Canon PowerShot S230 (Digital IXUS v3)

Opinion: The PowerShot S230 Digital Elph is one impressive little Canon.

Note the above is the name used North America, mine is called a Digital IXUS v3,
which is the named used in Europe and Australia.

It doesn't have any aperture or shutter priority modes, but does have custom WB,
and a long shutter function.

As I said it does not a dedicate have a shutter priority mode, though when
adjusting the exposure compensation, the shutter speed can be adjusted if the long
shutter option is turned on.

It's very beautiful looking-it has a metal body and is very light-only 180 grams.

The 2x Canon zoom lens and 6.4x digital zoom is impressive for such a small
camera, as is the image quality.

Opinion: Excellent little camera. I have been using the S230 since first released.

Opinion: It is one fantastic camera with superior image quality.The moment I got it I fell in love with it. It is compact yet powerful companion for any vacation. The metal body isrigid enough to withstand minor abuse. I say there is no
competition for Canon in this camera category.

Opinion: i like this camera. ive had it since december 2002. i took it with me when i traveled (6 months all over europe) and it never left my pants pocket. ive dropped in hundreds of times (right on the lens element once) and it still works perfectly. it makes some strange noises every once in awhile, but perfect other than that. ive cleaned the lens once and should probably clean it again. its been a great companion to my nikon fe and has taught me a lot about composition through trial and error.

Opinion: Fun when it focuses correctly.

Opinion: Perfect beginners digital camera wrapped in a pocketable package. Has just enough user control in manual mode to keep you entertained composing shots, while offering the semi-flexible auto mode as a dependable back-up setting. I do find myself fumbling with the menu and buttons sometimes. Set it for the room/light beforehand when you can, or use auto mode for action/candid shots until you've practiced a while.

Construction is top notch, and still better than the S400. The stainless steel housing is wonderful, but does'nt make it drop-proof. Dropping it will kill it (as with any other camera, I suspect!). I hope Canon continues with this build quality.

Photos come out clear, but practice is needed to find optimum color saturation and lighting combos. Red eye is terrible. The photos are clean.

I love the cam-corder mode. It's great. I filmed clips of my first child being born. I trusted the camera with my most prized visual record, and it delivered beautifully.
The best movie resolution it can do is a 30 second long 640x480 clip @ 15 frames per second. Film a child blowing the candles out on his cake, take it home and plug it to the computer. Decompress the 30 second film clip, and you have 450 640x480 shots to pick from! (No missing that shot!)
Playing film clips on the television is a blast!

I've had it for about a year, and I've advanced in my photography skills as well. I'm always looking at the newest gadgets and still I find nothing more appealing than the S230.

Opinion: Its great, Ive had it for 8 months now, took 4000 pictures
Its very solid, and has a very high-tech feel.
The LCD is razorsharp.
The features are very elaborate for such a small camera, of course we all envy the 3x optical zoom of the Ixus 400, but hey, we paid less.
Personally I miss a Shutter Speed/Aperture Priority function, as I use the manual mode only
(standard setting ISO 50 , centre focus, colour -vivid-, no-flash)
This is one of the few cameras with a large 640x480 video mode: if anyone can hack the 30sec. limit , please do and post it.
Try this at a party : manual mode , ISO 200, Slow Synchro Flash , and you really capture the atmosphere !
Image Quality is superb, with its 3,2mp you can compete with any 4mp camera out there !
Ease of use is very satisfactory.
Value for money : the best you can get, especially if you save 30% ( in Europe) by
having a friend bringing it home from Asia or the US.

Opinion: I bought the S230 over a year and a half ago and I must say I really love it. I also own an APS ELPH which doesn’t get much use now. It has been totally reliable and I have had no problems. Picture quality and video quality are superb. Functions are fairly intuitive and the first-time user shouldn’t have a problem understanding the different options. It is too bad Canon has replaced this model with the SD-100 but if you want this new memory format I am sure the optics and operation are much the same. I had two friends recently buy the Sony DSC-P92 a 5 MegaPixel plastic bodied machine and both aren’t happy when they compare it to the Canon. It was slightly less expensive than mine but they got free CD players (an in-store promotion) and were happy with their $100 free gift. Surprised by the poor quality of the Sony they now want to return their models for the Canon A80. Their cameras are not near the quality of the Canon and their AA batteries die in under an hour. The battery that comes with the Canon (Li-ion) it fairly good and has really only run out on me once while using the LCD display with over 100 pictures at 1024x768 while walking around a construction site. I currently use the 128Mb SanDisk CF card which I bought after the fact which came with a free reader. The video quality on the Sony was absolutely crappy – dark and grainy. With the Canon the difference was like night and day. The same movie shot was bright and crisp. It’s funny that when I bought the camera I never thought I’d use the video feature but it is rather fun at times to shoot a small clip. It is a little bit of a drawback though that it automatically stops after 3 minutes. Overall, I highly recommend this camera.

Opinion: Once I decided I was going to get a digi camera, I for once spent a lot of time working out which one to get. I had 2 friends with cameras at the time, one had a 5mill pentax (well out of my price range) and the other an Optio S which I loved purely for the dinkiness of it. After reading lots of different reviews on dpreview.com, I followed pretty much what everyone else seemed to agree with, and that was that the Ixus V3 was the best 3mill camera around, and after 6 months of owning one I have to say that I think it rocks

I'm by no means an expert nor a professional in this field, but this camera does everything I want and more. I bought it primarily to take photos of friends, to take on days and nights out, and to generally mess about with, for which it's perfect. It fits in my pocket and I rarely even notice that I've got it with me, and it tends to be a bit of a party piece on nights out. The ease of upload to PC is incredible, and my photos are now instantly shareable among all my friends. saying this, I've also had the opportunity to try my hand at a few arty shots, and that's starting to be a lot of fun as well, especially given the range of manual features you can generally mess around with while you find your feet in the world of photography. I use a 128Mb memory card which, on an average resolution setting, can take nearly 400 shots, so I can't complain there. i also bought a small £6 Lowepro case which the camera fits perfectly.

Apart from the novelty of being my first digital camera, I love my Canon and now take it everywhere I go