Plenty of Camera in a Small Package Combining Canon's expertise in camera design and advanced digital-imaging technology, the new PowerShot S300 is another advancement in the company's Digital Elph line. Building on the success of the S100, the new S300 is stylish, solidly built and quite compact. And, as is the case with Canon's other consumer digital cameras, the image quality is excellent.
The attractive, metal-bodied S300 captures images on a 2.1-megapixel CCD with a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 pixels. It incorporates several advances not found in the S100, including a 5.4-16.2mm 3X optical all-glass aspherical zoom lens, equivalent to 35-105mm in the 35mm format. It's one of the smallest and lightest digitals available with a 3X optical zoom lens.
The camera features multiple shooting modes, a new movie clip option, the ability to print directly from Canon's new Photo Printer CP-10 card printer, and a new adaptive primary color filter for improved color reproduction. The S300 can capture full motion video clips, with accompanying audio, at 20 fps.
Video resolution can be adjusted to meet application requirements. The 160x120-pixel resolution setting is ideal for online video clips where download speed is important. A somewhat higher 320x240-pixel resolution downloads somewhat slower, but offers higher image quality. Because of the larger file sizes that it generates, a full 640x480-pixel resolution is well suited for computer-based applications that don't involve remote video clip transmission or online activities. At that maximum resolution, the quality of the clips is very good.
Video clips are recorded as QuickTime AVI files, with the image data being saved in the Motion JPEG format and audio in the WAVE format.
The captured video clips can be viewed on the camera's LCD monitor. It's also possible to play captured clips, as well as individual still images, on a TV monitor. Captured stills, video and audio can be downloaded to a computer via a USB port. Once downloaded, images and clips can be edited, saved, and sent via e-mail using the bundled software.
One reason digital imaging is so appealing is the instant gratification it offers. This is taken one step further with the S300, which simplifies generating instant prints with the optional CP-10 printer. With the CP-10, users can control all print options and settings directly from the camera's LCD monitor. Image data is then transferred to the printer through a dedicated interface cable. The new CP-10 is a tiny printer that can produce 300x300 dpi credit-card-sized color prints in as little as 56 seconds. It can also be used to print eight miniature (0.9x0.7-inch) copies of the same image on a sticker sheet.
Most of the camera's controls are on the back of the body. Only the power button, mode-control dial and shutter release button are on top of the camera.
