Canon PowerShot S50 Review
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Review
Date: Aug 4, 2003 |
User's Experience
Thursday,
July 24, 2003 - Here's what I receive in the box:
- PowerShot
S50 [Silver, and later a Black one]
- Wrist
Strap
- Li-Ion
Battery
- Battery
Charger
- 32MB
CompactFlash (CF) Memory Card
- Interface
Cables: A/V; USB
- English
Instruction Manuals: User Guide; Software Starter
Guide; Quick Start Guide [very convenient];
System Map
-
Software CDs: Digital Camera 12.0; ArcSoft Camera
Suite 2.0
Very
handy is the Quick Start Guide leaflet
[if this reads a bit funny, it's because I have
been listening to Yoda of Star Wars fame all day
today while driving to work and back home ;o)]
that illustrates the most common functions you
need to perform to get the PowerShot S50 ready
for picture taking -- including charging up the
battery; setting the camera date and time; taking
pictures in AUTO mode; reviewing pictures; deleting;
and, printing.
I
like the fact that the battery charger just plugs
into the electrical outlet: red light means that
the battery is charging; green light means that
the battery is fully charged and ready to go.
According to the User Guide, it takes about 80
mins to fully charge a depleted Li-Ion battery.
The
battery and CF card are inserted at the bottom
of the camera. The cover is well labelled and
raised indentations make it effortless to slide
the cover open and close. After every shooting
session, I take out the battery to recharge it,
and the battery compartment door seems tough enough
to handle this kind of frequent use.
The tripod mount is all metallic and is situated
beside the battery compartment. What this means
is that, if you have the camera on a tripod, you'll
need to remove it from the tripod to change the
battery or CF card [though, hopefully, this is
by no means something you'd be doing often during
a photo shoot]. I have a small table tripod, and
I can just about open and close the battery compartment
without taking the camera from the tripod.
With
Windows XP, you don't need to install any software
to transfer images from camera to PC. Since I
want to take a look at the supplied software,
I install it anyway. ZoomBrowser EX, FileViewer
Utility 1.2, PhotoStitch and RemoteCapture 2.7
install with no problem whatsoever. Ditto for
the ArcSoft Camera Suite 2.0 software.
Interestingly,
Canon has not updated the list of cameras in its
Selection screen (which only lists a few models,
and the S50 is not one of them). The S45 is listed,
so should I use it instead of the S50? Nawh, I'll
just pretend I don't know they're the same, so
I select 'Other.' No problem.
The
User Guide is well illustrated and written. Beginners
might find that there are a lot of functions to
read up on, and they should take the time to familiarize
themselves with all the buttons, menu options,
etc. More experienced users will recognize most
of the functions and can just skim the pages.
While the battery is charging and the software
installing, I skim the pages and take the time
to set the S50 to the way I would like to use
it: ISO 50; SuperFine Large resolution (2592 x
1944 pixels); Auto Flash; Auto White Balance;
LCD brightness at maximum. I also turn off all
the "noise" -- the beeps, shutter release
noise, etc. for a completely quiet operation [which
I later regret and readjust].
One
thing that made the learning curve a bit harder
than it should have been for me is the
difference between the MENU and the FUNC buttons.
At the beginning I was hunting between the two
to find the settings I wanted to set or change.
Here's the scoop: MENU deals with only those settings
having to do with how the camera works (such as
shutter release sound, LCD brightness, etc.) --
that you'd probably set only once and never again
worry about; FUNC is what you'd be using mostly
to adjust exposure, white balance, photo effect,
flash strength, etc. before you take a picture.
The User Manual confusingly uses the term "menus"
for both MENU and FUNC settings, and could certainly
afford a paragraph or two to highlight the distinction
between these two buttons.
Friday,
July 25, 2003 - The next day, I go out during
lunch time to take some snapshots, the way beginners
would do: just point and shoot away. The LCD at
1.8 in. is bigger than the 1.5 in. LCDs of most
digital cameras, and is quite clear, even in the
bright noon sunlight. I personally believe the
1.8 in. LCD should be the minimum size for all
digital cameras. The LCD also seems to be protected
by a piece of solid glass.
At first, I can't figure out why the shutter release
does not seem to be responding. I press and I
don't get any feedback. Duh! Completely quiet
operation is not such a great idea after all.
Into the menu you go back, padiwan, and set the
shutter release to level 3. Ahh, now there's a
distinct and satisfying shutter noise as the picture
is taken. After the 10th shot, the LCD displays
that the memory card is full. I review the pictures,
delete a couple I don't like [using the convenient
Delete button and confirming with the Controller
key], and shoot a couple more.
Back home [after listening to the conclusion to
the Attack of the Clones on my drive home], it's
time to download the images to my PC. To download
the images from the camera to the PC, just plug
it in using the supplied USB cable. Select ZoomBrowser
EX, click to select the images and download. You
may set a prefix [I chose "S50_" as
my prefix] and the images can be saved in a subdirectory
using the date the pictures were taken. [However,
if you save in different subdirectories, the images
renumber from 1 and it can get confusing with
different images with the same file name.] It
takes about 5 secs on my computer to download
one image at SuperFine Large, and 13 secs to download
one in RAW. It would be nice if the ZoomBrowser
EX software included an option to delete the downloaded
images from the memory card. Since it doesn't,
I go back to the camera, go into Review mode and
select Erase All to clear the memory card for
the next shooting session.
IKEA
Vaughan: Program AE, 1/13 sec., F2.8 and ISO 50
First
impressions:
The
S50, while not ultracompact, is still compact
enough to carry in a pants pocket, coat pocket,
purse, or in a belt case. I carry it in my pants
pocket; though it's not uncomfortable, I can feel
the weight (260 g / 9.2 oz) tugging a bit. It's
Summer and so I don't have a jacket, but a coat
pocket or belt case is probably the best way to
carry the S50. In my hand, the S50 feels solid
but it's not so heavy that you tire holding it.
The
S50 looks quite handsome in its brushed metallic
silver [also available in black]. The sliding
lens cover is probably its most distinctive feature
and acts as the power on/off switch. You need
to slide it open all the way until it clicks.
Only then does the lens extend, and it remains
extended at about the same depth whether you're
at wide-angle or telephoto. To turn the camera
off, you slide the lens cover shut. There's no
danger of sliding the cover unto the extended
lens before the latter has time to retract; the
cover just slides a bit and you can't push it
further until the lens has safely retracted fully.
You can then slide the cover all the way shut.
The lens cover protects the lens, viewfinder and
AF lamp.
Concerning
shutter lag, I find the camera quite responsive
and I did not have to wait before taking the next
shot. I shoot at SuperFine Large (2592 x 1944
pixels) jpeg, and tries RAW a couple of times
[takes about 13 secs to be competely written to
card, though camera is responsive and ready for
another picture in about 5 secs].
A
quick look at my first snapshots shows that the
S50 takes superb images. On my first S50, some
of the images seem tilted a bit. Canon sends me
another S50, a black one that I personally find
looks even better than the silver one does. I
still find it a bit challenging getting all horizontal
and vertical lines straight and level, with or
without tripod. This
does not detract from the excellent image quality
that you can obtain from this camera (as you can
see in the Image
Quality section). If your S50 does not exhibit
this "feature" or exhibits it within
acceptable tolerance, or you don't take many pictures
with strong horizontal and vertical lines, then
you've got one great camera and shouldn't worry
about it!
Well,
there certainly are many happy S50 owners out
there! We went to Ontario
Place with the family the other day. I did
not bring the S50 with me because I did not want
to get it splashed in the water park, but I couldn't
help noticing how many parents were happily snapping
away with a S50.
Concerning
the supplied software, I have just one small pet
peeve with the ZoomBrowser EX software. A mouse
click selects an image without deselecting already
selected images. So, you have to constantly remember
to deselect the previous image. Which means that
a number of times, I performed an action (such
as converting RAW to TIFF) on all selected images
instead of the last one I clicked on. I would
also have liked to see an option to delete all
images from the camera once they are all downloaded
to my PC.
I
love the Photo Stitch feature of the S50. Select
this scene mode and the camera guides you in taking
the portions of the panorama image, providing
the previous image on the LCD screen to allow
you to position the next one properly. Then in
ZoomBrowser EX, select View & Modify - Stitch
Photos - Click the images to stitch together -
Once in the Photo Stitch application, Ctrl-Click
to select the images you want to stitch together
- Click Arrange to select the merge direction
- Click Merge, Start. I do see some ghost images
where the seams are not spot on, but I did not
use a tripod and panorama pictures almost always
demand the use of a tripod.
Wish
list to Canon: In Capture mode, default the Controller
key to Exposure Compensation. Maybe it explains
why I did not use exposure compensation at all
with the S50 as I usually like to do if the situation
warrants it. I find that having to go to the menu
to set exposure compensation detracts from the
shooting session. Just my personal preference.
As far as image quality is concerned, some of
you may like the pictures from the S50 just the
way they come out of the camera; others may find
the pictures slightly on the soft side and apply
some sharpening in an image editing software (such
as Photoshop). The S50 also allows you to set
Photo Effect to Low Sharpening if you prefer the
image output this way or Vivid if you like your
colors a bit on the brighter side.
The
dedicated Macro button makes it easy to switch
back and forth into that mode. A big plus for
the S50 is that the flash strength can be adjusted
via the FUNC button so you don't overexpose your
subject when you move in close.
If
you are looking for a quality 5 megapixels digital
camera you can grow into, the Canon PowerShot
S50 is an excellent choice. Just leave it in Program
AE mode and shoot away for superb images. As you
grow and learn more about photography, the S50
will allow you to explore and be creative. There
are enough features there to keep you busy and
happily exploring for a while until you're ready
to move on to, perhaps, a dSLR.
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