The PowerShot S230 Digital Elph camera is truely a usable camera. The instructions are clear and concise. The rechargeable battery and charger are a perfect companion for this camera. All pictures come out great! It makes taking pictures easy, fun, and compact. I recommend buying a case with too, because it is sooo small! pocket size!

What a work horse, plus the great size, just fits in my shirt pocket. Battery life is outstanding, but get a backup, plus this one uses compact flash so I was able to get the Sandisk II 512meg CF card also at Amazon for about $100. It's so good I bought a camera for everyone in my family.

I got this camera after looking around and comparing it with others. I'm glad I decided to go with the S230 for many reasons.

Pro's
Small and can fit in your pocket, great quality pictures, excellent movie mode with sound, comes with battery and charger, not complicated to use, all around excellent camera, and again the 3.2MP makes the pictures very pleasing to the eye.

Con's
Zoom isnt the best buts its alright, it takes good pictures when its dark out but you have to edit with a program such as photoshop to make it brighter. These cons should no way bother you much and should not deter you to buy this camera.

I suggest you buy a viking 256MB memory chip because the one that comes with it will leave you able to only take a few pics. With the 256MB chip you take long videos and take well over 1200 pictures. All in all excellent camera and as usual amazons shipped it fast and got the camera in a few days after making the order. I look forward to buy from amazon and cannon again.

I purchased this powershot s230 from Amazon in Dec 03. Before the ordering I did certain amount of research and had experience with a powershot s200. After 2 months of using, I feel that my decision was definitely right. Because:
1. The 3.2 MP is sufficient for most of daily photo need, either regular 4 by 6 in, or enlargment to 8 by 11 in. I persoanly don't see any necessaty of having a too high MP camera.
2. Extremely compact and strong. This camera has a size smaller than a cigarette pack; and realy stainless steel case. It can be easily put in your pocket and bring anythere, and don't worry about the possible scratches and pressure.
3. Long standing rechargable battery which can at least take 100 flash shots. this is a great advantage over those using AA batteries.
4. Movie with sound, resolution up to 640X480! you check this, Even the s400, s40, s50 don't have such a high movie quality. Plus instant play back on TV, compete with a camcorder.
5. It is peace in mind shopping at Amazon. I enjoyed timely, free shipping, confirmations of every step from order to shipping.
6. the only short coming of the s230 is the software.It seems too complicated.

I got one of these little beauties for Christmas last year. My son did the research, and really picked a winner. My husband borrowed it several times, and I decided to get him one this Christmas. He was really pleased, and said when he opened it "It's the same as yours; I won't have to be re-trained!"

I'm never without a camera---this one is so compact I can carry it in my purse, so if I want to capture a design idea for my house or one of my hobbies, or if there's a beautiful sunset, or whatever. When showing it to people, I call it my "computer in a cigarette case".

This is the 3rd Canon camera I've had since the 70's (and the other two are stil going strong). I've always been pleased with their quality and reliability. Like the others, this model is as easy or as complex as you want to make it. I carry the book with me at all times, because this has so many features that I can't keep them all in my head! I've taken great snapshots with it on the fly, as well as some pretty nice "arty" pictures.

I love the digital because I can review each picture before I decide whether or not I've captured the EXACT shot I want. Much better than taking 5 pictures, hoping I got the one I want, and waiting for the film to come back. Also much more cost-effective. For anyone debating about whether to go digital, I'd recommend this camera. I think the first one has about paid for itself by now in saved developing and film costs. If I want pro prints, I just send them to one of my favorite studios.

I own this camera and while it was very good in 2002-2003 the years have passed it by. There are other cameras with more megapixels, faster response time, better battery life, lighter weight, better lens, etc. Plus they cost the same or less than this camera is advertised for here. I still use it because I bought the waterproof case (up to 100ft depth!) and I use that regularly. You can probably find used s230s for way less than the prices here if you really want it.

I ordered the camera online and the screen didn't dispaly anything. Later I found that my cousin had the same camera and she had to trash it because the battery would die very fast even though she took the pains to buy a new battery for it. I purchased a canon since I thought it was a reputed company and would care about their customer or technical support. But the truth is that they don't even have a technical support number listed anywhere. So thats it with Canon products...

I bought this camera almost 4 years ago, and I love it in every way. It takes great pictures, uses a rechargeable battery and is great on battery life. I go about 6 months without having to recharge the battery. I would say I take a medium amount of pictures.

Recently Dec. 2007, I went to go take a picture and the screen was blank with a few purplish lines running through it.. My icons showed up, but there wasn't anything in the LCD. When viewing playback pictures, those pictures show up in the view finder. I recharged the battery and tried again, same thing. For a while, I thought I would have to get a new camera.

I called Canon support (for the other reviewer, I found the number very easy to find, 1-800-828-4040.) After going through their voice prompts, I got a customer service person right away. No wait! Plus, the rep was in Virginia, so there weren't any of the typical issues that happen when customer support is located in India (like HP).

I described the problem, the rep helped me reset the camera, it worked for a few seconds. The rep told me to keep taking pictures for a few more seconds, because the fix may be temporary, and sure enough, the picture went blank again. (IMHO, most customer service departments would try to get me off the phone the second it started working again).

Long story short, there is a service advisory out on this camera, it turns out that the "image sensor" may malfunction. Canon is paying for the shipment back to them and they will fix it for free. No muss, no fuss. It didn't even matter that I had the camera for almost 4 years. This was one of the best customer service experiences I have ever had.

If your camera starts acting up like this, call Canon right away.

Have had this camera for 4 years.
Has been good, but compared to newer models, a lil' bulky and slow.
Takes Compact Flash card.

Have since upgraded to the SD750, which is awesome.

This camera was fantastic for four years. Then it died -- all the photos I've taken in the last few months have been pink.