The Canon S100: The Perfect Travel Camera

I’ve been meaning to pen this review for some time now, but I keep getting distracted by writing about, you know, travel destinations. In the meantime, the holidays are fast approaching and I’ve been getting tons of questions about the best camera gear for travel and underwater photography.

Today, I saw the prices for my beloved camera on Amazon, and my jaw dropped.

In my opinion, the best camera for travelers and casual underwater photographers is the Canon PowerShot S100 12.1 MP Digital Camera (obviously those divers are going to have to buy a case!) When I bought this camera, I forked over a little under $400 for it. Today, as Canon has recently announced a newer model, it’s listed at $250 (accurate at time of research). And with the Canon Underwater Housing going for $220 (again, accurate at time of research), you can have a great underwater setup for less than five hundred big ones.

You won’t believe the performance coming out of a camera this size. Basically, the Canon Gods took everything fantastic about the G-Series, which combined SLR performance with a medium-sized camera, and made it even smaller. With the gift-giving season in full swing and lots of us about to take off on winter holidays, there’s never been a more perfect time for me to give you a peek inside my camera bag.

The Camera

I’m not going to list out every technical specification or get too into all the boring camera jargon, because you can find that stuff all over the interwebs. What I am going to tell you is my personal experience with this incredibly impressive piece of technology.

I’ll start with the disclaimer that I travel with two cameras (at minimum!) My PowerShot S100 functions as my underwater camera and my point-and-shoot, but I also have a great dSLR, the Canon Rebel T2i. I adore my SLR, but want to hear a confession? Lately I’ve found myself leaving the SLR locked in my hotel room, and throwing the Powershot S100 in my pocket instead. It’s a mere fraction of the size and weight, and I am shocked to report that I sometimes can’t tell the difference between photos taken on my SLR and photos taken on my Powershot s100!

How can that be possible?

Basically, the s100 features cutting edge hardware. It’s just the second Canon camera to come with the new Digic 5 processor, drastically improving white balance, noise reduction, and speed. It’s a full six times faster than its predecessor, the Digic 4, which is in my T2i SLR!

In layman’s terms, this camera takes sharp, clear, bright and beautiful photos. The color balance is fantastic, the detail and focus are inscrutable, and it performs well even in low lighting conditions. The image quality is simply out of this world.

I agonized over whether to buy the S100 or its slightly larger competitor the Canon G12. While Amazon reviews were kinder to the G12, Scubaboard members were smitten with the S100. As they were similar price, the S100 won out for me due to its size — I already have an SLR, I didn’t want another big camera. After six months of use, I could not be more thrilled with my decision. This camera is the perfect size to throw in my pocket when I’m doing activities like horseback riding or snowmobiling, or when I’m simply too lazy to lug my big heavy camera around. See those posts, or this one, for examples of what this camera can do!

Manual Control

This camera goes so far beyond a point a shoot. I frequently switch to Aperture or Shutter Speed priority, and full manual control is possible as well. It also has fool-proof settings for underwater, beach, fireworks, and more. This camera makes taking photos fun again!

Video

The absolute biggest difference between this camera and my previous model, the Powershot 1300, is the video quality. The s100 shoots Full-HD 1080p video at 24 frames per second, or 720p video at 30 frames per second. Have you seen my One Week in Iceland video? Half of those clips were shot with my dSLR, half with my s100. Can you tell the difference? I can’t!

Fun Features

On of my favorite made-for-travelers features about this camera is the built-in GPS functionality. No more looking at a photo of a beach and trying to remember if it was on Maui or Oahu, or flipping through a set of temple pictures and trying to remember if that was Thailand or Cambodia. The GPS feature makes it a breeze to map your photos using either Canon’s included software or other tools by Flickr, Aperture, Google Earth, and more.

I notice that HDR photography is getting a lot of buzz right now, and the s100 has a built-in HDR feature! Unfortunately I haven’t gotten the chance to try it out yet as I rarely travel with a tripod, but it’s a fun bonus.

Drawbacks

The negative that I have heard a lot of people complain about with this camera is the short battery life. The image processor that makes the image quality on this camera so mind-blowing, along with HD Video, GPS, and a few other features, eat a lot of battery. In my opinion it’s not that bad, and the solutions are simple — turn off the GPS function and buy a spare battery.

And of course, my dSLR still wins in a lot of categories. The s100 lens is 24mm wide, whereas my T2i lens opens all the way to 15mm — much better for shooting interiors and cities.

The Underwater Housing

When I conversed with some professional underwater photographers about which housing I was going to get for my s100, things got complicated again. Most avoid mentioning anything cheaper than an Ikelite Housing (running about $325), while some went as far as to make apocalyptic flooding predictions for the Canon Underwater Housing (running around $220). But here’s the thing. I had a Canon housing for my Canon 1300 model for two years — it never flooded. And while $100 for a better model might seem like a reasonable upgrade, I can’t stand the stiffness of the buttons on the Ikelite housing. Next pricewise comes the universally beloved Recsea housings, but at around $860 it might as well cost my weight in narcotics for how not-in-my-budget it is.

So I went for the Canon Housing. So far I’ve used it for my trip to Iceland and my trip to Hawaii. I’m happy to report that I’ve had zero problems. In fact, I’m in love! I’m so happy I went for the s100 over the G12. This camera may be tiny, but it’s underwater setting produces beautiful image quality underwater. See my posts on diving in Iceland and diving in Oahu for examples of what this camera can do submerged.

Note: I bought the black version of this camera, however I’ve since heard that the silver version is much preferred if you plan to use it underwater. The silver version absorbs less heat and leads to less fogging issues!

Other Accessories

Onto the stocking stuffers! As I mentioned before, I can not more highly recommend getting a spare Canon NB-5L Battery battery for your camera! It’s less than 10 bucks, and it prevents those devastating tears that happen when an elephant walks in front of your safari vehicle and you miss it because your battery died. Especially essential for divers (switch batteries on your surface interval!) and those traveling to remote areas with limited electricity.

Do you mind if I step onto a travel photography soap box for a moment? It kills me when I see people spending hours agonizing over the best camera, fork over the big bucks for it, and then slap in the cheapest memory card they can find. That little one inch piece of technology is where your precious travel memories are stored! Invest in a quality memory card with high storage capacity. Personally, I use the SanDisk Extreme 16 GB Memory Card for my s100 and the 32GB version for my dSLR. Again, prevent the cries of a person who just missed the sunset over Macchu Piccu because they were frantically trying to clear space off their memory card, or the person who — I can barely write these words — loses all their photos from a trip when a card fails.

Divers, make sure to always pack a tub of silicone grease for the occasional O-ring maintenance. And I haven’t tried these out yet so I can’t vouch for them, but I’m going to pick up a pack of moisture muncher capsules to try to fight the occasional minor fogging problems.

You’ll notice one thing noticeably absent from this list — a camera case! I have a pretty high-tech system worked out for that one, guys. I use the bubble-wrap sleeve that my underwater housing was delivered in. Yup. Works like a charm! If you aren’t getting the underwater housing, generic point and shoot cases are cheap and can be picked up anywhere. Or if you’re as classy as I am, you can always use a sock.

Do I have any other S100 Camera lovers out there?

Note: All Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I will receive a commission for anything you buy on that site within twenty-four hours of clicking one of those links at no extra cost to you. I appreciate your support!