Canon S410 vs S500

[Ben_Veness]

I will shortly be arriving in the US for a week, and would like to purchase in advance of my arrival either the Canon PowerShot S410 or S500. After my week in Chicago I will be travelling and so would like a small (so I keep it with me), high quality camera. On the basis of several reviews, I believe either of these two cameras to be a suitable choice.

What I would like help with, however, is in choosing between them. I looked on Price Grabber and found that the price difference between the two is US$72 (A$100). I doubt I will be printing many large images, so am unsure if I require the extra resolution of the S500. Added to which, Imaging Resource's review of the S410 actually recommends it over the S500.

I guess the only reason I am even considering the S500 is that I figure if I'm already spending this much, maybe I should just pay a bit more and get something with an even higher resolution (and, for what it's worth, a VGA movie mode, albeit max 30sec). Against this, I am thinking that the image size will be larger on the S500 (taking up more space), there is an additional cost, and reviews are that it may not be quite as good (more noise at high ISO sensitivities).

Also, is an extra battery really necessary? I'll be shooting outdoors in Europe during January and am aware that the colder weather will reduce battery life, but don't want to buy another battery if one, recharged each night, will be sufficient (especially since I assume I am unlikely to need it once I return home).

Since I am travelling, I plan on buying a 512mb card and burning its contents onto CD each time it gets full. Would you recommend me buying a Sandisk Ultra II card over a standard Sandisk card, or will I not notice any difference with these cameras? I've also heard that Sandisk cards can be unreliable - should I be looking at a different brand?

Thanks in advance
Ben

[Giovanni_Sebastiani]

Ben,

let me start by stating that I am not a pro [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img], but happen to have used a Canon PowerShot S500 (actually called IXUS 500 over here) for a couple of months now.
I read the same reviews comparing the S410 to the S500 but ultimately decided to go for the larger.
I am not sure the difference in quality is that evident, considering that is a consumer camera. The two comments I saw in the reviews state that the increase size (both picture and buffer) do not seem enough to justify the price difference and so reccomend the S410.
If I were you, I would also consider resale price, if you don't plan to use it any more after your trip.

With regards to the battery, I strongly suggest you to get also a spare one, maybe not original as they are very cheap on eBay, as the camera does not warns you other than 2 shoots before shutting down, so it's better to keep a spare charged. In addition, the batteries get charged outside the camera, hence you can continue shooting while charging.

With regards to the Compact Flash, I purchased a 512MB Sandisk Ultra II mostly because card reader to computer time is significantly faster. The 512MB holds some 200 picture with max resolution (Large) and minimum compression (Superfine).
I have also some old 128MB cheap cards and the writing time of each single picture is not noticeably different, but I guess it could be if you shoot in continuous mode (where the S500 has an advantage over the S410).

I hope this helps.

Regards
Giovanni

[Ben_Veness]

Hi Giovanni

Thanks for taking the time to reply. The cameras are called IXUS 430 and IXUS 500 in Australia, too. Don't know why Canon makes things complicated by having different names for different markets!

I won't be worrying about resale value because I intend keeping the camera after my trip; I just wasn't sure that I'd need the second battery after I'm back home. Your comments about it running out with such short notice encourage me to buy a second, however. Can you please tell me how many shots you can take, roughly, on a full charge? Is it less during your winter?

Have you experienced any quality concerns with the Sandisk Ultra II? I've heard a few times that they can be unreliable, and would hate to lose 200 shots!

With the benefit of hindsight, would you buy the IXUS 500 again (or choose the IXUS 430, or perhaps something else)?

Regards
Ben

[Giovanni_Sebastiani]

Hi Ben,

[ QUOTE ]
Can you please tell me how many shots you can take, roughly, on a full charge?

[/ QUOTE ]

Canon claims approx. 190 pics with 25% flash usage and LCD monitor on (and 440 with LCD off!).
I experienced I could fill the entire 512MB CompactFlash card with some 200 pictures before the need to recharge it.
Clearly you could just charge the battery as you like (no memory effect) and keep it always charged. But, since the max number of charge cycles per battery pack is approx. 300 times, to prolong the battery life Canon manual reccomends you to charge the battery only after having discharged it completely. So, I'd rather go out with an half charged battery + spare, use up completely the battery pack and then switch to the other, fully loaded.

[ QUOTE ]
Is it less during your winter?

[/ QUOTE ]

As long as I keep the camera in an inner pocket other than for shooting, I haven't noticed any difference. But I haven't used it yet in really cold weather nor below zero (I live in London [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ).

[ QUOTE ]
Have you experienced any quality concerns with the Sandisk Ultra II?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not really, I have been using it for a couple of months with no issues at all, and a very nice reader to PC speed when downloading. I can add that before buying, I called the Canon support center here in the UK and they told me that for the IXUS 500 Canon suggests to use either Canon or Sandisk CompactFlash cards as these are the only ones they certified. He also stated that for this camera they certified up to 512MB, and for this reason dissuaded me from buying a 1GB card (better to have 2 512MB) while the camera should accept these bigger type I cards.

So, which one?
Maybe I am stubborn, but I would acquire again the IXUS 500 as the occasional great picture can be enlarged as much as I want. For this reason, I use 512MB card and I always shoot large, with the resolution of 2,592 x 1,944 pixels, and superfine JPEG, hence approx. 2.5MB per picture.
In addition, if I frame wrongly a picture, I can crop it after and save it somehow still preserving enough resolution.

One comment on the VGA movie clip that the IXUS 500 is supposed to takeup to 30 seconds. If you ever used a real camcorder, you will not like what you see as, while on a static image is good quality, as soon as something moves around, the images are choppy / blurred to say the least (very low frame rate).
Check this review which has also examples and video clips.
Digital Camera Resource

Lastly, consider that with both models you will have to buy a protective case (thanks Canon for not including it [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] )

Hope this help, and take great pictures!

[Ben_Veness]

Hi Giovanni

[ QUOTE ]
the max number of charge cycles per battery pack is approx. 300 times

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, thanks for pointing that out; a somewhat disappointing point to consider. 300 times doesn't seem to be that much; maybe 3 years worth of use if you recharge twice a week, but then I guess the novelty of using the camera will wear off and I might charge only once a week if I'm lucky. Whilst travelling, however, I expect to be recharging fairly frequently and so may use up 30 of those recharges!

[ QUOTE ]
I called the Canon support center here in the UK

[/ QUOTE ]

Great idea. Will do the same here in Australia and see what they say.

Just one more question for you or anyone else, is it OK to use a generic battery? I have found a generic 1000mAH NB1LH battery for sale by Titannotebook on PriceGrabber.com, and the purchaser reviews for this seller have all been very good. I was thinking that the generic battery may be good enough as a spare, especially since I doubt I'll use the second battery much when I return to Australia. (However your comment about the max 300 charge cycles makes me think maybe I should just buy a genuine Canon NB1LH ... what's your opinion?)

[Giovanni_Sebastiani]

Hi Ben,

[ QUOTE ]
is it OK to use a generic battery?

[/ QUOTE ]
This is ultimately your call, as Canon tries to scare customers off (use only recommended power accessories and batteries, as use of batteries not expressely recommended for this equipment may cause explosions or leaks...).
All I can tell you is that I myself took advantage of the significant lower price of non-original batteries and acquired one on eBay, counting also on the fact that the battery gets recharged in the separate charger and not while in the camera.

In all the forums on Canon IXUS and in general for P&S compact cameras, I never saw someone raising any issue with a non original battery. I wouldn't always bank on the higher power some of these generic batteries claim to have, and may be they will last a bit less than an original, but with such a price difference I can buy 4 generic instead of an original one.... And as you say, the generic will only serve for sparing... and I have used it only few times so I cannot properly compare it to the original one.

If anyone had a different opinion, please let us all know.

Ciao

Giovanni