Canon PowerShot S30 Digital Camera.
Reviews, Price Comparison and Ratings.

  Annotation: Reviews, Ratings, Price Comparison and Full Information for Canon PowerShot S30 Digital Camera.

Editors' Rating:
8.2 of 10


 • Value for money 8
 • Ease of Use 9
 • Performance 8
 • Image Quality 8

Average User Rating:
9.2 of 10
(50 votes)

 • Value for money 9
 • Ease of Use 9
 • Performance 10
 • Image Quality 9

Where to Buy ?

 PROS
 • Very little noise or color aberrations in images
  Almost no shutter lag
 • Excellent image quality
 • Wide assortment of shooting modes
 • Stylish design with easily accessible controls
 CONS
  Combined battery/media compartment inaccessible when using a tripod
  Optical viewfinder tight and not very clear
  Incompatible with accessory lenses and external flash units
Includes: Canon PowerShot S30 Digital Camera, Wrist Strap, Video Cable, USB Interface Cable, Digital Camera Solution CD-ROM, ArcSoft Camera Suite CD-ROM, Lithium Battery Pack NB-2L, Battery Charger, 16MB CompactFlash Card, Case for CompactFlash Card, User's Manual, Battery Pack, CANON USA WARRANTY.
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  High performance for users seeking advanced features at exceptional value. The 3.2-megapixel PowerShot S30, released concurrently with its companion model, the 4-megapixel PowerShot S40, is a point-and-shoot style digital camera that incorporates many of the G2 features, but in a more compact, portable format. Like the G2, the S30 has an impressive range of automatic and manual exposure controls, a 3x optical zoom lens, JPEG and RAW file formats, and in-camera adjustment of image contrast, sharpness, and color saturation. In addition to these features, the S30 also offers expanded ISO options, an additional metering mode, and the first direct-to-inkjet printer connection, enabling the user to make prints not only to the Canon C-10 Photo Card Printer, but also to the company's newest inkjet ("bubble-jet" in Canon's terminology) printer, the S820D


PowerShot S30 Major Features:

3x Zoom Digital Camera featuring 3.2 effective megapixels.
3.2 effective megapixels for 2,048 x 1,536-pixel images.
1.8-inch Low-temperature Polycrystalline Silicon TFT Colour LCD.
3x optical zoom lens, 7.1-21.3mm (equivalent to a 35-105mm lens on a 35mm camera) with auto and manual focus.
Digital zoom up to 3.2x magnification.
Full automatic, program AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual exposure modes, as well as five preset exposure modes.
Manually adjustable aperture settings from f/2.8 to f/4.9, depending on zoom setting.
Shutter speed settings from 1/1,500 to 15 seconds (Manually adjustable).
Auto Focus & 3-point AF.
Automatic Exposure Bracketing & AE/AF Lock.
ISO sensitivity equivalents: Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800.
Three Light Metering Modes (Spot, Center-weighted, Evaluation).
White balance setting with seven adjustment modes and Auto mode.
Built-in flash with four operating modes (Auto, Auto w/ Red-eye Reduction, On, Off).
Stitch-Assist mode for creating panoramic pictures.
'My Camera' Function.
Voice Memo mode.
Records up to 60 seconds of sound with individual images.
10 & 2-Second Self Timers.
RemoteCapture utilities for controlling the camera from a computer.
JPEG and RAW still image file formats, movies saved as AVI / Motion JPEG and WAVE formats.
Images saved to CompactFlash Type I or II memory cards ( 16MB card included).
Canon Digital Camera 7.0, plus ArcSoft PhotoImpression and VideoImpression software.
Powered by Canon NB-2L rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, with optional AC adapter.
USB cable for high-speed connection to a computer.
DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) compatibility.
Full Specs

Customer Reviews

Gary Higgins, from Bowie, MD, US, Jun 13, 2002

Great camera for the price! Picture quality is excellent and the camera is very easy to use in auto mode. There are also many custom/manual modes that allow the experienced photographer to play with exposure settings. I was amazed at the quality (picture and sound) of the movies. Battery life seems to be very good. I bought an extra battery (Canon part only) to have as a backup. I also upgraded to a 128MB compact flash card, which holds about 140 hi-res MPEG pictures. I highly recommend this camera if it is in your price range.

  Installation 10
  Image Quality 10
  Ease of Use 10
  Compatibility 10
  Overall Value 10

jerry leatherman, from Lee's Summit, MO, US, Jan 11, 2002

We have owned and used this camera for about four and a half months. It has so completely replaced our print camera that in the last two weeks we just finished the roll of film that was in it from before our purchase of the S30. Picture quality is, as reported, excellent. We get great prints from our inkjet printer. Admittedly, we have not printed, or sent away for, any prints larger than 8X10 yet. For 4X6s and 5X7s though, you can get photo-quality prints even with the quality turned down one notch. Battery life is very good, although the battery is custom. We bought a second battery and had it at Disney World with us. Averaging 75 pictures a day, I think we only needed the second battery one day. We also chose to get an additional CF card at 64MB, which seems to be a good balance of size vs. cost. The minor negatives of this camera are well documented, the biggest being the viewfinder. Unless the battery is on death's door and we NEED one more picture, we use the LCD. I don't view the lack of interchangable lenses and flashes as a negative, but rather a configuration choice. The lack of flexibility is made up for by the compact size and convenient slide-cover power mechanism; the slide cover works especially well, activating the camera in photo mode. You can also view images with the cover closed. We also ended up buying a CD-Burner to make back-ups of our digital photos -- we now have so many, that are so good, that we needed an alternate storage medium. The bundled software is also decent. I used it a little bit before upgrading to XP. Now I just upload pictures via a CF reader and use XP's built-in features for handling digital images. You'll still want the software, though, if you need to do any editing of the pics. Some neat, and not widely reported, photo options include black-and-white and sepia pictures. I don't know, maybe these are standard on all digital cameras. What I'm pretty sure is not standard are all the automatic and manual shooting modes. Overall a great camera that my wife and I love to use, but that is simple enough to hand to a friendly passerby to get a photo of the whole group.

  Installation 8
  Image Quality 10
  Ease of Use 10
  Compatibility 10
  Overall Value 10


  The Lowest Price is not always best !


When you buy a digital camera, the basic package almost always includes extras such as a battery charger, lens cap, batteries, flash memory card, and software. One of the more disreputable practices a dealer can engage in is called unbundling. These dealers remove items from the  package that are normally included in the price and price them separately.

When purchasing a camera you have three components of the price to consider - the camera price, postage and handling, and taxes. Many dealers lower the price to make the camera more attractive, then increase the postage and handling to boost their profits.

Hesitate before accepting extended warranties. Every knowledgeable consumer expert says it's better to gamble. Most of a company's profit is in the sale of these warranties so they press, and press hard. Your job is to resist, and resist hard. The only thing to keep in mind is that digital cameras can be horribly expensive to repair. If you want peace of mind, you may want the warranty, even though it's probably overpriced. The cost of a repair can approach, or even exceed, the original purchase price.

When you buy a camera from a reputable dealer, you expect to be able to return it if you aren't satisfied. Some dealers try to discourage this by requiring a restocking fee for returned merchandise. This is always explained as a way to recover their costs of checking the merchandise and restoring the packaging you may have opened.

Many dealers is truly a false, deceptive and a total crook. Bait and switch tactics used. Does not sell new merchandise and will ship used or refurbished goods without notifying customer. They then try to charge a restock fee on top of their exobitant shipping fees to make a profit where they could not on their goods. A try case of buyer beware.

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