weight - this camera is heavy, large file sizes mean that you need a larger memory card .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I already own a Canon Digital SLR and was on the look out for another camera to carry around with me, as it's not possible to take 3 lenses everywhere that you go! The reason that I chose this camera was simply because it seemed to offer a lot more than the other compacts on the market for its size. Its price has also fallen dramatically over the last year, probably because of the release of a lot of new models. You can now get this camera on the net for around the £200 mark, making it affordable.
Picture Quality: as you would expect, this camera offers 7 megapixel resolution meaning that you can create A3 prints from your photos. Images are crisp, sharp and the colours are vivid.
Lens: This is the real selling point! The camera has a spectacular lens, sometimes it's diffiicult to tell it apart from an SLR. It has an aperture range of f2.8-5.3 meaning that you will be able to take low light shots without a flash. It also has a 28mm-100mm range meaning that it'll take a lovely wide angle shot. No other compacts have a lens as good as this one, and trust me I've searched.
Raw Mode: For those of you who are into editing your pictures in photoshop, the S70 has a device where you can change the picture format from JPEG to RAW. Obviously this is mainly for people really into photography, but it's so nice to have a small camera capable of doing shots in Raw.
Manual Mode: Another feature most other compacts don't have. You can totally control the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings in manual. Or just use the aperture priority mode or shutter priority mode. Basically you have a lot of control over your pictures with these modes. Has the other usual scene modes and the ability to change your photos to black and white or sepia.
Movie Mode: Decent, with sound. You can easily play your movies back in the playback mode.
Battery Life: I've only found one camera that lasts longer than a Canon battery and that's the Sony Cybershot. You'll get about 150 shots out of the S70's battery, more if you turn the LCD display off and use the viewfinder.
Weight: The camera is bulky and quite a bit heavier than other compacts. It'll still fit in your pocket, but it's not as tiny as it could be. And it's durable. Mine's been thrown around quite a bit and no signs of wear.
Memory: It takes Compact Flash Memory cards and you'll need at LEAST a 512MB card as the file sizes are big due to the camera's high resolution.
Speed: It starts up and writes to the memory card fairly fast. No problems here.
My verdict: I love having this as a second camera because I am able to use it in manual mode. It's an excellent package and the best for the price, but is definitely a camera for photography enthusiasts rather than newbies who may never use its extra features.
Technical Data: General Product Type Digital camera Width 11.4 cm Depth 3.9 cm Height 5.7 cm Weight 0.2 kg Weight 230 g Enclosure Colour Black Main Features Resolution 7.1 Megapixel Colour Support Colour Optical Sensor Type CCD Total Pixels 7,400,000 pixels Effective Sensor Resolution 7,100,000 pixels Optical Sensor Size 1/1.8" Light Sensitivity ISO 100, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 50 Digital Zoom 4.1 x Shooting Modes Frame movie mode Shooting Modes Landscape, portrait mode, hi-speed shutter, slow shutter, stitch assist, night scene Special Effects Black & White, Sepia, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Vivid, Custom Effect Max Shutter Speed 1/2000 sec Min Shutter Speed 15 sec Exposure Metering Evaluative, spot AF area, centre-weighted, spot Exposure Modes Programme, automatic, manual, aperture-priority, shutter-priority Exposure Compensation 12 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps Auto Exposure Bracketing 3 steps in 1/3 EV step White Balance Custom, automatic, presets White Balance Presets Fluorescent, cloudy, tungsten light, Flash, daylight, fluorescent light (daylight), Underwater Digital Video Format AVI Still Image Format JPEG, RAW Continuous Shooting Speed 2 frames per second, 1.2 frames per second Remote Control Optional Video Capture AVI - 640 x 480 - 10 fps - 30 sec - max clip duration & AVI - 320 x 240 - 15 fps - 180sec - max clip duration & AVI - 160 x 120 - 15 fps - 180sec - max clip duration & AVI - 640 x 480 - 10 fps - 45 sec - with 32MB card & AVI - 320 x 240 - 15 fps - 91 sec - with 32MB built-in memory & AVI - 160 x 120 - 15 fps - 241 sec - with 32MB card Memory / Storage Flash Memory 32 MB Flash - CompactFlash Card Supported Flash Memory CompactFlash, Microdrive Image Storage RAW 3072 x 2304 : 3 - with 32MB card & Super-fine JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 9 - with 32MB card & Fine JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 15 - with 32MB card & Normal JPEG 3072 x 2304 : 33 - with 32MB card & Super-fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 11 - with 32MB card & Fine JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 21 - with 32MB card & Normal JPEG 2592 x 1944 : 43 - with 32MB card & Super-fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 18 - with 32MB card & Fine JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 33 - with 32MB card & Normal JPEG 2048 x 1536 : 67 - with 32MB card & Super-fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 30 - with 32MB card & Fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 54 - with 32MB card & Normal JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 108 - with 32MB card & Super-fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 119 - with 32MB card & Fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 195 - with 32MB card & Normal JPEG 640 x 480 : 336 - with 32MB card Camera Flash Camera Flash Built-in flash Flash Modes Fill-in mode, rear curtain sync, slow synchro, auto mode, flash OFF mode, red-eye reduction Red Eye Reduction Built-in Effective Flash Range 0.55 m - 4.2 m Features AF illuminator, flash +/- compensation Lens System Type Zoom lens - 5.8 mm - 20.7 mm - f/2.8-5.3 Focal Length 5.8 mm - 20.7 mm Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 28 - 100mm Focus Adjustment Automatic, manual Auto Focus TTL contrast detection Auto Focus Points (Zones) 9 Min Focus Range 44 cm Macro Focus Range 4-44cm Lens Aperture F/2.8-5.3 Optical Zoom 3.6 x Zoom Adjustment Motorised drive Features Aspherical lens Additional Features Self Timer Yes Self Timer Delay 10 sec, 2sec Additional Features Audio recording, direct print, built-in speaker, auto power save, digital noise reduction, date/time stamp, DPOF support, display brightness control, digital image rotation, camera orientation detection, PictBridge support, histogram display, focus bracketing, AE lock, AF lock, FE lock Viewfinder Viewfinder Type Optical - real-image zoom Field Coverage 80% Display Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 1.8" - colour Display Form Factor Built-in Display Format 118,000 pixels Microphone Type Microphone - built-in Connections Connector Type 1 x composite video/audio output & 1 x USB Expansion Slot(s) 1 x CompactFlash Card - type I/II Software Software Drivers & Utilities, Canon PhotoStitch, Canon ZoomBrowser EX, ArcSoft VideoImpression, ArcSoft PhotoStudio, Canon ImageBrowser, Canon PhotoRecord System Requirements for PC Connection Operating System Support MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows ME, MS Windows 98, Apple Mac OS 9.2, MS Windows 98 SE, Apple Mac OS 9, Apple Mac OS X, Apple Mac OS 9.1 Peripheral Devices USB port, SVGA monitor, CD-ROM Drive System Requirements Details Windows 98/98SE/2000/ME - Pentium - 150 MHz - 64 MB & Windows XP - Pentium - 300 MHz - 128 MB & MacOS 9.0 - 9.2 - PowerPC - 64 MB & MacOS X - PowerPC - 128 MB Miscellaneous Included Accessories Wrist strap Cables Included 1 x USB cable & 1 x A/V cable Power Power Device Battery charger - external Battery Supported Battery Details 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery - 720 mAh ( included ) Environmental Parameters Min Operating Temperature 0 0C Max Operating Temperature 40 0C
I hope you found my review useful!
More details
Durability
Excellent
Reliability
Excellent
Size
Big
Weight
Heavy
Instruction Manual
Excellent
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