The Canon PowerShot S95 is Canon’s latest compact, handheld digital camera. It’s also an attempt to address some of the concerns that users had with its previous model, the S90, and a bid to retain its dominance in the pocket sized, point and shoot digital camera market. Comparable cameras include the Samsung TL500, the Lumix LX5 and the Panasonic LX-3.
The S95 is a small camera, measuring 5.38 inches wide and 2.50 inches tall. This means that it is quite portable, and a good camera for when you’re grabbing something to travel with you easily. The external finish on the S95 has made for a more grippable surface that makes it less slippery and easier to hold on to than the S90.
The reduced size of the S95 means that there are fewer physical buttons on the camera to control its various features, but an LCD display lets you browse a multi-level menu to access the camera’s functions. The LCD screen is bright, and polarized to be visible even in direct sunlight.
As other users have reported, the Canon’s picture quality is best when staying within the 3.8x magnification provided by the optical zoom. Although the digital zoom feature allows you to focus on up to 15x magnification shots, the picture resolution just isn’t as good.
When staying within the optical magnification range, the Canon PowerShot S95 has earned widespread praise for its ability to handle low-light situations. From what I’ve seen so far, I’m inclined to agree.
Meanwhile, the most substantial change when compared to the S90 is the new, 720p HD-quality movie capture. The Canon PowerShot S95 also boasts dual microphones for stereo sound, but I’m not an audio buff and haven’t really noticed an advantage there. What I really wish they had added was an autofocus feature for video recording, but I guess that will have to wait for newer models.
The battery life for the PowerShot S95 isn’t the greatest, especially when using the video feature, but that’s to be expected for all pocket-sized point and shoot cameras.
Taken as a whole, this camera shares some of the flaws common to other devices in its niche, but really delivers when considering its size and it is very easy to use. With this offering, Canon is poised to remain a major contender in the digital camera market.
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Ralph, March 16, 2011
Very detailed article except for pictures of the camera itself and some sort of visual on what it can do.