Labs

This camera is compact, stuffed full of handy features and has all of its buttons in the right place.

Image Quality

The Canon was able to take clear pictures, even in challenging lighting environments, and its digital zoom didn't degrade the final image as badly as some. Its flash wasn't as bright as it could have been, though. Automatic shutter speeds seemed

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to err on the fast side, which meant blur-free images that were sometimes slightly too dark.

Features

The PowerShot S30 has every feature that you could want in a camera of this price. It can record movies with sound, has all of the usual manual modes and also had the largest range of ISO modes, ranging from ISO 50 to 800. Of limited use for the majority, perhaps, but this is a feature you may really appreciate six months down the line.

Design

The main controls aren't buried in a menu, the manual modes provide as many options as you could possibly want and new images can be deleted with just two presses of a button. Our one gripe with this camera is its joypad-style controller that's used to navigate the menus and to confirm operations such as 'Erase?', as it's too easy to press the wrong area.

Overall

Easy to use, solidly built, and the advanced features provide plenty of growing room for budding David Baileys.