Canon PowerShot S45

Well, the Canon Powershot S45 that I am reviewing isn't mine, it's my dad's (i'm 13 years old, from Slovenia), but I am sure that I took more photos with it than he. The nice little camera impressed me at the very first steps. It's small, well assembled and a very handy camera. I'm not saying I'm an expert, but this is also a great camera for beginners, because it's very easy to use. Its 4MP resolution is enough for stunningly beautiful pictures. The only thing that bothers me is that the lens has only 3x zoom, but anyway, you almost can't expect a let's say, 6x zoom lens in a camera of this size. And the camera could have a bigger LCD. It's a very good display, but it could be bigger, but the camera is almost five years old and in those years, there weren't 3" LCD's, but although, I love this little fellow and I recommend it to anyone, who wants a good camera for a good price.

Hope my opinion will help someone to decide on the new camera.

I'm on my second Canon PowerShot S45, the first one wearing out from excessive use. (I just slip it into my front pocket without a case. It has got quite dusty. The optical viewfinder is blocked with lint.)

This one is on its last legs, too. My next camera will either be an S70, or the new Panasonic Lumix LZ2 with image stabiliazation, 5 meg pictures and a 6 X lens.

My needs were:

- small camera

- great quality pictures

- good battery live

- both easy to use for novice but with a few manual override settings

- movie mode

I am very happy with this Canon PowerShot S 45. Had it now for 1 month. Did quite a lot of research and final choices were: s45, wait for Fuji F700, Canon S50, or Fuji 601.

- S45 quality pic's better than F601

- Couldn't wait for F700, need it now!

- S45 good enough (vs. S50) only diff is 1MP

Not sorry about choice -- have taken about 1000 pictures & quality is great. If this camera had VGA movie it would have been even heaven, since I use the movie mode quite a lot with family.