Canon PowerShot S100 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

Below is an email that I have just received from Canon weeks after registering my camera on their website. ****************************************************** Dear Michael, This service notification e-mail contains important information about your Canon PowerShot S100. Please note that product service announcement e-mails contain advisory or informational content that may be critical to the proper operation of your product, including safety, update, and instructional messages. Please carefully review the information in this e-mail as it relates to your Canon product. Thank you for using Canon products. It has been confirmed that some PowerShot S100 digital cameras encounter a lens error caused by a disconnected part inside the camera. This announcement conveys the details of the issue and Canon's service policy for affected cameras. Canon continuously strives to provide our customers with high quality, reliable products that can be used with confidence. We offer our sincerest apologies to any customers who have been inconvenienced. Phenomenon Some PowerShot S100 units (with the serial numbers listed below) may encounter a lens error due to a part becoming disconnected inside the lens. In particular, this lens error may occur when the camera is used in certain environmental conditions such as high temperature and/or humidity. Affected Product: Some PowerShot S100 Digital Cameras within the following serial number range: The first and second digits of the camera's serial number are any number from "29" through "41". For example: "29xxxxxxxxxx", "30xxxxxxxxxx"........."41xxxxxxxxxx" (The [x] characters shown above represent the remaining characters of the product's serial number.) Market Support Affected products that exhibit this phenomenon will be repaired free of charge, regardless of the warranty status, if it is confirmed that the lens error has been caused by disconnection of the part inside the lens. However, please note that affected products which are received by Canon after their service period ends (the period during which such products are expected to be serviceable), will no longer be eligible for free repair service and will be handled in accordance with Canon's then general repair standards and regulations Support This information is for residents of the United States and Puerto Rico only. If you do not reside in the USA or Puerto Rico, please contact the Canon Customer Support Center in your region. Thank you, Customer Support Operations Canon U.S.A., Inc. Contact Information for Inquiries: Canon Customer Support Center Phone: 1-800-OK-CANON (toll free) 1-800-652-2666 TTD: 1-866-251-3752 (toll free) E-mail: [email protected] For additional support options:[...] ****************************************************************** I luckily received a camera with a serial number that should be unaffected by the lens errors some others are having. I am really liking my camera so far so I have no reason to give it anything other than 5 stars. I know my way around the manual settings of this camera, but I am far from a professional so I will hold off on a lengthy review. The programmable control ring really makes the manual settings easily changeable. Between the control ring and the sleek black color, its obvious you've got yourself something a little more substantial than a digital Elph. This camera just does everything it is supposed to do very well. The 5x zoom is inadequate for long distance shots, but that is not what this camera is for. If you are interested in carrying a compact digital camera with all the major settings of your DSLR, this is a great option. I think this camera makes a great compact alternative and companion to a DSLR because it is easily pocketable and has great manual settings. I recommend that you register your camera on Canon's website immediately because it guarantees you support and has provided me with this useful information that I would not have known otherwise. I plan on updating this review. UPDATE #1 In every way, I have found this camera to be a vast improvement over my previous compact digital camera, a 10.1MP Powershot ELPH SD88IS, however; it is not without issues. Notably, the battery life is very poor when the default GPS mode is active. I could not tell you exactly how many shots I have been able to get per charge, but it has been noticeably less than I would expect. I already ordered a backup battery and am considering toggling the GPS as I need it. This battery is the same basic battery that was in my 4-5 year old Elph. I think it is time Canon looks at updating these NB5L batteries. In addition, while the image quality for day shots is tremendous, I was not overly impressed shooting with a tripod at night. I could not get more than a few half decent shots of a full moon for the life of me. Despite my best efforts, I was having issues with exposure and focus. I found underexposing and bracketing the focus to make for the best shots. Reviewer Sheraz A. Choudhary states "NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHERS: a major con for me is that the s100 is locked to ISO80 for shutter speeds over 1sec. May not matter to most people but I loved shooting 15sec ISO400 shots with my s90." This certainly did not help me either. It was a real pain to see ISO80 keep flashing up as I slowed my shutter speed. If you are mainly concerned with shooting close range shots at night, you wont have a problem, but shooting stunning nighttime nature shots seems to be an issue. Neither one of these issues is a real deal-breaker for me, but I have mentally subtracted a half star off this camera and well, I'd kind of like to get my hands on the Sony DSC-RX100. Because it is almost $300 more expensive, I still feel good about my purchase of this camera.

This camera is PHENOMENAL ... but if you want it to work right, you need to put in the time to understand how it works and to test all of the many shooting options that are offered. Perhaps, if you are looking for the best pocket camera which takes awesome photos by just turning it on, pointing and shooting, this may not be the best choice (I suspect the canon 300 HS would be one of the best for this). But if you are looking for a camera capable of taking superb pictures with excellent picture quality that require just a little understanding of how to utilize the settings, or if you want a fantastic pocket camera which allows you to manipulate all the basic controls of an old, standard film-35mm, it is hard to imagine you could find better (though if you have the money and pocketability is not of supreme importance, the Fuji Film Fine Pix x100 would be my pick ... at $1200). I spent easily over 1 month doing research on all all sorts of cameras (various models of Lumix, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, other Canons, a couple of others and the FujiFilm) before i bought this. While in the end i am very happy with my selection, it took way too long for me to sort through all the customer reviews here, the professional reviews on CNET, DPReviews, Youtube, etc. The many reviews here on Amazon helped immensely in trying to make my choice, but I have to say I was a bit confused at first and then concerned by the extremes of comments (lots of 5 stars and a good bit of 1 star reviews). I am writing this for other Amazon users in order to help make sense of this situation. (just for reference, i am a visual artist and have a good amount of experience with photography and cameras.) 1. the negative reviews are mostly because of a lens error problem which affected a good number of units of this model. fear not about this ... canon seems to have taken responsibility for this if you get one of these lemons (and in my experience with canon, they are very good with making good on their mistakes). most of the units with this problem were corrected (the S100's with a serial number beginning with numbers 29 through 41 are the ones seemingly affected by the error and most of these have been sold or recalled or fixed). 2. most of the negative reviews regarding picture quality are absurd. if you just put the thing on "auto" and press the button and hope every picture is going to be great, you will likely be disappointed. this camera takes a little more getting to know than the typical pocket camera because it is more complex, but this allows you to be able to do things that most other cameras of this sort cannot do. you just have to invest a little time. PEOPLE SAYING THAT THE IMAGE QUALITY IS CRAP ARE ALL JUST WRONG - they just have not put the time into learning how to use this camera and use it properly. i was going from an old Powershot s500 that i LOVED. this was only 5 m-pixels, but it was easy to use and took really nice, balanced photos with great ease. when i first fired up the s100, i was a bit afraid that some of what was said about the picture quality was true, but after taking 20 or sometimes 30 pictures of the same thing in the same light, i was able to really understand the differences in what the settings and modes do and was able to get a feel for using the auto-modes as well as manipulating the ISO, aperture, and shutterspeed ... and i get not just great but SUPERB photos. now, after a couple of weeks, i sometimes still need to snap 3 or 4 pictures until i get one i like, but that photo is an excellent image ... one so much better than almost every compact camera i have ever seen (and with my research, i looked at buckets of sample photos from all sorts of cameras. pros: image quality - i looked at probably about 20+ compact cameras, their sample pictures and sample shots of all of them at different ISO's: this canon had the best image quality of all of them bar the pricey fujifilm x100 (which was gorgeous but this is also not really a compact camera). at ISO 800, the s100 retains more definition and colour saturation than all of the others (i think there was an olympus that came in close ). low-light shots - MOST PEOPLE THINK THE MEGA-PIXELS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE CAMERA ... NOT SO. while the s100 has ample m-pixels, it is all about the size of the sensor and the aperture range. this camera has one of the biggest sensors (7.44 x 5.58 ... and a good quality CMOS) and the low end the aperture goes down to 2.0, so you have the ability to take really nice low-light shots. also has a good (digic 5) processor. controlability - this camera allows you to control everything important in your photo; f-stop 2.0 - 5.9 has a great range for a camera this size, ISO 80 - 6400, and 1/2000 sec. - 15 sec. shutter speed. there really aren't other cameras that can give you this. macro capability - i have never seen a camera that can take pictures at 3 cm like this, maybe a couple of full size SLRs fitted with macro lenses, but he s100 goes beyond what i imagined even possible on a camera like this data readout - has great data information for each shot, as you line up the picture and after you have taken the shot tons of options - too many for me actually, which i also think is a bit of a con; but you can always just not use the ones you do not like lens ring - gives using the camera a nice sense of control that hearkens back to the old SLRs RAW - i am not a professional and RAW has little appeal to me other than post-production manipulation, but if you want, this shoots in RAW ... personally, i find that JPEGs frequently do better in avoiding colour moire in fine resolution video quality - not even interested in video, but great quality cons: new added finger grip on front - for me it does nothing and just jets a little in the way no decent digital filtres - with all the stuff they stuck in this camera, you think they could have included some digital filtres ... i mean how often are you going to want to use the fish-eye or miniature landscape feature? cute, but i'd rather have some simple digi filtres. too may options - for some could be a plus, but for me there are too many things and features i would never use and some which are so complex i would not be able to remember how to access them lens ring sticking out - while i love the idea of the lens ring, its protruberance makes the camera just a bit more difficult to stuff in the pocket flash - before digital, i had 2 canon elph film cameras. one had a pop-up flash like this one; it broke. i almost did not buy this camera because of the pop-up flash. while this one seems so much better (it has a little motor that seems very tight and strong), i still fear i could break it. in the end, though, i am glad i got the camera because it is otherwise so great. if you still have any doubts, this is a great camera.

The good is that it's a well built camera that takes sharp pictures and has a great feature set for its size. I considered the Sony RX100 and this camera, the newest pocket cameras with larger image sensors. I chose the s100 since: -RX100 didn't really have a long term track record as it was only recently released. -Smaller size and weight of the S100, excellent image quality given its size. -Much lower cost of the S100 -Lens error due to heat/humidity had been fixed in later production batches according to a recall bulletin by Canon; the camera's serial number began with 46 and was not a part of the recall -Other than the above lens error issue the camera had a good reliability record from several forums The bad is that I got the lens error where the lens gets stuck in the out position and fails to retract after extending and retracting while on vacation in Japan. I'd taken a few pictures here and there, put it back in my camera bag or pocket, repeat several times for an hour or two. After a dozen tries, the lens finally retracted but then failed to extend. Luckily, there was a Canon service center less than 20 minutes away from my hotel by foot and subway. Long story short, since I didn't have my warranty card or proof of purchase with me on my trip other than from my Amazon account which I offered to bring up given Wifi access, they "offered" to repair it for just under 11,000 yen. After pointing out that I'd be returning home to the United States before the repair completion date, they responded that I could either come back and pick it up or I could arrange to have it delivered to me (what I understand is a polite way of saying owner pays delivery cost). So let me get this straight, a camera designed and built in Japan that I bought less than a month ago fails in Japan under normal use and I would have to pay to get it repaired? I would have purchased a new camera at a local electronics store, except that all the labels/menus were in Japanese and the only one I could figure out how to use at the store was a Canon S100. After a few days of occasionally turning the camera on and off, the camera suddenly started working again for whatever reason and the lens extended. Unfortunately that particular time was while sitting in a stairwell while holding it wrong and the camera slipped from my hands and tumbled down a flight of concrete and steel stairs with the lens extended. Other than scratches and dents on the body and the lens barrel, the camera took great quality shots and worked as good as new the rest of the trip. Summing up the bad experiences with the camera: -Lens error apparently not fixed -Bad service experience overseas -Should have bought an extra battery for the trip, video and GPS seem to suck up a considerable amount of battery life -HDR mode useless without a tripod I knew the technical limitations of this camera and also that batches with the lens error fix did not have an extended track record and went with this camera anyways. I took a bet on this camera and lost (at least a few days). In any case this camera is now working fine as far as I can tell. 12/18/2013 update: Took it on a 2 week vacation, hit a lens error once when zooming and the camera shut down (retracted the lens though). I hadn't hit a lens error again until this occurrence. Started it up again and all was well, no further issues. Still not sure if I can rely on this camera though... 6/7/2015 update: Seeing this often in the past few months. Lens got stuck extending, shut down with the lens stuck in the halfway extended position. Repeat 2x until it fully retracted or extended. Lowering rating to one star.

I was looking for a high-quality point-and-shoot to replace my Canon SD1000 pocket camera. This is a great substitute for a DSLR when you want something much more portable and for a lower price. The black color is stylish. I was most impressed by the wide-angle lens, video shooting quality, and low-light images. I rarely need the flash! This feature helps images stay true to color. This is also the first Canon camera I have had that has a battery indicator on it - it used to be all guesswork! That said, though, the battery icon stays forever at 3 bars, then once it goes to 2 bars it goes very quickly to zero. Better than nothing I suppose. One thing I found frustrating was that the wrist strap was next to impossible to put on the tiny and oddly angled loop on the camera body. Ultimately I had to link a loop of thread to the strap, attach the thread to a small piece of wire, and poke the wire and thread and strap into the loop on the camera body. It worked, but I wonder how that got past Canon's quality and design team. MAJOR SETBACK on this camera: Although I purchased a serial number much later than the ones with complaints of a "Lens Error," I got the dreaded "Lens Error"! One random day the camera lens stayed telescoped in the "out" position and the screen gave the "Lens Error" notice and automatically shut itself off and wouldn't power back on. I was traveling at the time, so it was challenging to transport a camera with the lens sticking out and totally unprotected. Fortunately I was covered by my warranty, so I sent it for repair - but did unfortunately have to pay for my own shipping to Canon. The biggest disappointment was that it was under repair in early July, so I didn't get to take the dazzling low-light photos I had hoped to for July 4th fireworks! And when I got the camera back from Canon, it had some new scuffs on it. I give it 4 stars because although I had some mishaps with the camera, they had nothing to do with the actual photography experience itself. I would buy this camera again and recommend it to others.

Although this is my first camera I've ever purchased, I'll admit I was hesitant at first because of the infamous "lens error" issue. Well my silver Canon S100 model number starts with 45 and even after using this several times no error messages or issues. Spoke to Canon about this and they are aware of this issue, but factory sealed cameras with model numbers (the first two digits) from 45 and above should have no issues with the lens error issue. The Canon Powershot S100 camera is made in Japan but only the camera, compact disk, paperwork and cell in the lithium ion battery are actually made in Japan. The charger for this Canon camera, the packaging of the battery and strap are made in China. Not that is anything wrong with that, but I imagine there is some that are interested in that fact. Another fact I'd like to point out is the milliampere-hour otherwise known as (mAh) is actually 1050, not what Amazon currently lists this as 1150. That is a slight difference, especially to the person who buys this camera. The picture quality of this camera is exceptional and I take pictures with products with text and sometimes that text is rather small, yet I am still able to take a high quality picture of that item. Some of these pictures were taken in broad daylight and the quality of the picture was still top notch. For those who are interested, should your charger ever want to repair or otherwise have a interest, to remove the Torx tamper resistant screw, you'll need a Torx tamper resistant drive size seven screwdriver bit or tamper resistant Torx wrench. Once that screw is removed, all you need a spudger to remove the casing and the internal parts should be accessible. As a disclaimer, I DON'T suggest this be done unless you absolutely know what your doing and even then I don't recommend doing this at all as this could void your warranty. Overall, this is great camera and if a simple to use, well built and designed camera that is also 12.1 megapixels this is the camera for you. One final note I'd like to add, to store my Canon Powershot S100 camera, I personally use the Leatherworks brand USA made suede leather pouch model number SLMPD. I am neither advertising nor recommending this item for storage, but if your looking for a alternative means of storage here you go.

Update. Camera going back for the third time. Now I have the dreaded lens error issue where the lens won't retract and the camera won't shoot. This is subject of a repair notice which should make it free. Still the camera has been a nightmare for me. I require reliability. This has not been the case. I have had this camera for a year and a half. I wanted to have a pocket-size all-purpose camera for shooting kids and to use while skiing. I am a photographer and always like to have a camera with me. Cell phones are useful but in general won't do if you want good quality and to make larger prints. This camera takes great shots. It focuses fast and accurately and handles most scenes quite well.I use the program or scene modes frequently and find that I only use manual mode rarely. The images from this camera will not hold up to close inspection with larger sensor cameras but will give you good shots in most situations. Color saturation and dynamic range as well as detail will not be as good as C size or full frame sensors. That doesn't mean that you won't get acceptable pictures depending on your purpose. The problems that I've had with this camera have been significant to me. The first is that this battery cannot stand up to exposure to cold weather for even a brief period. You may get one or two Shots off when taking pictures on a mountain while skiing or even 15 seconds of video but no more. The red battery light comes on telling you that you need to change your battery and this even though the battery is fully charged. I returned my camera to Canon who told me nothing was wrong and that the camera was up to spec. This camera is not guaranteed to take pictures at temperatures below 32°. All my previous PowerShot cameras have been fine under the circumstances in fact I have never had a problem before. I Returned my camera a second time when this continued to happen this year and they change the motherboard. The camera is a little better but it's clear that the problem relates to this particular battery. The battery has been changed For the S110 which is back to the battery used in the S95. Interestingly my wife has the S95 and that is the camera that we used this season for our ski pictures without a problem. The camera makes beautiful videos in high definition of indoor sporting events with the only problem being again the battery not lasting that long. If you shoot in slow motion your images are also likely to be somewhat dark unless you are in a very bright arena. To Make a long story short, this is an excellent camera particularly at this price point. It gives beautiful pictures, beautiful videos and has state-of-the-art functionality for a point-and-shoot camera.If you plan on just going out and shooting a couple of snapshots, the battery will do fine. If you're going to use this to shoot events make sure you buy an extra battery. If you plan on using this outdoors in cold weather buy something else. ps. Canon Service was actually quite good. My problem was apparently more about design than malfunction. The service was fast and pleasant and I have no complaints with them.

I normally do not write reviews but this camera keeps delighting me as I tested its multiple features. I was a bit concerned about the many issues people have encountered with the LENS ERROR but decided to take a chance in February, 2013 when the price dropped to $250. I received a camera in the 46XX for serial number with a 1.01 firmware version. I did an upgrade to the latest firmware 1.02 even without having any problems that the firmware is meant to fix. I noticed with the new firmware the Auto mode is much more responsive and produces better color and overall picture quality. I also prefer to use P or M modes to get much sharper pictures in general than those from the Auto setting which has the tendency to prefer high ISO thus adding noise to the IQ. However the main reason I bought this camera is to have more controls than a simple P&S and to be able to get more on the creative side of Photography. I believe this camera can produce comparable results to my Nikon 5100 DX in clear days outdoor. I have more experiences with Nikon and found most of the time the pictures from their cameras have the tendency to be "warmer" than those from Canon but with the S100 I can "enhance" the picture to look more "punchy" by cranking up Sharpness, Saturation, Contrast or RGB depending on the situation (this is really just personal taste and the Canon S100 does produce very accurate color by default but you need to play with it to find your best preferred combination - also note that Auto mode does not allow you to change Custom Color nor set E/V). I would have given this camera a 4.5 star if it is allowed since I don't believe it is perfect but for its class it deserves a good 5.0 star (compared to others I have tested that are much more expensive e.g Olympus zx-1, Panasonic LX7, Nikon P770 Canon PowerShot S100 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black) 0 etc..). I would highly recommend this camera as a permanent travel companion since it is the smallest pocket camera there is around capable of taking incredible images, even in low light. Canon seems to have finally tweaked this small gem to its best behavior but only time will tell if the dreaded "lens error" is still there.

I suppose that I am "late to the party" regarding the Canon PS S100. The S110 is already out as its replacement, and it is, of course, a fine camera. The time finally came to replace my venerable Digital Elph S50, and I did an enormous amount of research trying to decide what to replace it with for my "pocketable" walk-around camera. I tend to prefer Nikon for SLRs and Canon for small cameras (both are excellent), and my research continued to support the notion that Canon is right at the forefront for small cameras. Many recent reviewers have concentrated their reviews on comparing the S110 and the S100. I mostly will not. Since I have been absent from the small camera market scene for seven years, this review will instead mostly dwell on the improvements of the S100 over the earlier models, which observations I hope that someone will find useful. Very briefly, with respect to the excellent S110, for me the deciding factor in favor of the S100 are the analog controls and the non-presence of a touchscreen. Ergonomically I like the big shutter button and the all-analog controls of the S100. I tend to find touchscreen control of a camera non-intuitive; perhaps I am just a product of the baby-boomer generation. To further date myself, I miss the optical viewfinder that used to be standard on cameras of this class. Like almost all of its competition, the S100 uses the rear LCD as an electronic viewfinder. This is the wave of the future and the S100 is no exception. I am adapting. Examining the S100 I can see that Canon has improved much over the earlier generation of cameras. The first thing I am going to comment upon is the image quality -- it is very, very good. Almost astounding, in fact for a camera of this size. Digital SLRs of a decade ago would be hard-pressed to take on the S100. Somehow Canon has squeezed a lot of performance out of the relatively small lens on the S100; partly due to its excellent sensor. This camera will effortlessly produce excellent images even under difficult light conditions. The image stabilization ("IS") feature (together with this camera's excellent high ISO performance) made it possible for me to take reasonably sharp photos of nighttime Christmas lights, which is something my older pocket cameras could never accomplish to my satisfaction. The next improvement that I found pleasing on the S100 is the user interface. It is very intuitive. Canon has knocked most or all of the rough edges off of its interface. I found it very easy to quickly adapt to it, which was not true of my earlier Canon circa 2002. The AUTO function allows the user to be taking pictures right out of the box in a matter of minutes. The "P" (Program) mode has many more features but nevertheless is easy to figure out and master. To my surprise both aperture and speed priority settings are right there on the top control dial, so users who wish to really control their photos, e.g. depth of field or action blurring shots, will be at home with this camera. My final main observation concerning the S100 is its amazing feature set. As noted above, it features both Program, Aperture, and Focus-priority settings. Like a full-blown SLR it allows center-weighted metering, "evaluative" metering, and spot metering. It has a variety of different focusing modes. It also has scene settings mode and a "filter effects" mode which allows a number of interesting effects such as B&W, sepia, vivid colors, and other effects. This camera allows the photographer to approach his or her shooting in a variety of different ways, and you really have to work at it to produce poor pictures with this camera. The AUTO or Scene settings will allow the shooter to let the camera make most of the decisions or, alternatively, the camera allows about as much flexibility as an SLR camera. Using a 32GB SD card the S100 will take approximately 10,000 photos, depending upon whether the shooter elects to shoot RAW, JPEG, or RAW+JPEG. Pretty amazing considering that only a decade or so ago we were all shooting 36 images on film and then paying ten dollars to get it developed so that we could see how our pictures turned out. There is no reason other than backup to worry about one's images on any vacation with this camera. I elected to go with the black version of the S100 and I am well-pleased with it. The black looks very snappy and professional. The aluminum body has a nice anti-skid texture that is very pleasing to the eyes and to the touch, and there is a rubber grip on the front that further aids in gripping the camera. The one issue as far as handling is concerned is that I do occasionally find my left hand blocking the pop-up flash at times. You have to watch that with this camera. Another nit: there is no recess or protective lip for the beautiful LCD viewfinder on the back of this camera. Buying one of the after-market protective products is an absolute must if you wish to avoid scratching this screen. Many are available and I recommend that users buy one at the same time as buying this camera. Last nit: this camera is a bit of a battery hog. Buying a spare battery is a good idea. A must, in fact, for the serious photographer. The camera features a 24-120 zoom lens that is F 2.0 when wide open. The lens becomes slower as you zoom in which is an inevitable trade-off for the smaller lens, but still, this is a fast lens for a camera of this class. Experienced users will know that to take good portrait shots a little zooming in from 24mm is a good idea; otherwise human subjects will be distorted. But for landscapes and other tight shots, 24mm is very nice to have. Canon has packed a lot of performance and features into the S100 and things have improved a lot since the last time I looked at the "pocketable" digital camera market. RJB.