Canon PowerShot S95 10 MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD

This is my first Amazon product review. I have just never felt the need to comment before but with this camera I just had to. A little background - I am an amateur photographer; meaning that I just do it for fun, not to make a living. I have a Canon DSLR and several lenses that I use all the time. But something was missing in my photographic arsenal. Sometimes it was inconvenient to carry the SLR and I was missing potentially great images that I would happen upon just during everyday life. A solution would be a pocket "carry around" camera and a month ago I started looking around for one.After 4 weeks of research and reading copious reviews the Canon S95 emerged as the best because it had the most features that I desired and looked to be the best value for the money. Here is my summary:Pros:- Amazing image quality- Easy to learn controls (especially if you have other Canon cameras)- Solid construction (metal, not plastic - wow!)- Fits nicely into my shirt pocket (important for me)- An astonishing range of capabilities- Great low light performance- Wheel and ring work wonderfully to change settingsCons: (these are very minor)- Price! (I paid 399.99 I now see it is down to 388.83 but you are getting a lot for your money)- The pop up flash has caught me a few times even though I knew of this issue before I bought the camera (Old habits of holding cameras this size die hard)- OK, I admit I am old school - I like a printed operations manual that I can carry with me. Canon (probably to save money) provides the manual on a CD with this camera. The S95 does so many things I need the manual to reference when I need it during this learning curve. So only getting the manual on a CD is a negative to me (Are you listening Canon? If you can't provide it with the camera maybe you could sell the printed manual as an extra? I would buy one!).Overall I am extremely pleased with this camera. It has fit the "bill" perfectly for what I wanted and I would recommend it to anyone who has a DSLR but is looking for a "carry around" camera or even to those who do not. It would be a great "step up" for those moving toward the DSLR world.Buy it, you won't be disappointed.

The Canon S95 takes stunning pictures that are way beyond my expectations, just like most other owners have reported. In the basic mode I use, I simply can't believe how good the picture look. I take a lot of landscapes, gardens, street scenes and detail closeups and am strictly amateur.I could gush all day, but people are probably more interested in the few flaws I can perceive at my non-professional level. First is the instructions, which are only available on a disk. This camera is fortunately fairly intuitive but to use any of the higher features you need to be reading the manual which I'm not willing to print out and lug everywhere. I also don't like that they use vocabulary appropriate for professional/advanced photographers, who wouldn't need to use the manual much anyway. Ultimately, I may or may not advance beyond the basic level.The camera tends to make things very colorful, which I happen to like, but when adjusting the pics (very few need adjusting compared with my old old Olympus digital) I once in a while have to turn the color saturation down. I'd rather have it be this way than have the pics come out too drab. I'm amazed at the quality of pics I can get outdoors in the middle of the day under blazing sun.Speaking of adjusting pics, I am very pleased with the Digital Photo Professional editing program that comes with the camera. You can resize, tilt, adjust all aspects of color, hue, contrast, sharpness, etc. I'm not interested in the complications of Photo Shop and there's really no need. In fact, I frequently find after diddling with the adjustments I prefer the shot exactly as the camera took it. Probably the most common adjustment I make after re-sizing and cropping is to up the contrast on overcast outdoor shots a small tick or two.One reason I chose this model is because you can set it to focus manually. I thought I needed this because my old camera took so many out-of-focus shots and there was no manual focus. The S95 is so good with focus, I never even bother with the manual focus. The viewfinder shows you what the camera is focusing on, and if that's not what you want, you just half-depress the shutter button again for a different focus option. Very cool. Even in non-macro mode, and without a tripod, I get very close up shots of flowers that are startling in their clear detail when blown up.Some have said the camera body is slippery or flimsy. I think it feels very substantial for something so small, and the grip feels quite secure. Of course, you need to get used to how to hold it.Others have rightly said that a LCD viewfinder is impossible to use outdoors on a very bright day. I did get used to not looking through a real viewfinder pretty quickly, but the LCD screen on this camera requires an act of faith when shooting on a bright sunny day. Have to say that usually the faith is rewarded. I can't say much that's helpful about indoor shots, because I don't take many, but when I do they look fine. Outdoor shots at twilight are very beautiful. I don't use the video mode.For my last nit-pick, I signed up for the Emails to customers, and have been pretty disappointed. I was hoping for good tips and info about using the camera better. Instead, it's just routine marketing. Well, maybe with a camera this good they can coast on the non-essential stuff. I'd buy this camera again in an instant and be grateful for the opportunity.