Canon PowerShot S2 IS Review

Overall Rating

Swivel screen
Excellent picture quality (but see my comment in this review)

No live histogram
Poor screen quality

I own a Sony DSC-H1 and won some money (not much so don`t spam me - lol), so I decided to buy a Canon PowerShot S2 IS digital camera as I wanted a camera with a swivel screen. I was most disappointed it did not have a live histogram, which is very important now I come to not have it. The screen is terrible to see in bright light, and I have no problems at all with the Sony. I also had both cameras out one day and took some pictures of a huge overhead crane. All the glass surround had chromatic aberration taken with the Canon, but those taken with the Sony at the same time, had none whatsoever. Picture quality is equal, apart from that I would say.

I have the hood and extender so I can use filters, but because of the way it is designed it causes vignetting at wide angles, which is not so with the superb Sony design. I don`t know what Canon was thinking of in that respect, and I see they have done it again with the S3.

I would not recommend this camera over the Sony on those major and very important points. I am marking features overall at zero as I think the lack of live histogram deserves that, especially from Canon, and there is still no live histogram on the S3.

Members' Comments onpixiedot's Review

• Bertie on 8th Mar 2006

  My goodness pixiedot, you must have a histogram extremely high on your list of camera priorities to give the model a ZERO overall rating!! (Psst....wanna flog it?)

• pixiedot on 9th Mar 2006

  Sure do want to rid me of it, I honestly would not have considered the histogram very high on priority had I not been used to one for 6 months with my Sony DSC-H1 as all I use on that is manual mode with the live histogram--believe me it is a doddle to use that way and 100% spot on exposures all the time.Maybe zero was a tad unfair.I was going to stick it on Ebay,but since the S3 is kicking about(still no live histogram--cough cough) the price has dropped off a bit and I just coughed up for camera,hood and SD card.It takes great pics mind you but I just love my Sony--thanks-- make me an offer--1 week old!!! lol--I think I might get wrong for spamming now--I hope not.

• Bertie on 12th Mar 2006

  If you're within reasonable travelling distance of Swansea pixiedot, I'll definitely be interested.

• pixiedot on 13th Mar 2006

  Hi-Bertie--where is Swansea?? just kidding. No,I live in good old Durham, the frozen north at this moment in time--actually I do really like the swivel screen, now that, in the future will be very high on my priorities--Bristol Cameras do the s2 IS very cheap at the moment and are VERY reliable. The new S3 is a very poor and expensive upgrade methinks--cheers

• mike dc on 6th Apr 2006

  dear pixiedot
  you say 'The new S3 is a very poor and expensive upgrade methinks'
  i was going to go for one of those - why is it so bad?

• pixiedot on 9th Apr 2006

  Hi Mike----I wrote this review some weeks back and as camera is not yet released I was only of course going by what was available on the review sites at the time. It seemed the reviewers were not able to decide whether or not it did or did not have a live histogram,as some said no,some said yes! Even Canon on their web-site must not know as it is not even mentioned there, or wasn`t 2 weeks ago. I do consider the live histogram VERY important as it actually shows the exposure on the sensor itself, the exposure reading in viewfinder does not show the exposure there. So hence it gives a very accurate rendering of exposure,especially when you can adjust the histogram as you are shooting, I always use manual mode so it is very essential to me I reckon. Now it seems by reading a Japanese web-site that it does have this feature,great stuff if it does. Also going from 5mp to 6mp without increasing size of sensor can of course cause image problems--IF NOT sorted out by Canons design team, and as they cannot design/redesign a decent lens cap,I have very little faith in that dept. So in fact image quality could be below that of S2 maybe!! not a risk worth taking until some full and proper reviews arrive. Camera was being shown as costing around £400 at time of my review but I see the competition has hotted up since then so can now be got for just over £300 and that is before its released--I DO NOT like the sound of that as it seems they may know something we humble customers do not yet know,ie. camera is crap so sell as many by pre-sales now before the public catch on. They are just like bookies and have to hedge their bets a bit. So if you want one I would certainly hang on for a while is my humble opinion. The only worthwhile improvement I can see is that it is black. I have taken lots of pictures with it now and will always maintain that the Sony DSC-H1 takes much better pics. and is better and easier to use. So hang about and get the new Sony DSC-H5 when it comes out,it promises to be a scorching good camera. It could well be cheaper too. Hope have helped you some.