Rating: 
Summary: A jewel of a camera that takes beautiful pictures
Review: This is my first digital camera and I am very happy with it. It is a very stylish camera on the outside but the image quality is another plus factor. I have seen other big name brands with the same 4 MP but the quality just doesn't equal this little beauty. It is worth every penny in my book. The only thing I can complain about is the red eye reduction. But it can be corrected with the right software. Despite that, I can't help but give it very high marks.
Rating:
Summary: Great camera! Lots of features.
Review: I have owned this camera for about a month and love it. The con's people talk about don't seem like they are real to me. The flash is more than adequate for a normal use. I had a Nikon 775 and the best thing that ever happened with that camera is I dropped in and it died. It went back to service twice and never got fixed right. The S400 has a great macro mode, focus lock, auto exposure lock, long shutter mode... I really like the auto focus mode telling me where the camera focused. The Nikon chronically focused on the background instead of the subject even in portrait mode. Very frustrating. Also, the plastic case on the Nikon was not rugged enough. The Canon has a very solid case that does not flex. The battery life is great and I did by an extra battery for about $35. The Nikon battery life was much worse. The shutter delay and startup delay on the Canon is very short compared to the Nikon. Canon starts up in about 2 seconds vs. the Nikon which is over 8. The Canon also switches very fast between shoot and review mode. Also, the slide show through the video output is much faster than the Nikon. The 775 would draw the picture painfully slow on the screen.I highly recommend this camera!
Rating:
Summary: Terriffic ultra-compact camera
Review: I've been using my Powershot S400 for nearly 6 months now, and have taken well over 1,000 pictures with it. I had previous owned a Minolta S404, and I have been much happier with the Powershot for the following reasons: 1. The autofocus mechanism is much more reliable than the Minolta S404 in my experience. This probably has something to do with the autofocus assist lamp. Even in bright outdoor scenes, the Powershot seems to do a better job. 2. Less noise in low light situation than the Minolta S404. None of the flash photos that I've taken with this camera have shown signficant color noise problems like what I saw in the Minolta. 3. Very short time between frames. When you turn off the LCD preview, you can shoot images back to back in under 2 seconds. The Minolta would pause nearly 4-5 seconds in most cases. 4. It is actually compact enough to be easily portable. Don't fool yourself into thinking that one of the medium sized cameras (Minolta S404, Canon G3/G4/G5) will give you all the control you loved about your old 35mm SLR camera. They don't come close. To make matters worse, they are also no more portable than a full-size SLR. So in one sense, they are the worst of both worlds: too bulky to fit in a pocket, but not geeky enough to make real photo geeks happy. The Powershot is a good compromise in that you give up some manual features and interchangeable lenses, but you have a camera that will literally fit in your pocket.
Rating: 
Summary: Smallest digital with great power.
Review: It is my first digital camera, I have had it for just one week, and it is incredible. Simple to use, great picture quality, and well made. Hard to believe I can carry a 4 megapixel camera in my pocket! I am very pleased with it.
I gave it only 4 stars because of the cost: ..., plus you should buy a larger capacity Flash card which puts it over the ... dollar mark.
However if you want a tiny camera, with great power, this is the it.
Rating:
Summary: To the customer from Fremont, CA...
Review: You obviously need to do a lot more researching on digital cameras and what the MP rating actually means for a camera.
Firstly, I highly doubt a camcorder's image quality is going to compare anywhere near a dedicated digital camera... With that said.. How about taking a nice 2272x1704 res picture with your Sony Camcorder? No? Oh, I forgot..a 1.5MP camera probably couldnt even match half that resolution.
Some people do actually enjoy being able to print out an 8x10" picture with no loss in quality. Use your comcorder and stick to what it does best...record video. If you want a truly high-quality and professional camera, then keep the Canon S400 and appreciate its color depth, resolution capabilities, and features.
Rating:
Summary: Tiny Enough To Take With You
Review: The Canon Powershot S400 is my second digital camera. The first was a 1.2 MP Olympus that was just way too big to carry around. I chose the Canon based on three factors: Size, Image Quality, and Ease of Use. Size-- Size was my biggest concern. It's so tiny!! :) The camera is about the same size as a deck of playing cards. Nevertheless, the LCD screen is of a usable size and the buttons aren't so tiny that you need to use a fingernail to depress them. The viewfinder is a bit small, but atypically, shows a fairly true representation of what your shot will look like. I found the LCD screen to be a much better way of taking pictures. Image Quality-- Wow! I was so pleased! None of my images have needed major color correction. The white balance is right on track. This little camera gets it right even in difficult color situations like bright sunlight. Flesh tones come out nice and natural and whatever Canon has done to eliminate red eye really works. I'd highly recommend this camera to people picky about image quality. The camera allows you to set the resolution of your photo. I've taken most of mine on "fine", but there's also a "superfine" resolution. I find that on the superfine, I get 14 shots. I average about 27 on fine. This brings me to my only issue with this camera-- What's up with the 32 MB card?? If you're spending this amount of money on a camera, it ought to come with a bigger card. I went out and bought a 256 MB one almost instantly. Ease of Use-- Ease of use is the category that kept me from giving this camera five stars. It's very easy to learn the basic functions. Taking pictures, zooming in, zooming out, etc. The menus for the more complex functions are a bit less intuitive. They present you with useless options like changing the LCD's splash screen first and make you dig for important things like changing the resolution of the images. If you read the book, you'll get everything after a few rounds of shots, but you do need to read the book. Overall, I am VERY pleased with my camera and I would buy it again in a heartbeat.
Rating:
Summary: Comparison of S400 and Pentax Optio S
Review: I was on the market for a new camera--to upgrade from a 2 MP Olympus we bought a year ago. I wanted the camera to be small, so I narrowed the choice down to the Canon S400 and the Pentax Optio S. I ordered both (from companies that offered no-penalty returns) and reviewed them for several days. After side-by-side testing, I'm going with the S400. Here's why: 1) Controls: the controls on the Canon are better and require less digging into internal menus to do what you want to do. Very important to me. The Pentax has some but not as many external options--you have to dig more. Some examples: Movie mode, panoramic mode. Also, the little Pentax 4-way-plus-"okay" (center push) joystick is pretty small, and although the average user can learn to use it quickly, it is still not desirable.
2) Screen quality: Much better on the Canon--brighter, sharper, etc. Pentax screen is a bit darker and slightly pixely.
3) Focus/shooting: With the Pentax, when you press the button to focus, it freezes the frame for a second, where as the Canon doesn't freeze the frame--it allows you to see your subject at all times. This was slightly annoying at first but became unbearable when I attempted to snap pics of my 1-year old daughter who was crawling! Also, the Pentax takes longer to focus for most shots.
4) Movie mode: Canon's higher quality mode was much better--a sharper, cleaner, brighter movie. Sound quality is a little better, but not lots.
5) Battery door: The Pentax's door is super cheesy, just like all the reviews say, although this is not a major concern for me.
6) Overall construction: I think this Canon will take a bit of a beating--the Pentax feels a bit [weak] in comparison.
7) Battery charger: This is a small item, but I like the fact that the Canon charger is a little unit with a plug on it--so you don't need any extra cords to plug it in--it just plugs straight into the wall.
8) Picture quality: Canon's 9-point focusing system works really well. The pictures are clean and crisp. The Pentax takes a bit long to focus at times, and I got a few blurry pics--sometimes it focuses on the wrong thing. I didn't notice a major difference with the quality between the 3.2 MP and 4.0 MP, but I'm sure if I blew up an 8x12 bigger I'd notice the difference.
9) Panorama: I think Canon does the Panorama thing slightly better, although the Pentax does it well, too. Here's what's better about the Pentax: 1) Size--super small and light. Absolutely amazing. Although, to be fair to Canon, the S400 is virtually the same size as the S200, which is impressive.
2) Great battery life. Can't say it is much better than Canon's, but it is good.
3) Super short lag time between photos in review mode (and slightly longer but still short in photo mode)--slightly shorter than Canon's, but I can handle that.
4) Colors seem more natural. In the automatic mode with the Canon, the colors are a bit too bright, almost unreal, BUT you can use the manual mode with the Canon and choose a "neutral" setting to deal with the color issue.
5) The Pentax has slightly more manual control, like manual focus, for instance. In summary: If you want super small, go with the Pentax. If you want solid and super high, durable quality, go with the Canon. The Canon runs about $$$ more (you can find it for less, though), but I think it is worth it. Read the other reviews on Amazon (and elsewhere) as well, but I haven't heard any major complaints about the S400. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Failed in first three weeks !
Review: Bought a S400 3 weeks ago. Battery eject functioned poorly at outset. Filled a 256 mb card to try it out and then took it to the Galapagos Islands. After one day the camera gave an error message, would replay shots already taken but when switched to camera gave only a meesage saying contact Cannon and promptly shut itself off. I replaced a 2 megapixal powershot with the S430 but the build quality of this unit is inferior to my prior powershot.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Image Quality
Review: We currently own the S230 and the Olympus 4040.
This morning I did a shoot-off between the Olympus 4040 (4MP w/gorgeous F2.0 lens) and my new S400 (4MP F2.8), using a tripod. Previously I had stopped using the S230 to take my rose garden pictures as the resolution and focus just could not compare to the 4040. But I was surprised to see the S400's pictures were slightly BETTER than the 4040. The Olympus' famous jagged diagonals resulted in a softer image than the Canon's.
Usually I would expect to give up Image Quality to get the small body size of this camera - but this tradeoff does not exist in the S400!
Rating:
Summary: the measuring stick of digital cameras
Review: I travel a ton, and wanted a very portable camera with high resolution. I originally bought the Konica KZ-400 (3.2 megapixels), but found the focusing to be problematic, among other things. Swaped it out for the Canon S230 but then Canon introduced this model, so I swaped again for the S400 (didn't even use the S230). In short, I couldn't be happier. This thing looks great, is super portable, and takes wonderful pictures, many of which I've printed on 8x10s. I mostly use the automatic setting, which does a great job, but more serious photographers will appreciate the manual controls (white balance, ISO speed, etc.). With 4 megapixels and the features this camera offers, I doubt this model will be outdated anytime soon. It is priced at the high end among its peer group, but I can't see anyone saving enough money to justify passing this one up. And don't just take my word for it, look at the other reviews.
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