A prominent hand grip and lens barrel characterize the front of the Canon PowerShot S3 IS. The hand grip is on the left side when viewing from the front; its inner half is covered with a textured material. The material isn’t rubber, and its texture is that of a nail buffer. At the top of this hand grip is the shutter release button, surrounded by the zoom switch. This shiny silver combo is sloped halfway between the top and the front. To the right of the hand grip’s top is the PowerShot S3 IS logo, with an LED above it that blinks when the self-timer is enabled, when movies are being recorded (if the Tally Lamp option is activated in the setup menu), or when the red-eye reduction is necessary.

 

The Canon zoom lens dominates the right side. Along with its brand name, its label sports other fine specs: “12x IS, 6.0-72.0mm, 1:2.7-3.5 USM.” Above the lens barrel is the pop-up flash with the Canon logo on the front. Below the flash, but above the lens, are two sets of holes that act as microphones; they frame the lens barrel nicely. To the right of the right speaker is a large auto focus assist lamp; it is about the size of a pinky fingernail. At the bottom left corner of the lens is a half-moon-shaped button that releases adaptors and conversion lenses from the S3 IS.

 

Back

The back of the Canon S3 is quite busy looking but is still organized. A hinge on the left edge allows the LCD monitor to fold in and out, rotate, and snap back into the camera body with the screen facing in or out. The Canon logo graces the back side of the monitor. Above the LCD monitor is the electronic viewfinder, which is large and square-shaped with a cushy eyepiece around it. Its diopter adjustment sits at its left side, with the circular dial protruding vertically. Directly to the right of the viewfinder is a silver button with a red dot in the middle; this isn’t labeled with any icons or text but is the Movie button. To its right is a set of bumps that keep the thumb from slipping. Below the bumps and to the right of the LCD monitor are three circular buttons on a sloped edge. On top is the Func. button, which accesses the frequently used settings while recording and deletes pictures in playback. The middle button adjusts the ISO setting in recording mode and jumps images in playback mode. At the bottom is the Print/Share button, which doubles as a Shortcut button in recording mode. Below these buttons, off of the sloped surface, is the Disp. button. It changes the display from the LCD to the viewfinder and adds and subtracts info from the frame.

 

On the right edge of the Canon S3 are a few more controls. At the top, the power switch protrudes out the back. Below it is the multi-selector, with two more buttons and an LED beneath it.  When the camera is reading or writing to the memory card, or transferring files to a computer or printer, the LED lights up. The top button selects the auto focus frame and makes on-screen selections with its “Set” designation, while the bottom button accesses the menu system.  

The left side of the camera shows the large lens barrel with “12x Optical Zoom” printed on it. At the rear of the barrel are two circular buttons: the top accesses the manual focus and the bottom turns on the macro and super macro modes. The camera body’s top holds   an eyelet for a neck strap. Below, and slightly to the right, is a rubber cover that hides the A/V-out port. Almost centered on the side is the stereo speaker, which appears to be a circular pattern of dots.

Much of the right side is simply smooth plastic where the right hand grips the camera. At the top is a neck strap eyelet which matches that on the left side. Below this feature, on the rear, are two doors. The top “door” is actually a rubber cover that protects the USB and DC-in jacks. The bottom is made of plastic and has a hinge that opens to reveal the memory card slot.

The top shows the SLR-like shape of the Canon PowerShot S3 IS. A protruding lens barrel and viewfinder sit on the left side, while the right side has a protruding hand grip. To the left of the viewfinder is a circular button that switches flash modes while recording and adds voice memos while playing pictures back. A large mode dial, silver with white icons except for the green Auto position, is to its right. To the right of the dial is the power switch, which has an Off button in its center and a surrounding switch that moves left to recording modes and left to playback mode. Above this feature, on the tip of the hand grip’s peninsula, is the enormous shutter release button with its surrounding zoom switch. Below it is a much smaller circular button that can activate the self-timer or burst mode.

A battery compartment occupies the bottom of the hand grip and holds four AA batteries.

Sliding a switch to the left while pushing upward toward the camera’s front opens the compartment. To the right, almost centered on the camera body, is the quarter-inch tripod mount. Below it is all the required legal information, along with the serial number and such. From the bottom, users can also see that the rear LCD monitor is disjointed from the rest of the body.