 "Weak replacement for the S1IS" | 2009-10-28 |
| - Reviewed By theheadhunter |
My S1IS went back to the factory for a faulty image sensor on a recall a couple of years ago. A few months later, the lens retraction mechanism got stuck. Despire thousands of complaints about this problem, Canon never recalled the camera. After hours of trying to fix it myself (or pay 90% of the value of the camera for a repair?), I trashed it. Hesitated to try Canon again, but bought the SX10IS anyway.
It was a mistake. Image quality in Auto mode pales compared to the S1IS. Low light? Forget it. Without a flash, you get unacceptable grain in even decent light levels. I wanna cry when I look at my old S1 images compared to the 10. The S1 was an incredible camera. You would never know it was only 3.2MP by looking at images it produced.
The SX10IS is bulky and heavy for the feature set. The LCD is bigger, which is nice, but that's not a good tradeoff for the weight. The USB port sits behind a plastic door that does not open all the way, making it awkward to connect a cable. Menu settings are inconveniently organized, making it difficult and time-consuming to try to adjust settings to compensate for the inadequate Auto mode.
It's beyond me why Canon still has not provided a lens cap with a string to keep the thing attached when you're shooting. Worse, the clip on the cap is poorly designed - it doesn't stay on.
I have all sorts of Canon products in my home and office - scanners, printers, old SLR's (my 1984 A-1 is still my favorite camera - a work horse). I have always recommended Canon products. That's why I gave Canon the benefit of the doubt and replaced the S1 with the 10. Big mistake.
When a $400 digital camera won't take a really good, quick snapshot on Auto under good light conditions, the camera design is poor. I gave this camera more than one star because it's got some redeeming qualities, including a nice face-focus, but it's not worth half the price I paid. Too bad. It has dimmed my opinion of Canon dramatically.
In closing, I'll add that I'm not a pro, but I'm more than a novice. I read the manual cover to cover to find settings that helped the image quality of my photos. The results still don't come close to my old S1. I can't recommend this camera. Wish I had time to go research a good replacement... |
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| "An expensive doorstop!!!!" | 2009-10-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1PVEGT4RUAND3 |
| Ok,let me first say I am a fan of Canon products and purchased this one for the great reviews. This camera is awful! I was deciding between a DSLR and a 'point and shoot' and opted to go with the point and shoot. Even though the DSLR would have been nice...all I really need the camera for is taking pictures of my daughter. The fatal flaw of this camera is that it cannot take an action shot to save its life. Try telling a two year old to stay still every time you want to take a picture! All of my pictures come out blurry...in a series of about 20 pictures maybe 1 might be actually usable. I have tried setting the dial to the "action/sports" setting and it is no better than any of the other settings. I have also tried the custom settings to get it to work...but that kind of defeats the purpose of the point and shoot...not to mention it still doesn't work. My $100 little pocket camera takes better 'real' pictures than this. The camera is nice for taking pictures of still shots...but that's it. Not a good value for the money. Either upgrade to the DSLR or downgrade to a good point and shoot. |
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 "Amazing ZOOM and Stabilization" | 2009-10-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2SUH3DQIOY752 |
If your pictures aren't turning out, you're probably doing something wrong. Small changes make a huge difference. Especially simple things like the White Balance/changing the light source. Take a picture of a cut open watermelon and watch the red heart go from auto bland to a bright juicy red. You can even set the Red in the Colors menu. But just changing the light source makes all the diffence in the world! The most amazing thing with this camera is the Stabilization!!! You can free hand all the way into the digital zoom and have your pictures come out clearer and better than they even look through the lcd. I'm constantly amazed at how stable it is. That's what made me choose this over the Nikon with 20x optical zoom and the rest of the competition. Just zoom out in the store and watch it find and track Faces from 10' to 100'. It even seperates the Facial Recognition pic.s when you download into it's own file, just faces.
Just for the hell-of-it, when I registered this camera, I let CANON know that my 4 year old A75 PowerShot stopped working. It blurred out with purple vertical lines. They said to send it in and they'd fix it for free if it was one of those that got a bad CCD. Ten minutes ago the Fed Ex guy brought it back and it's fixed!!! FREE, new CCD and adjusted and cleaned! Amazing. Just that alone makes me glad that I picked the Canon. What other company would pay shipping and fix a 4 year old camera for FREE?! NONE!!! Very Impressed with Canon. They've made me a loyal customer for life. They probably fixed it because I just bought this SX10IS. But, they didn't have to. I never expected them to do this. I was just curious to why my A75 went bad and if it was worth fixing to use as my work camera. Anyway, I never write reviews, but no one's ever fixed a camera that's years past warranty for free and had it back in under 2 weeks!!! My next camera will be a Canon, and the one after that, and after that... When I was researching for the SX10IS, the main complaint was that the lens cap gets lost. Mine hasn't and they make caps with a lanyard for like [...] bucks! What it comes down to is, shake all you want, your pictures will still come out butter smooth, even a mile away!!! |
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 "Caution is the word for this camera" | 2009-10-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ALO93Z117X3W |
| You get what you pay for, and I evidently down-sized in some unanticipated ways from a Panasonic FZ-50 to this Canon, hoping for the added benefit of the extra zoom. Just beware of this camera's limited capabilities in low light - and without bright light - the problem of uncertainty of focus at maximum zoom. When you change the ISO to 200, you pick up discernible noise, inapparent when you check you pictures on the LCD. I should add that the "wheel" which manages ISO and other changes is cheaply made and awkward to use and that both the view finder and the LCD are - frankly - not quality. By the way, the video button, which is easy to get to, is in fact awkward to use and I find I have to push down. I will say I have no problem with the rechargeable battery solution - though its a nuisance - and an obvious way of Canon controlling costs. Do know I spent much less for this camera than for the Panasonic when it first came out, so I understand I got what I paid for. There are some interesting bells and whistles, but these compensate for the shortcomings in the basics. My hunch is that this is the case with the SI 20 as well. But with any luck Canon won't have me as a consumer again. |
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 "Powered zoom system too fast" | 2009-10-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: ABFE1QOAR8WIU |
| I'm an experienced photographer who grew up with SLR, medium format, and view cameras while working as a pro in the military and commercially afterward. Today, I shoot only for some business and recreational needs. This is a really good compromise camera for someone wishing to avoid the bottomless cost of and SLR, along with the additional weight. My one beef is the electrically powered zoom, which reacts way too quickly. My last camera was a Minolta Dimage, which is no longer made. It, too, was a super zoom, but the lens barrel had to be manually twisted to zoom in/out. This allowed much, much finer adjustment of the zoom at a speed of the users choosing. As an all around compromise camera, this is a good value. There is always some degradation of image quality that's a given with a superzoom camera, and that is evident in this product. |
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Expedited Available
