Canon PowerShot S95 - Taking the Evolution Path

Introduction

The Canon PowerShot S90 made quite an impression last year when it took the large sensor of the prosumer G-series and packed it into a smaller camera body. Not only did the larger-than-usual sensor (for a compact) produce better looking photographs, the S90 also introduced an innovative control ring around the lens, which gave the user faster control over manual settings like aperture and shutter speed.

Coming less than a year after the S90 was released, the S95 retains the large sensor and adds 720p video recording, a High Dynamic Range mode, Canon's Hybrid Image Stabilizer and HS System. First announced in 2009, Hybrid Image Stabilization corrects for both linear and rotational shake, while the HS System, short for High Sensitivity (first seen in the Canon IXUS 300HS), promises better low-light and high-speed performance.

A lot has changed in the year since the S90 first came out. Samsung and Sony have released impossibly small cameras with APS-C sensors which are similar in size to those found in entry-level DSLRs. Panasonic has finally upgraded its S90 competitor, the LX3 to the LX5, after skipping a LX4 release last year. And all these developments have caused us to revise the way we think about the recently launched Canon PowerShot S95. We'll delve into the details over the next few pages to see how the S95 stacks up.

Design & Handling

The first thing you'll notice about the PowerShot S95 is how little has changed outwardly from the PowerShot S90. In fact, on closer inspection, you'll find that there's less on the S95 than on the S90. As the design of the S95 remains mostly consistent with the S90, most of our remarks about remains the same.

Too Smooth to Handle

Unlike any of the colorful Canon IXUS cameras which scream fashion, the S90 looked more like an unobtrusive ninja - place it down on a table or hold it and it was hardly noticed, as plain as it was. But the small, smooth body of the S90 offered little for grip (which led one enterprising person to customize this beautiful custom grip).

The S90 did offer a respite though, in a small thumb rest on the upper back of the body below the Mode switch, on which your thumb could rest. On the S95 however, that rest has been completely removed, giving you even less grip on the camera body.

To Canon's credit, the front of the camera body has a grainy texture which makes it easier to grip, but not too much. As it is, the S95's grip just manages to stay this side of comfort, but a camera strap is a definite must.

Slightly Better Handling

The S95's shutter button now sits within a hollow, compared with the flat shutter button of the S90. This gives its raised profile more emphasis, but also makes it feel smaller. Thankfully, the very similar On/Off and Ring Func. buttons on the S90 have been changed. The S95's On/Off button is now round instead of rectangular, so it's harder to accidentally power off the camera when all you want to do is change the ring functions.

As with the S90, we found the Mode dial on the S95 overly hard. After a few days of heavy use, the Mode dial got a little looser, but it never became easy to switch modes. It doesn't help that the contact area is really small, so we sometimes had to really dig our nails in and force the dial. It's one of the more frustrating aspects of using the S95.

Changing Settings with the Control Ring

The innovative control ring introduced in the S90 is still here in the S95. Like a dial wheel found on the upper backs of DSLRs, the the ring gives you control over the camera's settings; aperture in Aperture mode for example, and shutter speed in Shutter mode. It works in tandem with the scroll wheel on the back of the S95, which normally gives you control over exposure compensation.

The ring can also be customized to take control over ISO, manual focus, white balance, Step Zoom (zooming in fixed steps like 28mm, 35mm, 50mm), i-Contrast, aspect ratio, or Custom. The control ring is a powerful feature which gives you quick access to the camera's settings. It doesn't give you the same convenience as a DSLR camera, but it makes the S95 a much more convenient compact camera, and helps you take over manual settings easily.

The PowerShot S95 is a concrete example of austere simplicity. Instead of adding more, Canon has taken away what it perhaps felt was unnecessary. We can't agree with all the choices - a front and back grip would have been better - but then the S95 wouldn't be the distinctive, matte monolith it is now. The S95 is product design with a strong opinion, and we can at least respect that, whether we agree with the decisions or not.

Image Performance Part 1

In both ISO and resolution tests, the Canon PowerShot S95 delivers extraordinary clarity for a camera of this size.

Image Clarity

On our resolution chart, the S95 scores an incredibly high 16LPH horizontal by 18LPH horizontal, which means it has the potential to reproduce more detail than most compacts on the market today.

In the real world though, you'll find that image noise and chromatic aberrations hamper clarity somewhat on the S95. Here are some real-world, 100% cropped image samples.

Image Noise

In our lab tests, we found that the S95 could go to higher-than-usual levels for a compact camera and still remain relatively noise-free. ISO800, a upper limit for most compacts, is still clean with the S95. From ISO1250 noise becomes more visible and image clarity begins to soften, but in dark situations we'd be willing to shoot up to ISO1600 and still get a usable shot. From ISO2000 upwards image noise is much stronger but still better than what most compacts will give you at their upper ranges (see the for full-resolution photos shot at high ISO).

Image Performance Part 2

Shooting in Low-Light Hand-Held

Canon's HS (High Sensitivity) System promises better low-light performance using a combination of the DIGIC processor and image sensor, while the Hybrid Image Stabilizer helps to reduce camera shake. We don't have a system here to reproduce and control camera shake, but we shot a lot in low-light using the S95, and we felt we got more steady, focused shots than we normally would have. We can't quantify it, and it could have been a combination of the fast f/2 lens and high ISO, but in any case, it feels like the S95 gives you a better chance of getting a steady hand-held shot than usual.

Shooting in HDR Mode

The S95 adds a new HDR shooting mode under Auto mode. Short for High Dynamic Range photography, the S95 will shoot three exposures of the same scene and combine them to give you a composite photo that shows more of the light and dark areas than you could get with a single exposure.

The S95 is not the first camera to include this feature (even the iPhone 4's camera now does HDR) and it sounds like a nifty feature to have, but we have to tell you it's impossible to use it hand-held. No matter how hard we tried to steady the camera with our bare hands or on a surface nearby, we could never get a blur-free shot (okay, that's not completely true: we got a blur-free shot once).

To be fair, the camera warns you to shoot HDR with a tripod, but even then, it looks like the S95 doesn't deal well with moving objects, resulting in ghosting blurring in the picture.

Video Performance

Video resolution on the S95 has been upgraded to 720p from the S90's 640 x 480. Video quality is good, but there are two major drawbacks which make video on the S95 look like a design afterthought. You can't auto-focus, or even change focus, during shooting, and you can't zoom. This makes the S95's video mode extremely limited in use; you'll always have to shoot pre-focused and pre-composed, locking down your shot without the ability to move around much. These attributes have unfortunately carried forward from the older S90.

Sample Photographs

These are sample photographs shot with the Canon PowerShot S95. The photos have not been post-processed and are copyright to SPH Magazines. We kindly ask that you do not reproduce them elsewhere. Click to see the original full resolution photo.

Conclusion

The Canon PowerShot S95 isn't fundamentally different from the S90, in fact, place the two together and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. Instead of a revolution, the S95 presents an evolution of the camera line.

It has the same handling problems; an plain body that's almost too smooth to grip, and the same 3.8x optical zoom. The Mode dial is still stiff and difficult to move. The S95 can now shoot 720p video, but video mode is effectively crippled with the lack of auto-focus and zoom while shooting.

But what made the S90 great is still here on the S95. A fast f/2 lens, an innovative control ring which gives you quick manual control, a brilliant 3-inch LCD screen, and the ability to shoot RAW on a compact. Canon has added in their new HS (High Sensitivity) System to the camera, as well as Hybrid Image Stabilization, a technology first introduced in Canon's professional DSLR lenses. Canon has also decided to charge less for the new model, slashing the retail price from the S90's S$749 to S$669 for the S95, a S$80 difference, and an attractive one.

And despite any shortcomings the S95 may have, it's one of those products that does one thing so overwhelmingly well that it overshadows everything else. With its larger-than-usual sensor, the S95 shoots beautiful and detailed photos, with cleaner results than most - or even all - compact cameras of this size. If there's only one compact camera you're getting this year and the one thing you care about more than anything else is image quality, the S95 is a clear choice.

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