canon powershot s60 camera review

The Canon PowerShot S60 is the replacement to last year's popular PowerShot S50 model. Just by looking at the model number, you'd think that Canon just stuffed a 6 Megapixel sensor into the same old camera, as some other manufacturers have done. That's not the case here -- the S60 is a 5 Megapixel camera, just like its predecessor. Here's a list comparing the two cameras:

The Canon PowerShot S60 is a nice camera for those looking for a high resolution camera with a wide-angle lens, full manual controls, and a fairly compact body. Most compact digicams have lenses that start at 35 - 39 mm, but the S60's lens starts at 28 mm -- great for indoor shots.

What's in the Box?

The PowerShot S60 has an excellent bundle. Inside the box, you'll find:

• The 5.0 effective Megapixel Canon PowerShot S60 camera


• 32MB CompactFlash card


• NP-2LH lithium-ion battery


• Battery charger


• Wrist strap


• USB cable


• A/V cable


• CD-ROM featuring Canon Digital Camera Solutions, ArcSoft Camera Suite, and drivers


• Camera manual + software manual (both printed)

Canon includes a 32MB CompactFlash card with the camera, which is a good starting point, but you'll want a larger card right away. I'd suggest 256MB as a good place to start. The included card is marked as "high speed", and from my own experiences I think it would be considered 8X. The S60 can use Type I or Type II cards, including the Microdrive, and it supports the FAT32 format for cards larger than 2GB.

The S60 uses a higher capacity version of the NB-2L battery that was used by the S50 -- this one's known as the NB-2LH. Where the old battery had 4.2 Wh of energy, the new battery has 5.3 Wh -- a 25% improvement. Canon estimates that you can take about 395 photos with 50% LCD use (which is up from 335 on the S50), or spend 3.5 hours in playback mode (compare with 3 hours on the S50).

My usual complaints about proprietary batteries apply here. They're expensive , and you can't put in a set of alkalines to get you through the rest of the day like you could with an AA-based camera.

When it's time to recharge, just drop the battery into the included charger. This is my favorite style of charger -- it plugs right into the wall (yes, I know some don't like this).Canon nb-2lh battery is powerful rechargerable battery.It takes about ninety minutes to fully charge the battery.

A sliding metal cover protects the S60's lens and doubles as the power switch. It is pretty easy to accidentally bump the door and shut the camera off, though. As you can see, the camera is fairly wide.

Look and Feel

The PowerShot S60 has gotten a bit of a facelift since its predecessor. Let's take a look:

On the front of the S60, things have been moved around since the S50, and there's a brand new lens too. The differences that matter more in terms of usability can be found on the back. For example, the annoying four-way controller that's been on the S-series for years is gone. More on all this below.

The S60 is a midsize camera, fitting in somewhere between the A75 and G3 in terms of size. It's not Digital ELPH size -- not even close. Still, you'll find that it fits in most of your pockets. The camera is made almost entirely of metal, and it feels very solid. The important controls are easy to reach, and the camera is easier to operate than its predecessor.

The dimensions of the S60 are 114.0 x 56.5 x 38.8 mm / 4.5 x 2.2 x 1.5 inches (W x H x D, excluding protrusions), and it weighs 230 grams / 8.1 ounces empty. The numbers for the S50 were 4.4 x 2.3 x 1.7 inches and 260 grams, respectively.

You'll find out how Canon got the S60 to "thin down" in our tour, which starts now!

The PowerShot S60 has a totally new lens design, which is what allowed Canon to make the S60 thinner while adding more zoom power. This new lens uses something called "UA", which stands for ultra-high refractive index, aspherical (say that three times fast). Regardless of the technical explanation behind the name, the bottom line is that UA allowed for a compact lens covering 28 - 100 mm, instead of 35 - 105 mm like on the S50. The focal range of the lens in digital terms is 5.8 - 20.7 mm, and the maximum aperture is F2.8 - F5.3, with the latter being a bit slow. As I mentioned in the previous section, the camera supports 37 mm filters as well as a 2X teleconverter through the use of the conversion lens adapter.

To the upper-right of the lens is the built-in flash. The flash has a working range of 0.55 - 4.2 at wide-angle and 0.55 - 2.0 m at telephoto, a little worse than on the S50. You cannot attach an external flash to this camera.

Directly below the flash is the receiver for the optional remote control, plus the microphone. To the left of the flash (next to the optical viewfinder) is the AF-assist lamp, a useful feature which has been found on nearly all Canon cameras for years.

As always, I recommend a trip down to your local reseller to try out the PowerShot S60 and its competitors before you buy!