DCRP Review: Canon PowerShot S3 IS

For all of these movie modes you'll want to have a high speed memory card. If you don't have one, movie recording may stop unexpectedly.

Two great things about the S3's movie mode are its stereo sound recording and the fact that you can zoom during filming. That ultrasonic motor allows you to zoom in and out silently, just like on a camcorder. As I mentioned in the previous section, you can adjust the microphone sensitivity and sound recording quality. A wind filter helps cut out annoying wind noise in your movies. And while I shouldn't have to say this, the image stabilization system is active during filming.

One more cool feature: the S3 can take a full resolution still photo while recording a movie. The catch is that the movie recording pauses very briefly while this happens.

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Camera performance was very good. The S3 starts up remarkably quickly for an ultra zoom, taking just 1.4 seconds. Focus speeds were very good (though Panasonic's cameras are faster), shutter lag was not a problem, and the camera can take another picture in about a second. Low light focusing was very good thanks to the S3's AF-assist lamp. Battery life is best-in-class.

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I was disappointed that Canon includes a tiny memory card and throwaway batteries on the S3.

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Not surprisingly, if you press the Function button the function menu opens up. It has the following options:

• Exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV increments)
• White balance (Auto, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, flash, custom) - see below
• My Colors (Off, vivid, neutral, sepia, black & white, positive film, lighter skin tone, darker skin tone, vivid blue, vivid green, vivid red, custom color) - see below
• Bracket (Off, exposure, focus) - see below
• Flash exposure compensation (-2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV increments) or flash output (1/3, 2/3, full) - which option you get depends on your shooting mode
• Metering mode (Evaluative, center-weighted, spot)
• Resolution (see chart later in review)
• Compression (see chart later in review)

Many of those options require further explanation. The custom white balance option lets you use a white or gray card as reference so you can get perfect color even under the most unusual lighting conditions. Every camera should have this.

The Photo Effects and My Colors menus from the PowerShot S2 have been combined on the S3 (two of the My Colors options have relocated to the scene menu, and I'll get to them in a bit). Most of the options should be self-explanatory, but I do want to mention the Custom Color feature. This lets you adjust the contrast, sharpness, saturation, reds, greens, blues, and skin tones in your photos. Each of those options can be adjusted from -2 to +2 in 1-step increments.

Like its predecessor, the S3 supports both exposure and focus bracketing, which helps you ensure properly exposed or focused shots. Exposure bracketing takes three shots in a row each with a different exposure. You can adjust the interval between shots in 1/3EV increments (the available range is -2EV to +2EV). Focus bracketing works in a similar way, with the camera taking three shots, each with a different focal distance. The first shot uses the automatically or manually selected focus position, while the next two are focused a little closer and a little further away, respectively. You have a range of +1 to -1 in 1/3-step increments, though I have no idea how much distance these steps represent.

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