Canon 12.1 Megapixels PowerShot ELPH 300 HS Review by DPI

On February 7 2011, Canon announced four new PowerShot Digital cameras - the PowerShot SX230 HS, ELPH 500 HS (aka IXUS 310 HS), ELPH 300 HS (aka IXUS 220 HS) and ELPH 100 HS (aka IXUS 115 HS) models. The PowerShot ELPH 300 HS is the world's thinnest 24mm wide angle, 5x Optical zoom model, along with 12.1 Megapixels High-Sensitivity CMOS sensor and a 2.7-inch LCD screen. It comes equipped with Canon's HS SYSTEM for exceptional shooting in low-light, Full 1080p HD video, new Movie Digest Mode and 32 Smart AUTO scenes.

The PowerShot ELPH 300 HS is available in red, black and silver and is currently selling at around $229 (dropped from $246 about a month ago). Here is the summary of review by DPInterface:

"The Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS is a small little camera with plenty of features. The camera retains the familiar ELPH/IXUS design with its compact dimensions, very good build quality and stylish looks; and is available in three different colors. The camera is packed with many notable features; chief among which include the 5X optical zoom lens and CMOS sensor. The camera's ultra-wide-angle lens enables you to pack wider viewing angles into your photos than before (it is noticeably wider than conventional lenses that start at 28 or 35 mm) while the CMOS sensor allows for high-speed shooting and improved noise levels. There's a 2.7 inch display with decent resolution for you to frame and compose photos with, though in a world of iPhones, Droids and smartphones with 3.5 to 4.5 inch displays, a slightly larger (perhaps 3 or 3.3 inches) would certainly have been nice on this ELPH model. Considering the size of its display and supposedly low power nature of CMOS sensors (though I'm not sure of the exact specifications of the 12 megapixel unit Canon has used here), the ELPH 300HS also has slightly below average battery life. The camera has various 'high-speed' tricks from shooting and combining several photos for clearer shots at high sensitivities, to being able to take multiple shots at high speed and extremely high frame rate movies. Speaking of which, the ELPH 300HS demonstrated excellent performance; fast and responsive it was. What was a let-down was the slower than advertised burst rates (no doubt they were still fast). An additional mode to shoot very fast, short bursts at full resolution would also have been nice - the camera tops out at under three frames per second at full 12 megapixels.

One thing that I also missed that other 'high speed sensor' cameras have that the ELPH 300 doesn't, is any sort of 'easy panorama' mode... one which lets the camera automatically create and stitch panoramic images as you pan the camera from side-to-side (you have to snap them with the guidance of Stitch Assist mode and stitch them later on your computer with the bundled software). However, the camera makes up for that with its numerous scene modes and excellent movie mode. The camera sports the ability to record Full HD video with stereo sound, optical zoom, image stabilization, continuous autofocus and exposure adjustment... this is one tiny camera you can easily pocket when going out without bringing a full camcorder. The Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS (remember, also known as the IXUS 220HS) produces good image quality too, which tops it all off. The ELPH 300HS is a very good all-rounder ultra-compact camera that I would highly recommend. The camera has its flaws, like any human-made electronic product out there, but they're minor and just a small compromise you'll have to make for all the other appealing features of the camera - see if you can bear with them in the list below to know if this little ELPH/IXUS is for you."