Canon PowerShot S30 Review

Overall Rating

Good quality lens
Good quality pictures
Realistic skin tones and other colours
Sturdy
Good battery life and re-chargable

Manual focus terrible to use
deleting shots a bit hit and miss
Heavy (a biproduct of being sturdy I guess)
A bit bulky (see heavy and sturdy)
Strap breaks early in the camera's life
Focus not always as sharp as it could be and a little slow
16Mb CF Card too small
Doesn't come with a case

I bought the Canon PowerShot S30 based on price (the S45 had just come out so the S30 was a run out model) and image quality of others on the net at about the same price.I found an extremely good site which compares actual images from one camera to another taken in the same light conditions of the same subject. Great stuff. http://www.imaging-resource.com/IMCOMP/COMPS01.HTM
It comes with a reasonably comprehensive manual that's quite easy to follow for most users from beginner to advanced.
All the software supplied is of good quality if not entirely user friendly. All cables required are supplied to connect to either a TV or a PC. I bought a card reader to simplify it further and I'd recommend anyone using cards do the same. It's so much easier.
I have to say I'm not disappointed with it's pictures. The focus seems to struggle every now and then and not end up quite as sharp as it could be but generally it spits out great pictures. I mostly use it at the 2 megapixel level as that seems to give a good image for general photos. 3mp gives very clear A4 printable images but they are a little large in filesize for general snapshots.
It's good in low light conditions for up to about 4 metres. After that the flash needs more power to throw enough light on the subject.
I've found the focus to sometimes be a little slow at grabbing it's target, particularly in low light or low battery conditions.
This is not an enthusiast's camera. It's manual focus is so fast I haven't yet managed to successfully taken a photo using it other than infinite setting or absolute minimum and moving the camera to suit. Using the flash as fill-in takes a very over-exposed image which can probably be adjusted out using the manual exposure, it's a little too complex to play with so I haven't managed as yet (better things to do with my time). I have to admit I haven't really done even 1/2 what this camera's features allow so I imagine it is probably better than I give it credit in this area.
Like the manual focus deleting an image from the card via the camera is tricky....The button can move sideways while pressing which moves to cancel rather than delete. This is a pain.
It's sturdy, I've dropped it a couple of times onto carpet with no adverse effect, it's never really been looked after as it probably should but is still going strong after 2 years or so. Unfortunately in being sturdy it's also heavy and a little bulkier than it could be.
The supplied strap which is great wears and eventually breaks after only a little use which is a bit of a shame, especially since a case is an extra.
I personally find 16Mb to be far too small a card to be used with a camera with even a 2Mp lens so likewise a higher one. Personally I have a 256Mb card but a 64 supplied with it would have been nice and not too expensive for Canon. Considering a 3Mp image can be up to 2Mb 8 shots on a card is just not enough.
Finally if you buy another battery for it, get the Canon one. I have the original Canon one and a 1/2 price no-name brand one. The Canon one lasts for days, the other an hour if you're lucky and the Canon one is 12 months older!
Recharge time is reasonable (can't remember how long but it's quick enough).
Overall a good buy if you're after a snapshot camera, if a little outdated now. Don't be fooled by 5 Mp cameras and up, the realistic image quality you'll use for everyday snapshots and upto A4 images is 2Mp. It would be nice to have a little headroom but I prefer the compactness of the 2Mp images. 4Mp would have been ideal for me but too expensive at the time.