PowerShot S10 User Review

DejaVu!   Canon strikes again with the now familiar, metal-bodied, super compact digital camera. This time it's called a PowerShot S10 and it's packing a 1/2-inch 2.11 megapixel CCD imager, 2X (35-70mm equiv) optical zoom lens with a 2X-4X digital option, CompactFlash Type II slot, variable ISO from 100-400 and a high-speed USB port.

The image size is selectable between 1600x1200 (Large), 1280x960 (Medium), or 800x600 (Small) and there's three levels of JPEG compression available, Super-Fine, Fine or Normal.   It does not have an uncompressed mode. Metering options are center-weighted and spot.

As with the other Canon compacts, the S10 features a builtin lens cap that protects the lens whenever it is retracted into the body.

Even a 1.8" color LCD looks big on the back of the diminutive S10. Controls have been kept to a minimum and the buttons are clearly labeled with icons that don't require a lot of "read the manual" time.

The main command dial has positions for Connect to PC, Playback, Off, Automatic, Manual Record, Image Mode and Stitch Assist Mode. And yes, you do have to cycle through the Off position to go from Record to Playback and yes, the lens does retract in Playback mode.

Not only is the body metal but so is the tripod socket. The battery door has a very positive-latching slide lever. As with the earlier A5 and A50 cameras, the S10 is made to take a licking and keep on ticking!

Controls from left to right - flash mode (auto, off, red-eye), Record mode (single, continuous) / selftimer, top LED (green steady - ready to record, green flashing - recording to or reading from CF card, red steady - ready to record with flash, red flashing - camera blur warning [low light]). Lower LED lights orange to indicate camera is in Macro mode. On the other side of the optical viewfinder is the Macro mode button.

These buttons have icons below to indicate their functions during Playback which are display thumbnails, zoom playback and jump forward 10 pictures.

On the right side we have the mode dial and the 4-way "Omni Selector" which during record you use the upper and lower parts to operate the zoom lens. During playback you use it like a joystick to navigate the thumbnails or to go forward or backward through the stored images.

The 4-way control is also used to navigate through the menu system, see the next page of this report for the menu screens.

Alongside the color LCD are the EV compensation / White Balance, Menu / Set rocker switch and the Display button. Pressing the "+/- /WB" button once brings up the onscreen EV compensation slider control, pressing it again brings up the White Balance onscreen menu.

The Menus are activated by the Menu button, the 4-way switch navigates through the choices and the Set button accepts the current choice. See the next page of this report for the menu screens.

The S10 is equipped with a CompactFlash Type II slot that can accomodate solid state Type I and II devices or the high-capacity Microdrive. Note that some users have complained of a problem with the Microdrive when used in the S10.

Thanks to Timothy Robeck at IBM's Technical Support Center for letting me know that Canon has posted the S10 firmware upgrade on the BeBit site for English users.

S10/Microdrive users please be sure to read all of the information posted at the above site BEFORE attempting the firmware upgrade or you risk turning your camera into a door stop -- enough said?

The S10 is powered by a one-use 2CR5 lithium battery or ...

you can use the optional DK110 Power Kit which consists of a NiMH rechargable battery and a rapid charger with a plugin AC-powered battery eliminator.

It sells for about $100 and is well worth it unless you enjoy buying $8 lithium, one-use batteries which is the only other portable source of power for the camera.