Another neat feature is that the LCD panel flips out and can be rotated through 270 degrees.
The flash unit has a maximum range of 3.8m when the zoom lens is not in use. This drops down to 1m when the zoom is fully extended. The flash unit pops up on the top of the camera. The fact that this distances it from the lens helps to reduce problems such as red eye.
You can choose to set the flash to automatic where the camera decides whether or not the flash is required, always on or always off. There is a slow sync speed for low light photography and red eye reduction is available too. Both flash exposure compensation and a flash level adjustment are available, as is second curtain synchronisation.
There are a number of different modes that you can use the camera in. To start with there five scene modes you can select from. The first three of these help you to take good photographs for Portraits, Landscapes and Night Scenes. The last two are Fast Shutter and Slow Shutter allowing you to either freeze action or create a blurred effect. Slow shutter can also be used when the lighting is poor.
Other modes give control over to you. These are Program AE, Shutter priority AE, Aperture priority AE and fully Manual. There is a Custom mode where you can save your favourite settings. Stitch Assist is available to help you create panoramic shots.
Movie mode is pretty advanced too. You can shoot at a high resolution of 640x480 at a rate of 30 frames per second. Lower resolutions and frames speeds are possible as well. You can store up to an hour of movie footage or a maximum capacity of 1 gigabyte.
You can also shoot time delay movies. A common example of a time delay movie is where a flower is filmed opening. The Powershot S1 IS can take up to 100 shots with a delay of between one and sixty minutes, as long as the batteries don't run down.
Other advanced features available to use include three types of metering (Evaluative, Centre-weighted average and Spot), Exposure Compensation (in +/- 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments), Auto Exposure Bracketing (in 1/3 - 2 EV in 1/3 stop increments), ISO equivalents 50, 100, 200, 400 plus white balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash, Custom) and Photo Effects (Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia, Black & White, Custom).
There is a Continuous Shooting mode that shoots at around 1.7 images per second for up to 24 images.
To help you preserve the moment you can add voice memos to pictures. Each memo can be for up to sixty seconds. A self timer with a delay of two or ten seconds allows you time to get into the picture yourself.
Canon supply all the necessary software to connect the Powershot S1 IS to a computer, PictBridge compatible printer and a television set.
Ease of Use
Not surprisingly with its wide range of features the Powershot S1 IS takes a bit of getting used to. Be prepared to spend some time reading through the manual and experimenting with the settings if you are going to get the best out of this camera.
Cost
You can pick up a Canon Powershot S1 IS for around £240 including postage.
Style
With the Powershot S1 IS Canon have produced a fairly chunky digital camera. It looks more like a traditional SLR camera than a typical rectangular digital camera. It has a handy grip on the side and a pop up flash on the top. Although the body is made of plastic it feels a well made model. A lens cap is supplied.
It has dimensions of 111.0 x 78.0 x 66.1mm and weighs 370g. This isn't the type of camera to slip into your pocket and I would recommend picking up a camera bag to go with it if you don't already have one.
Batteries and Memory Cards
Four standard AA batteries are used to power the camera. Canon supplies a set in the box. Despite Canon claiming that you should be able to take around 120 shots before the batteries run out I was unable to take anywhere near that number before the power ran out. Therefore I would strongly suggest a set of rechargeable batteries and a charger.
Images are stored on CompactFlash cards. A 32 megabyte card is supplied with the camera, but I would suggest purchasing a high capacity card with the camera as the one supplied will soon become full. Click here to compare CompactFlash card prices
Points I like:
Stacked with features
Powerful flash unit
Good build quality
Where it is not so hot:
Disappointing overall picture quality
Summary
Hmm. Normally I like Canon digital cameras, but I do have reservations concerning the Powershot S1 IS. It does have an excellent feature set to back up the 10x optical zoom lens and it should appeal to photographers who are looking for a digital camera that they can really put through its paces. It is let down by the picture quality though, especially when the zoom lens is fully extended.
Canon Powershot S1 IS Back View
Canon Powershot S1 IS Top View
Canon Powershot S1 IS Side View
Sample Menus
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