The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
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"don't buy canon digicams; they break after one year check the forum for s400's for more info!!!" on by misterill
Pros: great camera for about one year
Cons: after one year suddenly develops lens malfunction that renders it inoperable. costs $150 to fix.
Summary: there is a major problem with the s400 series; they break after one year check the forum for s400's for more info!!! you will see an E18 error message and the lens will no loger extend for picture taking. conveniently occurs a few months after the warrantee runs out.
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"Warranty Scam - Customer Service NIGHTMARE!!!" on by dtschopp
Pros: picture quality
Cons: It's going to break days after warranty.
Summary: My company bought the elph S230 (S410 becomes involved further down) for retail ($450). 2 days after the 1 year warranty was up the lens got stuck in the extended position, despite being taken care of extremely well. Camera was taken to original retailer for evaluation. They determined it defective and sent to Canon w/ warranty request. Canon's response: that'll cost you $400 to fix! Keep in mind their camera went defective only 2 days after the warranty was up, and cost $450 originally! Retailer said Canon's other option was "upgrade" to a S410 b/c S230 was discontinued(ie. Canon knows S230 is defective!). BTW, the "upgrade" is a refurbished S410 (it's already broke once), costs $250, and only has a 6 month warranty. Makes you wonder how long it will last past the warranty. My company agreed to do "upgrade". We let the retailer know, and he told Canon. Canon told him my company had to tell Canon. Then Canon told me the retailer had to tell Canon. This went back and forth for 2 months, meanwhile we have no digital camera, it's at Canon. Finally Canon sends the broken s230 back to retailer. Retailer gives it to me. It has a note, "to get your 'upgrade' you need to send this camera to Canon"...ISN'T THAT WHERE IT'S BEEN FOR 2 MONTHS?!!! So we sent it BACK (had to pay to/from shipping!), and 1 month later finally got a S410. We've had it for about 5.5 months. I wonder when it will crap out so we can do this over again?? Bottom line: if you enjoy this kind of hell, get a Canon.
Updated
I forgot to mention, EVERY time I would call Canon and follow the prompts (many times during our 2 month circle), the person would always tell me "wrong department" and I would wait anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes on hold. Then the person from the supposed correct department would say "wrong department" and transfer me BACK to the original department! Nobody wanted to deal w/ the problem, and after reading others' reviews of this camera I can see that they are probably sick of dealing with it. -
"Great camera-bad customer service!" on by erath66
Pros: Easy to use, portable, durable, quality photos
Cons: LCD screen is very fragile and not covered under most warranties! Scratches pretty easily (won't actually affect quality of photos) and has a terrible warranty!
Summary: I really liked this camera-while it was usable! I brought it on two vacations and it really got the best shots of all of the cameras there. I'm no "techie"-so it was a great camera for someone with almost no experience beyond point and shoot. Durable design, EXCEPT for the LCD screen. It's probably a steal now (if you can find it used or whatnot) but beware, I made sure I had every single warranty availible-and none of them covered my broken LCD screen. Customer service was nice and handled my claims fairly quickly, but it ended up costing me $150 to have the screen repaired OR I could jump for the additional $199 for a refurbished S500..(retailing for around $220 unused, WITH extras like accessories, free shipping etc.)...As long as you're careful, it should be a good deal. It was really reliable up until one day when the screen just went...so if you're good about keeping it in a cushioned, hard shelled case, you might not have the same problems I did.
My suggestion: spring for the A610. Has alot of the same features, more megapixels and is extremely durable-especially if you're looking for a real "family cam" to be able to use regularly that can handle some jostling. -
"A fine camera with a lot of good features" on by peter43
Pros: Tiny camera that takes beautiful pictures
Cons: Easy to wind up with blurred pictures at lower shutter speeds
Summary: I upgraded to the SD410 after using a second-hand S100 (2.1 megapixel)for a year. As many have said already, the greatest difference the extra 2 megapixels makes is that I can crop out half the shot and still have a sharp image, suitable for printing at larger than 4x6 sizes. You don't need 4 megapixels to take gorgeous, sharp shots.
The SD410 has many more features and controls, which means I can experiment more with shutter speed and other effects. But with editing programs like Picasa, a lot of these effects can be produced manually after the picture has been downloaded to my computer.
The point I'm trying to make is that I think MOST people would do just fine with a 2.1 megapixel camera, like the S100 (which I bought used for $75) which took terrific pictures and had fewer controls. It's virtually identical in size and shape. How many people want 8 x 10 prints anyway? Based on what I've read, you really need more than 4 megapixels to take portrait-quality 8x10s anyway.
I recommend the S410, but it's not a whole lot better than earlier elphs, though it IS a bit pricier. -
"Bad red eye" on by vegasdino
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Red eye on all flash photos
Summary: I purchased this camera about one month ago and find it easy to use. The major flaw is that all of the flash portrait photos that I have taken with this camera have red eye. I have tried to use all of the functions but all of the photos are the same. I will be returning this camera. I feel that if Cannon wants to be a player in this marketplace they should provide one of the most basic functions that have been provided for a few decades. VERY DISAPOINTED
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