Every time a major camera manufacturer such as Canon upgrades its camera engine, in this case its Canon's DIGIC 5 Image Processor, it not only brings out supporters but also doubters, but in this case the doubters have lost this argument because the DIGIC 5 has made Canon's whole line stronger.
Canon has long been the maker of some fine photographic instruments, however, they made their name in the film field and one would have thought another company may have come along to take their place on the digital side of the ledger, but that is not the case as the Canon PowerShot S100 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide-Angle Optics prove.
The factor driving the Canon is its new optical engine, the DIGIC 5. Indeed, there are few point-and-shoot cameras that can match the results of the PowerShot S100 whose f/2.0 lens with its 5X built-in wide angle optics helps to tackle low-light situations. With most point-and-shoot digital cameras, low-light situations leave you with grainier-than-imagery, as well as with images that seem to have stranger highlights and reflections.
The DIGIC 5-drive S100 takes the same low-light image and, after doing its electronic comparison work, moves the light where it belongs. For example, if you are to take a picture of a person by lamplight or other natural source, you will find that the DIGIC 5 moves the highlights to the skin tones so that the person comes out with looking with a very natural look and, since the camera's flash isn't going off at the same time, you do not have an image with a person who is either squinting or suffering red-eye.
A low-light nighttime scene, on the other hand, rebalances the color so that the center object of your image becomes sharper and reflections are toned down.
Canon calls the change to the DIGIC 5, an advanced automatic white balancing system. This system is meant to work with low ISO speeds in the 100 to 200 range, or the type of range you might naturally find in a darker-than-normal room or darker-than-normal outdoor image.
Another feature the PowerShot S100 brings to the fore is the 12.1 mega pixel resolution. Believe it or not, only two or three years ago, the 12MP barrier was the threshold you crossed when you purchased a digital single lens reflex. For example, our Rebel was in the 12MP range when we obtained it through work in 2008. As the years have moved ahead, though, two things have happened, point-and-shoot cameras have taken on better resolutions and features such as automatic stabilization, one of the features of the Rebel (and still one of its features) has been moved into the mid-range of point-and-shoot cameras. It is a nice addition, especially when you are trying to hand-hold a setting in a low-light situation with a point-and-shoot.
Actually, why one would call them "point-and-shoot" is honestly something that the industry should be thinking about because "point-and-shoot" implies that there is a viewfinder and you frame your image as best you can with the viewfinder. The "point-and-shoot" today, such as the PowerShot S100 has about a 2.7-inch LCD image framer that shows you exactly the image your camera lens is viewing, so it is more like a very wide digital focus screen than a point and shoot. The only advantages the digital single lens reflex (dSLR) has over this type of camera is the wider lighting range over which it will work and the number of lenses that you can use with the camera.
If you want a strict wide-angle lens with a low-light capability, the dSLR will provide it, as will it provide the 2,000mm zoom lens that you need for sporting events where you are not only shooting under adverse lighting conditions, you are also doing your shooting from a distance away. For everyday shooting, the PowerShot S100 is the camera anyone should ever need.
The PowerShot 100 is also capable of shooting with full high-definition video resolution -- 1080p -- that you can connect directly to an HDTV device through an HDMI adapter, however, you do have a wide range of speeds over which you can shoot right down to 30 fps for standard video. It is quite a nice system especially when you consider that it not only can produce JPEG images, but it will also give you RAW imagery that you can work on with Canon's proprietary professional software.
All told, Canon has done a great job with the PowerShot S100 and we can hardly wait to see what their next changes will be.
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