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Canon PowerShot S410 4MP Digital Elph with 3x Optical Zoom

Canon PowerShot S410 4MP Digital Elph with 3x Optical Zoom

List Price: $449.99
Your Price: $287.30
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Camera to Last a Lifetime
Review: Compact, light, affordable, and quality are the 4 words that describe this camera. The Canon S410 provides top-notch photos with vibrant colors and amazaing detail. It is one of the smallest cameras in its class contained inside a rich, strong metal body and an excellent rigid shape designed for the use of one hand. It provides adequate night shooting (wide range of shutter times), great macro shots (closeups), and a good host of functions (rapid shots, photostitch) needed for the beginning/intermediate photographer. Although it does not have many of the advanced features of other cameras in its classes, most users will not need them as point-and-shoot is generally what is desired. This camera will not disappoint as it's quality and size will make picture taking an enjoyable experience. This 4MP camera with its adequate functions will be the camera that will last for a lifetime.

Pros:
1) Small, light, good looking
2) Excellent quality, zoom, colors, macro shots, night shots
3) Easy to use, good battery life
4) Great beginning/intermediate functions

Cons:
1) No battery display indicator (only displays when time to recharge)
2) No advanced functions
3) No scene modes

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Terrific snapshooter, if lacking in manual functions
Review: For about 80% of people, this camera is going to be a dream come true.

Simply put, it's the pinnacle of ultra compact digital camera technology. With a 4 megapixel resolution with a better sensor than almost all of its competitors in a body the size of a pack of cigarettes, the Canon S410 is fabulous. The buttons and other physical factors of the interface are all well designed: the zoom and shutter button are in the same place for ridiculously easy one handed operation. The function knob on the upper right provides easy access to several shooting & playback modes. Compare this to other recent sexy, ultra-compact powershooters by Casio & Fuji (Think Z4U and A340) and you'll understand why this is a superior camera.

Other pros:
-Canon STILL uses Compact Flash media, which is significantly cheaper than xD and sD, which a good 90% of other brands use. I have yet to see a downside in everyday use (don't ask me about extreme temperate conditions or whether the various media survive prolonged exposure to electromagnetic fields of varying strengths, as I won't know, and most people don't care).
-I personally like Canon's picture quality far better than that of most of its competitors, within the same style of camera.
-The auto-focus system is superior to all other cameras of this size and strength. VASTLY superior.

Cons:
-Canon's movie mode is growing steadily outdated. This is one area where you may be able to find another camera that serves better: This camera is limited to 3 minutes of 15 FPS 320 x 240 resolution motion capture, regardless of the size of your memory card. I do, however, think that if you're that serious about wanting to record digital movies, you should look to a device more aimed at that sort of thing, like the new Panasonic digi-video-cams that take still images as a secondary function.
-Memory door is made of plastic, not metal like the rest of the camera, and I have seen it break.
-1.5" LCD leaves something to be desired (esp. compared to Casio's line of 2" LCD ultracompacts).
-No easy, pre-set scene modes like Fuji or Minolta have.

Reasons why you would NOT like this camera:
-If this is your first digital camera. I can understand how you may be disappointed by the fact that 99% of point & shoot digital cameras do not make film-quality prints. This is something you will just have to deal with, or not use digital cameras: short of a $700+ SLR digi camera, you will NEVER consistently get film-quality prints, and even then, you will not get the same quality as a comparably priced film camera.
-If you are a photo enthusiast. Canon's Digital Elph line of cameras is designed around every day snapshooters that do not need or know how to use things like manual white balance, various aperture settings, add-on lenses, etc. The similarly priced Canon S45 is much more along the lines of what you're looking for, if you insist on remaining in the compact category. Otherwise, invest in a digital SLR camera, as you will be much happier.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a lemon!
Review: I bought this camera after being a loyal Canon customer for years. After spending roughly $100.00 in shipping on 3 separate occasions to send the camera back to Canon's service center, it still is not working properly. In the 8 months I have owned the camera it has only worked properly for a total of 3 days. Everyone at Canon is sympathetic that my camera is not working properly, but no one seems empowered to just ship me one that works. Instead, I have to endure a never ending sequence of shipping and receiving the camera only to find out that they can't seem fix the root cause of why the LCD is not working properly. I find the whole experience with Canon and this product unacceptable. I've been using Canon products since I bought my first A1 almost 20 years ago. I'll never purchase another Canon product, ever.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great little camera
Review: I bought this for my wife and we love it. Easy to use, the movie feature is great and the pictures are great for a point and shoot.

No complaints, worth every penny.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pros and Cons
Review: I have had my camera for a year and this is what I have found.
This is a great camera and here is why:
1. Light weight and I can carry it with me everywhere I go.
2. Takes excellent pictures and are able to blow them up, and still look great.
3. The recording feature is great, compared to others like olympus which only records video, and no sound. You need sound! Plus it has speakers, so you can play back your video with sound right after shooting - great feature.
4. Easy to use features. When I lend it to people, they can start using the different features right away without reading a manual.
5. The display window is small, but very good quality. A lot of others have less resolution, so the picture doesn't look as good. Your pictures look great on this little window.
6. This camera really captures color and detail. All my pictures come out vibrant and I have no problems with cropping.
7. The battery life lasts relatively long. I do have a back up battery - see cons (1).

Cons:
1. The battery lasts a long time, but when it tells you your battery is dying, you only have 1-3 pictures left on the charge. So, I would recommend keeping a spare (I know they are pricey, but I got a generic brand for pretty cheap and it works just as well as the canon battery that came with the camera).
2. The Red Eye feature does not work very well. It works great close up, if you are looking straight at the red light. From distances, it doesn't matter if you look at it or not, it doesn't work too good.
3. The Auto Focus is a pain some times. Some times, it works great and captures everything you want to focus on, but others, it won't focus on what I need. I usually then easily switch to a different mode and focus it myself.

These are everyday issues, I hope this helps. I have not once regretted purchasing this camera, and would not trade it for another. It has so many great features, the cons don't seem to be too big of a deal to me. Just to let you know, I have a lot of friends who have a Nikon Coolpix 3100, and seem to really like it. It is a bit less expensive, but is only 3.2 megapixels. You might want to try it out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT LITTLE CAMERA
Review: I have numerous expensive digital cameras, but I wanted one for the wife that took great pictures, was small, and easy to use. I could not be happier with the 410. The only concern I have it that the camera does not have a battery level indicator. To combat this problem, I simply bought an extra battery.

Happy shooting.....
R)W

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: beware dont buy this one
Review: I just got the dreaded e18 error message on this camera and its only two years old. canon has a problem with all of its retractible lenses and they get either jammed in the out or the in position and the camera wont power up, rendering this useless. canon will fix it for 175.00 but the problem, as i have found from others on the web will happen again. it is a mecanical flaw? and canon wont support you at all.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Canon S410 4MP is my favorite lil camera
Review: I just received the S410 in the mail and I love it!...it is sleek, small and easily fits in a tiny purse. It does a good job capturing detail in all kinds of lighting. The 32mb card that comes with it is a waste since it only holds around 20 pics, so order at least a 256MB (holds around 120+ pics) card right off the bat with your new camera as I did.

The only downside is that I haven't been able to figure out how to upload the pics to my laptop/pc. I downloaded the software that came with the camera, but somehow, I am still unable to make it work! I will try again and will eventually call customer service if I can't figure it out.


02/11/05:Update
I finally managed to download the software...I think my laptop was acting up before.

I've been using my camera a lot...the pics turn out great...even at night time....I have been taking pics of my niece (9 months old)...as you may know that 9 month old babies don't stay put...even with the movement, the pics turn out awesome and the 4MP helps a lot. All the candid shots of my niece are going to be cherished by the family forever...as I keep them updated every week.

I have uploaded all the pics I have taken onto my laptop without any problems. I am using a 256K MB card (Viking) and it does a great job thus far.

That's it for now.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Exquisite little gem!
Review: I own a 10D which I absolutely love and was getting tired of using my old Olympus Epic (a GREAT film camera) and was looking for a good digital point and shoot. My two major candidates were the S410 and the S50 and possibly the new S60 (not yet released at the time of this review).

If you follow the photography boards at all you realize that this is a fairly common dilemma - the S410 or S400 vs the S50. The S50 offers excellent manual controls while the S400/S410 is significantly smaller without any manual control whatsoever other than exposure compensation. I just LOVE the look and feel of the S410 though if anything it could be argued that it is TOO small. If you feel it is and you are looking for a carry everywhere camera it is well worth the effort to get used to the small size because the camera takes beautiful pictures.

The S400 is simply beautiful. I can live without all the manual controls since I own the 10D and since this camera is primarily for my wife and for me when I don't want to lug the 10D around.

Several have pointed out that since this camera is so small it will always be with you whereas the S50 would be less likely to be carried along because of its increased size. This is a very good argument! The camera is SUBSTANTIALLY smaller than its bigger brother the S50. The form and size factors are what finally won me over.

One criticism of the camera. Low light focusing is less than ideal. You need to work with the camera to understand its limitations indoors.

I am a huge fan of the Canon cameras and I would advise anyone looking for a camera, whether a point and shoot or a DSLR to carefully consider the Canon line since, in my opinion, Canon currently represents the state of the art.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: quick correction on the prior review...
Review: I too recently purchased the Canon S410 and love it. It's amazingly lightweight and compact. Fits easily and discreetly in my pants or jacket pocket. Yet packs as much power as many of it's 4 megapixel toting brethren.

However I thought I should make a quick correction on the prior review in order to prevent consumers from being misled. The Canon S500 comes with the 640 x 480 video resolution but the Canon S410 does not. The S410 only has 320 x 240 and 160 x 120 video resolutions.

The one immediately noticable difference between the S400 and the S410 is the addition of the Direct Print button on the back of the S410. This allows the user to connect the S410 directly to a Direct Print or PictBridge compatible printer (not necessarily a Canon brand printer) and allows him to print straight from the camera (rather than using a flash card reader or interfacing through a computer).


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