Good resolution and detail, though slightly noisy. Pretty accurate color and saturation, but contrast is high.

The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the PowerShot S1 IS handled the challenge fairly well, albeit with somewhat high contrast.

The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which still lost some detail in the highlights, even though the midtones were a bit darker than I'd have preferred. The camera's Low Contrast setting helped tone things down, but still resulted in slightly dark midtones and lost highlights. I chose the Manual white balance as the most accurate overall, though the shot was slightly warm. I preferred the warmer skin tones to the cooler, slightly magenta tints of the Auto and Daylight settings.

As I mentioned, skin tones are just a bit on the yellow side from the slight warm cast, but still natural-looking. The blue flowers in the bouquet are dark, but without any strong purplish tints. (Many digicams have trouble with this blue, which is in reality a pretty pure, light navy blue.) Saturation is good throughout the frame, though the red flowers appear a little too saturated (but not enough to obscure too much detail). Resolution is high, with a lot of fine detail visible in the flower bouquet and in Marti's face. Shadow detail is moderate, with a moderate level of noise. Overall, an excellent result, if only the contrast level were a bit lower. (Kudos to Canon for including a contrast adjustment, I just wish it's effect extended lower.)

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files S1OUTMP0.HTM through S1OUTMP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Higher resolution and detail, but once again high contrast and darker midtones.

Like the wider shot above, contrast is again slightly high here, with somewhat dark midtones and a loss of detail in the brightest highlights. The shot at right was again taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, although it resulted in a somewhat brighter exposure here than in the shot above. The S1 IS's 10x zoom lens avoids distortion in Marti's features, an important feature in close-up shots like this. Detail and resolution are stronger in this shot, with good definition in Marti's face and hair, as well as in the house siding. Noise is again moderate in the shadows, obscuring shadow detail slightly.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +1.0 EV, see files S1FACM1.HTM through S1FACP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +0.7 EV

Slow-Sync Mode +0.7 EV

Good intensity and coverage with the built-in flash, with good color at the normal setting.

The S1 IS' built-in flash illuminated the subject very well here, even at its default exposure setting (although it was just a bit dim with its default setting). I found the best exposure with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which produced good coverage and accurate color. Color looks quite good overall, although the blue flowers are a bit darker than in real life. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode resulted in a strong yellow-orange cast from the background incandescent lighting and longer exposure, but the flash coverage is good and a little more even than in the normal flash mode. I chose an exposure compensation setting of +0.7 EV for this shot as well.


To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV in the normal flash mode, see files S1INFP0.HTM through S1INFP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

For the same exposure series in the Slow-Sync flash mode, see files S1INFSP0.HTM through S1INFSP4.HTM.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color with Incandescent and Manual white balance options. Moderate noise.

This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. The S1 IS' Auto white balance fell victim to this trap, producing a very warm image. The Incandescent and Manual white balance settings produced more accurate results, the Incandescent option producing a slightly cool-toned image, the manual option a slightly warm-toned one. While I generally prefer a slight warm cast on this shot, to evoke the mood of the original room lighting, I found myself liking the image shot with the Incandescent setting the best, and so chose it for the main shot for this test. The shot at right was taken with a +1.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which is a bit dim. The overall exposure was brighter with a +1.3 EV adjustment, but I felt that the highlights on the white shirt were too hot and distracting. The blue flowers in the bouquet are dark and purplish, but that's probably to be expected given the tough lighting.

ISO Series:
Some noise is present here, even at ISO 50, but it's well within acceptable limits there and at ISO 100. At ISO 200, the noise level increases quite a bit, to the point that it might be evident to most users. At ISO 400, the noise becomes objectionable, to the point that I wouldn't consider the camera usable at that sensitivity level for images I cared about.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Cloudy White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good overall color, despite slight color casts, and great detail.

Though slightly cool, I found the S1 IS's Manual white balance to be the most accurate here, with the best white value on the house trim. The Auto and Daylight settings also produced good color, though with a slight warm cast. (It's really personal preference between the Manual and Auto settings, as some people may prefer the warmer tint of the Auto white balance.) The Cloudy setting produced a stronger warm cast, but not dramatically. Resolution is high, and detail is strong in the tree limbs and front shrubbery, as well as in the brick pattern. Details are also reasonably sharp throughout the frame, without any strong softening in the corners.

Great resolution and detail, though exposure is high and dynamic range limited.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the S1 IS performed very well. Detail is strong in the tree limbs over the roof and fine foliage in front of the house, with pretty good definition in the finer details of the tree bark and leaves. Details are quite sharp and well-defined across the image, without any noticeable softness in the corners. (This is quite unusual, in my experience.) The bright sunlight on the bay window causes the camera to lose all but the strongest details here, a trouble spot for many digicams. (I should also point out that the exposure is just slightly bright, which contributes to the loss of highlight detail.) Detail is slightly better in the shadow area above the front door. Still, the S1 IS's dynamic range is a little limited by its somewhat high native contrast. The camera's Automatic white balance setting produces good color, though saturation is low from the overexposure. The tables below show a standard resolution and quality series, followed by ISO, sharpness, contrast, saturation, and effects series.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Effects Series
Normal Color	Vivid Color	Neutral Color	Black and White	Sepia	Low Sharpening

Lens Zoom Range

An excellent 10x zoom range.

I routinely shoot this series of images to show the field of view for each camera, with the lens at full wide angle, at maximum telephoto (10x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The S1 IS' lens is equivalent to a 38-380mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a pretty substantial telephoto. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Slight color casts, but good results overall. High resolution and detail.

This shot is often a tough test for digicams, as the abundance of blue in the composition frequently tricks white balance systems into producing a warm color balance. As with the House poster, this shot is again up to personal taste. The Manual white balance setting produces a cool color balance with pale skin tones, but I still found it preferable to the warmer, more yellow Auto setting. (Here is a situation where post-capture editing on a computer would likely fix the problem.) The Daylight resulted in warm color balance, with stronger yellow tints. The blue robe is a bit magenta, with some purplish tints in the deep shadows. Resolution is excellent, with great definition in the embroidery of the blue robe, as well as on the finer details of the models.

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

Very good macro performance, with good detail. However, the flash is blocked by the lens and doesn't throttle down enough.

The S1 IS did quite well in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 2.17 x 1.63 inches (55 x 41 millimeters). Resolution is high, and fine detail is strong in the dollar bill and coins. However, the coins and brooch were soft due to the very short shooting distance. (Not at all the camera's fault, depth of field is very shallow in extreme closeups like this.) A small amount of softness is noticeable in the corners along the left side of the frame, but it doesn't seem too bad. The S1 IS' flash is partially blocked by the lens, and doesn't throttle down for the macro area.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Slight overexposure, but good color.

I chose the Manual white balance setting for this shot, though the Auto setting also produced good results. (The Daylight option produced a slight warm cast.) As with a few cameras recently, I boosted the exposure compensation by +0.3 EV here to get the white block on the MacBeth(tm) target closer to the maximum white value, but in hindsight, I think the image looks a little bright overall with this exposure. Still, the camera manages to distinguish the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target well. Aside from being just slightly washed out by the minor overexposure, colors are quite accurate in the large color blocks, although I found the red and blue additive primary color blocks just slightly oversaturated. Also, the shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows only moderate detail, with moderate noise as well. (Once again, I wish the S1 IS's default contrast was a little lower.) Overall though, the S1 IS's color is quite pleasing.

ISO Series:

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Effects Series:

Effects Series
Normal Color	Vivid Color	Neutral Color	Black and White	Sepia	Low Sharpening

Low-Light Tests

Good low-light performance, with good color and low noise. No AF-assist light, but focuses down to 1/4 foot-candle anyway.

The S1 IS produced clear, bright images down to the 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of my test, with good color at the 100, 200, and 400 ISO settings. At ISO 50, results were good as low as 1/8 foot-candle (1.3 lux), though you could arguably still use the image taken at the 1/16 foot-candle light level. Noise levels remained pretty good, even at the ISO 400 setting. Though noise is high at ISO 400, it is lower than I actually expected it to be here. Color remains good even at the dimmest light levels, without any strong color casts. The surprising part though, was that the S1 IS has no AF-assist light.(!) This is particularly surprising because Canon is a manufacturer that really pioneered the use of AF-assist lighting across their product range some years back. Despite the lack of AF-assist, the camera will still focus (albeit very slowly) down to about 1/4 foot-candle, a light level roughly one-quarter that of typical city street lighting at night. This isn't bad, but the camera is obviously capable of taking pictures under much darker conditions. (Fortunately, the manual-focus scale does show numeric distance values, so you should be able to guesstimate the focus closely enough much of the time.) The table below shows the best exposure I was able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.

(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of one foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 100.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux
ISO 50	2 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	13 sec f2.8	15 sec f2.8	15 sec f2.8
ISO 100	1 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	6 sec f2.8	10 sec f2.8	15 sec f2.8
ISO 200	1/2 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	8 sec f2.8
ISO 400	1/4 sec f2.8	1/1 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	4 sec f2.8

Flash Range Test

Slight underexposure, but good consistency and range.

In my testing, the S1 IS's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, without any significant decrease in intensity. Flash power is slightly dim overall, but pretty consistent through the series. Below is the flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/60 sec f3.1	1/60 sec f3.1	1/60 sec f3.1	1/60 sec f3.1	1/60 sec f3.1	1/60 sec f3.1	1/60 sec f3.1

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution, 1,000 lines of "strong detail." (More, with artifacts.) Average barrel distortion, but very low pincushion.

The S1 IS performed well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 600-650 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,000 lines, although you could argue for as high as 1,200 horizontally. I chose to rate it at the lower 1,000 line number though, due to the level of moire artifacts that are present beyond that point. (I tend to rate cameras more conservatively than some reviewers.) "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred around 1,300 lines.

Optical distortion on the S1 IS is a bit better than average at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 0.7 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, as I found only 0.09 percent pincushion distortion (about two pixels) there. Chromatic aberration is moderate at wide angle, where there is only relatively faint coloration around the target elements in the corners, but fairly strong with the lens at its telephoto setting, with rather bright red/green fringes visible in the corners. (This distortion is visible as a slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG
2,048 x 1,536	S1RESW2048F
1,600 x 1,200	S1RESW1600F
1,024 x 768	S1RESW1024F
640 x 480	S1RESW0640F

Resolution Test, Telephoto

2,048 x 1,536 (Fine, Tele)

S1REST2048F

Sharpness Series

Sharpness Series
Soft	Normal	Sharp