Canon PowerShot S2 IS Digital Camera

I absolutly love this camera. I bought it becase my old powershot75 died a death and wanted an upgraded model with more features, and a better zoom. It has lived up to and beyond my expectations, with so many features I have yet to use. The only down point is that it comes with a pathtetic 16mb memory card, but I bought a bargin 2MB card for a few quid on ebay, and havnt stopped taking pics since. This is a great pick up and shoot camera for the hobby photographer, to the wanabe professional, with all its added features - its certianly given me a much better insight into professional photography

I have a requirement for a really good performing Macro camera and this looked a likely contender. It is certainly an 'all singing and dancing' camera but is no longer a state of the art one. It's LCD screen is small and is the twist out type, more of an nuisance than a useful asset; it
only has 5mega pixels and is complicated to get to know and use. The Macro is particularly difficult. I suppose the best thing it has going for it is the lens and zoom capacity. I can see why Canon made it obsolete and unless it is offered at a very cheap price of about £50 my advice would be to look for a more recent model.Anthony, Cumbria.

This camera is really excellent to use, offering a good set of features for everyone from beginners to advanced users.
I really like the "indoors" mode which produces better shots indoors than flash for non moving targets! (even better if combined with a tripod).
The menu system is not as intuitive or as quick as my previous camera Minolta Dimage Z1.
I really like the "snap shot in a video" feature, great fun when trying to get the best shot of your kids on the move! (good photos whilst herding cats eh!)
The let down is the battery consumption, it seems to consume power whilst on the shelf, several times now I have reached for the camera knowing that I fully charged up after the last use, only to be dissapointed to find the annoying message "Batteries Exhausted". I use Powerex 2100 NiMH and a Powerex rapid charger, which are excellent performers in my other cameras, and lasted for months in the Minolta! I am experimenting by not keeping the batteries in the camera now to see if it helps, it is slightly less spontanious this way though!
That said, the good price and quality features more than make up for the battery drain.

This camera is so compact and yet it simply has everything anybody could wish for in a digital camera. The shots you are able to take do not depend on the light or distance you are away from your subject, as this little beauty can handle anything you throw at it. Previously I had a small digital camera that was just plain and simple with a decent sized view finder but the Canon's is just fantastic no matter how near or far you are away. I have been able to take perfect shots of jewllery and figurines as well as some excellent night shots of surrounding areas with fantastic lighting being shown as clear as it is to the eye.
The instruction manual is very easy to understand and although lengthy it does cover just babout everything you could want to do with the Powershot.

My decision to buy this camera against other cameras of the same make and also other makes was the size, looks and it's capabilities, to which I must admit it has certainly lived up to and surpassed in many ways. I just can't leave it alone, as soon as a decent subject appears it has to be photographed although I have never done this with other cameras I have owned.
For anybody starting up photography, I could not recommend this camera more than to say, that you will enjoy it tremendously.

This has been an excellent and totally reliable camera which I bought new about 2 years ago on the recommendation from two Amercian friends in the same Country music fan club (Sara Evans). Their photos of concerts in low light conditions from far back in the auditorium are second to none and qualify as professional quality. You can check this out on the fan club site on which the camera is specifically mentioned. (Their day-time photos of concert situation is great too.)

I have been in touch with them throughout this time and none of us have ever heard of any optical problems. No product is 100% guaranteed to be free of trouble but Canon and their retailers have a reputation to protect and would honour any guarantee I am sure.

The x12 zoom is a particular feature on this camera and great not only for concerts, sporting events and wildlife photographs but also for family shots of children and animals. Close-up is great too especially the ability to focus manually if you want to get a crystal clear close up image of a small object. The S2 is actually great for photographing items you want to sell on eBay ! With the image stabilisation facility you can eliminate moderate camera-shake equivalent to about 3 f-stops.

The only reason I'm now selling mine is to upgrade to another Canon digital SLR 400D. What I shall miss is one of the very features I love about the S2, that image stabiliser. The 400D body doesn't have this but you can get lenses which incorporate this feature although they're not standard and cost.

The Canon S2 is known as a 'bridge' camera, a cross between a compact and SLR and was one of the first of its class and improved on in a few minor ways to give the current model the S5. All the Canon S family of bridge cameras are thoroughly modern and deserve their reputation of being groundbreakers in affordable photo-technology.

Be wary of over-enthusiastic negative and biased criticism of any camera - as far as the S2 is concerned, it's undeserved.

Really good camera, easy to use, takes really good pics,never had a problem with it, highly recommended!!

I have owned this model of camera (Canon Poershot S2 iS) for just over 18 months now and I love it. It takes great pictures and I have never had any problems with the opticals like the other reviewer mentioned - in fact I went to great lengths to investigate this and many other models of camera (nikon included as this is what I previously owned) and found this to be the best for my needs and it hasn't let me down.
It has great optical zoom 12x for the price and I have taken some fantastic pictures with the macro function.
Bad points - I haven't found any yet !