Canon PowerShot S70 review

Canon's 7.1 megapixel PowerShot S70 is a great-looking digital compact camera with a lens that boasts a 35mm equivalent focal length of 28-100mm, and a maximum aperture of f2.8.

Such a wide lens is a rarity on a digital compact and it's complimented by a 4cm macro mode and the ability to extend the focal length to 200mm with an optional teleconverter. The 7.1 megapixel sensor produces images up to a maximum of 3072 x 2304 pixels, which is big enough to be printed at A3 at 190dpi.

As you would expect from such a highly specified camera, there's a wealth of shooting modes and creative controls to play with. Twelve auto-exposure options include all the usual suspects plus fast shutter, slow shutter and stitch-assist modes - the latter designed to make it easy to shoot multi-image panoramic photographs.

There's also a 640 x 480 pixel movie mode, which records Motion Jpeg movies with sound at 15 frames per second for up to 30 seconds (or three minutes at lower resolutions). The S70 can capture still images as Jpegs or Raw files. Jpeg options consist of five resolutions and three compression settings. Images are recorded to CompactFlash Type I or II and there's a 32MB card included in the box.

Three TTL metering modes - spot, centre-weighted and evaluative - are available and exposure compensation can be set in a range of +/- 2EV in 1/3 stop increments. The ISO speed equivalent can be set to auto, 50, 100, 200 or 400. Nine white-balance settings cover a broad range of indoor and outdoor lighting conditions and there's even one for underwater shooting, intended to be used with the optional waterproof housing.

The S70's autofocus system splits the frame into nine zones and detects the subject of your shot automatically. The FlexiZone autofocus and auto-exposure system enables you to scroll the focus area around the frame, and the camera then sets the focus and exposure accordingly.

Other features worth noting include a continuous-shooting mode, which allows you to shoot at up to two frames per second for up to 15 seconds, and an intervalometer that enables you to take up to 100 photos at intervals between one and 60 minutes.

The S70's metal body is reassuringly solid and, while it's small and light enough to carry in a pocket, its controls are laid out in such a way that it handles comfortably. A dial on top of the camera selects the shooting mode, while other options are selected from a series of menus, which are displayed on the S70's 1.8in LCD monitor. The lens cover slides back from the lens to switch on the S70, and then back again to switch it off. Neatly, the cover is prevented from getting too close to the lens until the lens has retracted fully, so it can't bash against the side of the lens.

We were pleased with the results from the S70. Cramming 7.1 megapixels onto a 1/1.8in sensor raises fears of noise creeping into images, but we detected none on our test shots. There was a tiny degree of purple fringing on some images, but it was minor and occurred on only a few shots. The autofocus system worked well, producing razor-sharp images. Exposure metering was accurate and colours were reproduced faithfully in a variety of conditions.

There are so many options that getting the best out of this camera may prove daunting for some users. However, the fully automatic mode produces excellent results, and there are plenty of creative options to play with before you progress to full manual operation.

We liked the S70's LCD screen, which works well even in bright conditions, and the playback zoom function was useful for examining shots in the field. To get the most from it, we would advise investing in a spare battery. The S70's Lithium-ion pack has a decent life but needs to be charged off-camera, and you can't run the S70 from mains power for printing or downloading shots to your Mac.