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Camera QuickLook | |
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Review Date
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06/28/05 | |
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User Level
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Novice to Experienced | |
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Product Uses
|
Family / Travel / Special Events | |
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Digicam Design
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Point-and-Shoot or Manual control | |
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Picture Quality
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Very Good, 5.0-megapixel CCD | |
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Print Sizes
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11 x 17 or 8 x 10 with some cropping | |
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Availability
|
May, 2005 | |
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Suggested Retail Price
(At introduction) |
$499 | |
Introduction
By Shawn Barnett
With the price of digital SLRs finally within reach, should you stick with the All-in-one digicam or move up to an SLR? Why buy a high-end digicam when digital SLRs are so close in price? Do digicams still have a purpose? What are the pros and cons? An avid photographer, I spent some time thinking about that myself. Come see what I discovered about
The Canon PowerShot S2 IS is the sequel to an extremely popular long zoom camera, the 3.2 megapixel S1 IS. The 5.0 megapixel Canon S2 IS and its predecessor follow in the footsteps of a well-received model from four years past, the 2.6-megapixel PowerShot Pro90 IS.
The Canon S2 IS accommodates a wide range of users with its variable level of exposure control. Experienced shooters will appreciate the Manual, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority modes, while novices will find the Auto, Program AE, and Scene modes useful. With a full range of creative effects, the added attraction of 12x zoom Canon optics, and optical image stabilization – a feature found on only a handful of digital cameras, most of them more expensive, the Canon S2 IS will feature prominently on the shopping lists of photographers looking for a long-zoom camera. A big part of the story of the Canon S2 IS though, has to do with its movie capability: Not only can it record at 640×480 pixels and 30 frames/second, but you can use the zoom lens while recording movies (a surprising rarity), and it records stereosound. All in all, the Canon S2 IS is quite a package, with an amazing range of capabilities and good picture quality, all at an affordable price. Read on for all the details!
