The elegant and powerful ELPH gets even better.

Canon PowerShot S400 Digital ElphCanon's popular Digital ELPH series has helped define the growing ultra-compact camera category, combining excellent imaging and lots of features into a slick, sturdy, and small package. The $599 (MSRP) PowerShot S400 continues the family tradition with a 4-megapixel CCD, a curvier, scratch-resistant body design, and Canon's new DIGIC Image Processor technology.


Appreciate its design and ease of use

Cam GeekThe S400's look and feel is remarkable, nearing a work of art. It's a little thicker than a deck of cards and -- measuring 3.4 inches x 2.2 inches by 1.1 inches and weighing half a pound -- smaller than the 3-megapixel S300. Its stainless steel body is coated with a new Cerabrite laminated finish to fight off wear and tear. Edges and corners are smoothly rounded, and the clever layout of the buttons, switches, and dials -- not to mention the big and juicy shutter button with integrated zoom lever -- make it a pleasure to operate and hold.

The S400 team has created a blueprint for future camera design. The S400's button layout coupled with Canon's excellent onscreen interface, which separates shooting parameters such as exposure compensation, ISO, and image quality from basic camera functions, make the S400 one of the world's most intuitive cameras. Though smallish, the 1.5-inch display is bright and colorful, too.

What can it do?

Point-and-shoot is the name of the game, but the S400, with 4-megapixels and a 3x optical (3.6x digital) Canon zoom lens, offers more. Exposure compensation (+/-2), seven white balance settings including a user-guided evaluation mode, ISO 50 to 400, and digital effects (including sepia tone, vivid, and sharpness) are easily applied in manual mode. You can even keep the shutter open for up to 15 seconds in Long Shutter mode.

Three light metering options (including spot-weighted and center-weighted metering) as well as light, focus, and flash exposure lock, help you capture the best shots in any shooting condition. It's also nice to have a powerful yet warm built-in flash.

Canon's new DIGIC image processor enhances image quality, autofocus accuracy, and speed. Printed images captured both indoors and outdoors (we used a Canon i850 inkjet) are sharp even at the micro level, colorful, and overall gorgeous. The average consumer won't be able to point out many flaws in a borderless 8x10 print -- honest!

Movie mode captures video and audio up to three minutes in length at resolutions of 320x240 and 160x120 (15 frames/second). Zoom, digital effects, and white balance can be applied before the shutter button is pressed.

Stitch assist mode helps the shooter with wide panoramic scenes by aligning a series of images. Then just stitch the scene up later using Canon software.

At-a-glance features

  • The S400 can shoot continuously at 1.5 images per second and 2.5 images per second in high-speed mode.

  • The supplied 32MB CompactFlash card (Type I only) will store about 14 JPEG images at the highest setting (large, superfine), 338 JPEGS at the lowest (small, normal), and 91 seconds of best-quality video.

  • The S400 is lightning fast, starting up in two seconds and recording a still at highest quality in less than 3 seconds.

  • Macro shooting is awesome for a point-and-shoot camera. You can get as close as 2 inches to the subject.

  • The S400 automatically rotates a picture taken with the camera held vertically (portrait).

  • Tiny lithium-ion battery lasts approximately 190 images with the LCD on. Battery life shouldn't be a problem although you should carry the small wall wart charger with you.

  • Also included is a wrist strap, A/V cable, USB cable, and Canon's software suite, which includes ArcSoft applications.


Summary: No longer the smallest 4-megapixel camera in the world (Kyocera's Finecam S4 is the same size), the S400 is still the king of ultra-compact digital cameras. Its price of $599 ($474 online) is the only thing holding us back, especially as we found Kyocera's 4-megapixel S4 for about $400 online.

Pros: Near-perfect design; excellent image quality; many features for point-and-shooter; good battery life.

Con: Pricey

Company: Canon
Price: $599 list
Available: Now
Platform: Windows/Mac