
Canon’s follow-up to the popular S95, the PowerShot S100 is priced slightly higher but improves on the S95 in many ways. Its zoom lens starts at a wider focal length and delivers a longer zoom range, recycle time has been cut drastically, and a GPS has been added. That’s enough for it to replace the S95 as our favorite high-end pocket camera.
The 12-megapixel S100 is almost identical in size and design to its predecessor. At 2.3 by 3.9 by 1.1 inches (HWD) and 7 ounces, it is a bit larger and heavier than competing compact cameras.
The lens covers a 24-105mm (35mm equivalent) field of view, which is a 5x zoom range. At the wide end it opens up to f/2, which lets quite a bit of light in, but the aperture narrows to f/5.9 at the telephoto end of its zoom.
The 3-inch LCD is packed with 460k dots, and even though it is as crisp and bright as the screen found on the S95, it is no longer the best you’ll find on a point-and-shoot camera. Other pocket models, including the Samsung TL500, now employ twice-as-sharp 920k-dot screens. Read the rest of this entry »