Canon PowerShot S3 IS Digital Camera Review

The auto mode keeps things simple by blocking access to some shooting settings and limiting the choices in others. In the Function menu, users can change the movie and image size settings. The regular menu system is truncated as well, providing access only to the setup and custom tabs. Have no fear, though: the image stabilization system is still available. Macro mode is also available, and the ISO button lets users select from the Auto ISO or High Auto ISO options. This is a nice feature to have, as most compact models’ auto ISO ranges aren’t sensitive enough to capture decent pictures in low light. The auto mode did capture good pictures for the most part; there were a few blurry pictures of my one-year-old crawling across the floor, but 80 percent of the images looked great.

 

Movie Mode

Movies can be captured at any time in any mode, although the mode dial has a designated movie position. Pushing the designated button on the back of the camera body, which is chrome with a red center and otherwise unlabeled, records movies. Dual recording buttons allow for Canon’s MovieSnap feature, which lets users take full resolution still images while recording movies. This feature is just one of many that make the Canon PowerShot S3 IS a very lucrative option for consumers who need video and still imaging capabilities in one hybrid device.

 

The movie mode can record clips in the following sizes and frame rates: 640 x 480 at 30 or 15 fps, and 320 x 240 at 60, 30, or 15 fps. The camera shows a live view of the frame rate, so users can see just how choppy (15 fps) or smooth (60 fps looks beautiful) the video will be. When the movie mode is recording, a tally lamp on the front blinks red; this can be turned off in the setup menu.

 

Users can access My Colors modes for interesting effects and can even properly white balance the video so Cousin Amy’s wedding dress doesn’t look moldy and yellow under the poor church lighting. The 12x optical zoom is available while recording and the image stabilization system even makes it look smooth! The system works very well, keeping normal hand shakes from ruining footage. Other fancy movie features include adjustable microphone levels from 1-5, a wind filter that can be turned on and off, and selectable sampling rates from the following options: 44.100kHz, 11.025kHz, and 22.050kHz. While most digital cameras still record monaural audio, the Canon S3 records and plays back stereo audio.

 

Still, the Canon PowerShot S3 IS’s movie mode has its flaws. It can only record up to 1 GB at a time. At the top file size and frame rate, this is just over 8 minutes of footage. The MovieSnap feature is innovative, but not very intuitive. It isn’t easy to keep a thumb or finger over the movie recording button, so users may accidentally snap a still shot when trying to stop the video. Pressing the movie button at the end of a video isn’t great on handling either; the heavy camera doesn’t have much support, so the ends of movies were always quite bumpy – even with the image stabilization. When users do want to use the MovieSnap feature, the button’s depression is audible in the stereo microphone and the movie blacks out for a quarter of a second or so.

 

The Canon S3’s movie mode offers many more options than do most compact digital cameras and even many hybrid models. The video is good quality except in low light, where dancing blue speckles seem to creep into the video. The MovieSnap feature is cool, but has its problems too. Nevertheless, this PowerShot is a great option for consumers seeking out a hybrid camera/camcorder.

 

The Canon S3 is equipped with a burst mode that can shoot at two different speeds. The high-speed burst can snap 2.3 frames per second, while the standard burst shoots 1.5 fps. Both modes have great endurance and can take full resolution pictures until the card reaches capacity.  A designated button next to the shutter release activates the burst, which is not available in the auto mode, but users must choose between the standard and high-speed options in the recording menu. The button atop the camera cycles through the single, continuous, and self-timer shooting modes. The self-timer has its own interesting set of options – selectable in the shooting menu once again: it can take a picture after 2 or 10 seconds or can be customized to snap 1-10 shots after 0-30 seconds.

 

A related feature is the intervalometer, which is kind of like an anti-burst mode. It produces time lapse photography and can take 2-100 pictures at intervals of 1-60 minutes. The intervalometer can be found in the recording menu. Using it extensively requires a power adaptor, so that the S3 doesn’t run out of batteries mid-shoot.

 

The Canon PowerShot S3 IS has a power switch on its back right corner that requires some serious effort to turn it toward the playback icon (the other side is for recording). Once there, plenty of options await. Users can view images one at a time or in screens of nine frames at once; they can protect or rotate individual pictures, view them with shooting info and histograms, and magnify them 2-10x. Pictures can also be erased one at a time or all at once, but there is no option to scroll through and pick and choose a deletion order.  An option in the setup menu automatically rotates images. Finally, pushing the button left of the viewfinder, which has a microphone icon next to it, adds sound memos that can last up to a minute per still image file.

 

When dealing with large quantities of pictures, the Jump function can be helpful. This has its own button to the right of the LCD and can jump to every 10^th or 100^th shot. It can jump to different shooting dates or folders – and even to movie files.

 

Stereo sound is available for movie files. Pushing up and down on the multi-selector adjusts the audio through 5 levels. Users can play movies back normally, fast forward them, or rewind them. A five-step scale adjusts the playing speed, permitting frame by frame or slow motion viewing, and a simple “editing” function erases all or part of a movie by cutting off the beginning or end.

 

Lastly, playback mode can play slide shows. Users can choose to display all of the camera’s images, only those from a certain date or folder – or just the stills or movies. Users can also select pictures to create up to 3 custom slide shows. Pictures are displayed for 3-30 seconds and can be jazzed up with two transitions and three effects. The transitions include a fade and wipe, but the effects do things like pan and zoom into pictures. If users choose, they can put the slide show on a loop and watch it over and over and over again.

 

The Canon S3 includes four scene modes directly on its large mode dial—Portrait, Landscape, Night, and Sports—but hides its other 8 options within a “SCN” position. The Sports preset is the only mode included on the S3 that wasn’t on the older S2; the rest are the same. In the four dial modes, users can still access the exposure compensation, white balance, and flash compensation. The following options are located in the “SCN” position and only have access to exposure compensation: Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Indoor, Night Snapshot, Color Accent, and Color Swap. The latter two presets were included in the My Colors mode in Canon digital cameras prior to this year. Color Accent lets users pick one color within the frame and enhances it while making all else black and white. Color Swap can make a green car turn red.  This mode isn’t perfect--its colors don’t look even all the time—but scene mode selection is generally great, and the modes themselves work well in their specific situations.

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