Canon Powershot S70

Home, 2007-09-19

Thoughts on the S70

Some Specifications

Thoughts on the S70

I needed a reasonable priced compact digital with the following specifications:

a zoom starting around 28mm (in 35mm terms)
an optical viewfinder (I have not seen an EVF I liked yet, but heard good things about the EVF in the Minolta A2)
the ability to shoot in RAW
manual control

The S70 was one of the only options (The Ricoh Caplio GX8 was close, but without RAW support).

I have now had this camera in four months and here are my thoughts onthe camera (and my requirements):

Speed

The S70 is often described as having problems with a slow AF and being slow to write files to the CF card. I have not had any problems with the AF and while it is true that it can shoot less than one frame pr. second I have rarely experienced this as a problem. The playback function and the general handling (shoot-adjust-shoot) is slow and that can be frustrating.

RAW

I have only played a little with this, as the camera did not come with a color profile and I could not find one anywhere. This is a big minus as the color profile really is needed to get anything useful from the RAWs (ok I guess you could at least get some decent B&W pictures from it). I have bought a color target and intend to make my own profiles. On the other hand, I have found that the JPEGs are pretty good and that I will probably use RAW a lot less than I had expected.

Wideangle

I love the 28mm! After having owned a camera with a 28mm I wonder why most compact cameras start at 35mm or higher (and why I used a 50mm most of the time when I had an SLR years ago and never used the wideangle).

Viewfinder

I find the LCD useful (specially when I would like to fill a frame with a motive) but prefer the viewfinder most of the time and find it necessary in lowlight situations and on sunny days. Update: after getting more used to the LCD I now rarely use the viewfinder and find the wrong framing in the finder irritating.

Size

The S70 is a bit large to carry around in a pocket (larger than I expected), but the size does make it easier to handle.

Missing features

I miss a button or at least an easy way to set the iso and EV adjustment (this seems to be a general problem with digital cameras) and also a flash fill mode.

Generally, I am very happy with the S70 and consider it the right choice for my requirements.

There is a full review of the S70 here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons70/.

Some Specifications

Sensor 1/1.8" equal to 1/5 of 35mm negative. Crop 4.83.

Resolution: 3072 x 2304 pixels

Circle of Confusion: 0.006mm

Depth of Field

5.8mm (28mm), F2.8:

focus 2m: 0.935m - infinity
focus 1.5m: 0.8 - 10.2m
focus 1m: 0.6 - 1.7m
focus 0.5m: 0.4 - 0.7m

20.7mm (100mm), F5.6 (actually 5.3):

focus 2m: 1.7m - 2.4m
focus 5m: 3.5m - 9m
focus 10m: 5.2m - 95m

(calculated with the tool on http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm)