A replacement for the last year’s hugely successful Canon PowerShot S2 IS, the Canon PowerShot S3 IS is a digital camera with optical image stabilization, 12x zoom, 6 Megapixels vs. 5MP, 2-inch LCD vs. 1.8-inch. The camera has a focus assist light to aid low-light focusing and features improved DIGIC II processor - the same generation that is used in new Canon digital SLR cameras like Canon 20D or Digital Rebel XT (350D).
Just as the S2 IS, the S3 IS has articulated LCD, uses 4 AA batteries and stores photos on SD memory cards. But it adds ISO 800 mode.
The monster 12x optical zoom and optical image stabilization work together to give you sharp pictures when shooting handheld and/or at long distances. Only a handful of digital cameras have 12x optical zoom and even less have optical image stabilization that makes 12x optical zoom usable without introducing blurriness when shooting handheld. In addition to Canon S3 IS and S2 IS, I can mention Panasonic DMC-FZ5, FZ4, FZ20, FZ30 and FZ7.
The Canon S2 IS was an impressive and very popular camera. The only things I did not like about it were its use of 4 AA batteries, the fact that the filter adaptors were sold separately, whereas Panasonic FZ cameras came with them and the flimsy lens cap, as well as the fact that the flash had to be raised manually (unlike Panasonic cameras where you could just push a button).
The S3 has not improved in the areas I criticized, but did improve in the area of resolution, LCD size, ISO range. But do the improvements warrant a $100 difference in price with the S2 IS?
Features
The S3 IS lets you shoot at the following resolutions of up to 6 Megapixels and lets you print enlargements or crop the part of the picture and print it with excellent results. And, of course, it is more than enough for the standard 6×4 prints.
The camera features selectable ISO between 80, 100, 200, 400 and 800 as well as Auto. It also has manual focus (with focus bracketing) in addition to automatic 1-spot focus (the focus spot in auto mode can be moved to any position on the screen by using [SET] and arrow buttons).
The camera has an autofocus assist light for better and faster focusing in low-light conditions. It works well in dim light.
Movie Mode
The camera has a built-in stereo microphone for recording sounds while filming video clips and a speaker, which can be used for operational sounds or to play back the sounds recorded. The camera can record AVI movie clips at up to 640×480 pixels at 30 or 15 fps with stereo sound.
LCD and Viewfinder
The camera has a fully articulated 2-inch LCD with 115,000 pixels that covers 100% of the view. The LCD requires quite a lot of force to flip outward or rotate, but feels sturdy as a result.
In addition to the LCD, there is an electronic viewfinder (EVF). Since it is difficult (and expensive) to make a 12x zooming optical viewfinder and impossible to easily confirm focus in a non-SLR optical viewfinder, the Canon S2 IS has an EVF.
Both the LCD and EVF are fluid, has pleasing colors and good resolution. Both are fluid, even in low light.
I found that the LCD is well-visible in regular conditions, but in sunlight, visibility decreases and you have to use the EVF, which works well in sunlight. The EVF by default is slightly dim.
Picture Quality
The camera produces excellent pictures, although some of them were slightly overexposed. They are richly saturated, sharp from wide angle to telephoto and have pleasing colors. I really like the sky colors and the way the camera renders clouds.
The image stabilization worked well and let me take handheld photos at full telephoto at 1/100 and sometimes at slower speeds. I also could take handheld photos at 1/10 (and slower) at wide angle. This is much better than the rule of the recommended handheld shutter speeds (1/equivalent focal length) suggests. Without image stabilization I wouldn’t be able to take pictures at the above shutter speeds. 1/500 at telephoto and 1/50 at wide angle would be the slowest I could use.
I mostly used the lowest ISO available (ISO 80) and saw no noise. At higher ISO settings, the noise starts to appear. At ISO 200, you can see noise appear in the shadows/darker areas and ISO 400 has quite detectable noise, the ISO 800 features even worse noise. Fortunately, you can avoid having to use it in most situations by simply using a slower shutter speed and/or larger apertures (e.g. F2.7 at wide angle). Image stabilization lets you use those slower speeds handheld without fear of motion blur appearing on your pictures.
But if you have to have a faster shutter speed, then you have to use ISO 400-800. Surprisingly, the noise at ISO 800 is not as bad as I expected and ISO 800 photos can be printed at 4×6 size.
The lens of the S3 exhibits very slight barrel distortion and no noticeable pincushion distortion at telephoto. There is chromatic aberration (CA) to be found in high-contrast scenes, especially at the telephoto end of the zoom. This is despite the UD element in the lens. As is usually the case with mega-zoom cameras, the telephoto shots have slightly soft corners, but nothing major.
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