I have been seeking an affordable camera which will give high quality photos and video clips for both home and work purposes. During the past week, I have closely compared the S100 to the S95 by taking a series of approximately sixty photos and five videos at various locations using the same shooting conditions whenever possible for both cameras. Afterwards, the photos and videos were compared on a 27-inch monitor. Here are a few of my observations. Both cameras gave excellent outdoor photos during a clear, sunny day. However, on my large monitor, the S100 gave comparably excellent indoor photos in either auto or P mode even when zoomed while the S95 showed more overall graininess particularly when zoomed or in low light. Although the photo image quality for both cameras was excellent, the video image quality was different. Out of fairness, it is important to note that the S100 will shoot 1080p HD video whereas the S95 is only capable of shooting 720p HD video. Thus, it is not surprising that the S100's HD video image quality was improved compared to the S95's. However, in addition, the S100 gave smoother video playback with good autofocus even when zooming. More astonishing was the ability of the S100 to give excellent video quality under a wide range of indoor lighting conditions while the S95 gave bright purple lines on both the LCD and in video playback when it was near various types of long-life incandescent light bulbs. The bright purple lines were reproducible, observed near three light bulbs in my house, and made some of the S95 video clips completely unusable. (I do not know if my copy of the S95 was defective.) Since I will use my new camera for work-related photos and videos, too, the purple lines on the S95 were unacceptable to me. The battery life of the S100 seemed poor during the first charge/discharge cycle. I did try the GPS, and while it worked, it drained the battery more quickly than expected. With neither the GPS nor its logger on, the battery life is more tolerable now that I am past the first couple of charge/discharge cycles, but I plan to have a spare battery with me at all times when I use the S100. Based on all of my tests, the features of the S100 are excellent for its size. The photo images seemed to have greater clarity on my big monitor than those from the S95, and the S100's video quality is much improved over the S95. My only complaint is that the S100 is a power hungry little camera, and I think that Canon's design engineers should consider a longer-lasting battery even if it makes the camera a little larger. I am now a very happy S100 owner, and I am glad that I took the time to do my photo and video tests. The battery issue is the only reason I gave the S100 four stars instead of five. It is worth noting that owners of both the S95 and S100 will benefit from learning to use the different shooting modes as well as knowing about options available in the recording and function menus. In addition to Canon's User Manual, there are a couple of excellent books specific to using the S95 that are also helpful for learning how to get the best quality photos and videos from the S100. Search "S95" at any bookstore to find them. One of these books has recently been updated for the S100: "Photographer's Guide to the Canon PowerShot S100" by A.S. White. Review by Tiger
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