About the reviewer: I have been a photo-bug for decades and pre-digital days, owned and used Rollei f2.8 TLR, Nikon F3, Canon AE1-Program and Nikon 90S . My first [and current] Digital camera is a Canon G10. This may shock some of you because this appears to be quite the downgrade from the “film” cameras aforementioned. However, if there’s one thing that you learn very quickly is that these smaller-sized digital cameras can produce outstanding quality images and prints for day-to-day picture taking opportunites, without all the weight!
Background on the Purchase of the Canon S120: Our 25th anniversary was coming up and I wanted to upgrade my wife’s Kodak Easyshare C182 – not a bad entry camera in itself! Initially, I wanted to purchase the newly released Canon G16, with its new brighter lens. But, knowing my wife, the larger size relative to the Canon S120 would be a turn off. So, I purchased the Canon S120, but only after careful review.
Canon S120 Review: This camera works very well in the automatic setting. The first test I did was to take a picture of my wife in the living room, with a strong back-light coming in from the windows. I wanted to see how the flash would balance the strong back-light, even when the subject was offset from the center of the frame. Well, I was more than pleased at the result. I thought for sure that the automatic setting would provide TOO much fill light and blow out her face, requiring me to go to a manual setting and adjusting the light meter accordingly. Instead, it perfectly balanced the fill light!
As mentioned, my wife has decided that the size of the camera is important to her. She doesn’t like anything too big and the Canon S120 fits that bill. However, unlike the Kodak Easyshare C182, the Canon S120 has a solid/metal feel to it!
While doing my research, I came across a professional photographer who said he purchased this camera for an upcoming family vacation overseas. He didn’t want to lug his expensive and heavy Canon equipment, so he purchased this camera for its size. He really didn’t have time to read much about the camera, so he largely left it on “automatic”. He said that he was blown away with the image quality of this camera – even go so far as to say, in many ways this camera equals his expensive cameras in terms of quality of images!
I purchased an extra battery for my wife, as it’s not as big as the Canon G10’s battery. However, thus far, my wife has not exhausted the battery during any one shooting experience. The Canon S120 has a brighter lens (f1.8-5.7) than its predecessor. Btw: Here’s a key point that many people don’t realize. A brighter lens is one of those things you should look for in a camera you plan to use indoors! Also, it has a touchscreen, which I tested while having an ordinary screen protector on, and it worked right through that screen protector! The pop-up flash is [now] manual, and that’s a good thing in my opinion because your left finger tends to land right on top of it and who wants the flash head trying to pop-up automatically while you are securing the camera. While shooting video, you can control the zoom. DPREVIEW lists the CANON S120 as one of the “Best Cameras for Social Photography”! I’ve found that Amazon is the best place to purchase the Canon S120 because of their outstanding prices!
See Samples Below of Images Taken with the S120:
