Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This camera is the next generation in Canon's Powershot family. Let me start by saying that I have not bought this model, but that this cautionary note is based on a significant flaw in the design of the S400 which I have. I don't believe this flaw has been corrected in this updated model. I bought an S400 and used it for seven months. I was very happy with it. At that point, however, it stopped working without warning. When I sent it in to the factory service center, I discovered something very troubling about the camera that had I known earlier would have caused me to not purchase it. It turns out that this model--as well as many other Canon digital cameras, the tech told me--has an aluminum body. If you subject the camera to temperature changes (and it only takes a change of 10-15 degrees, I was told) condensation will form inside the camera, and the camera will start to corrode, eventually rendering it unusable. This is what had happened to me. What misuse had I subjected my camera to that caused this to happen? I took it on vacation to the beach with me. Carrying it from the hot and humid beach into an air conditioned car was enough to destroy the camera! The tech told me that he sees this all the time. He didn't know the percent of all Canon cameras that suffer this fate, but he said a lot of them do. He told me he gets lots of cameras back from people who have taken them on vacation to Arizona, Mexico, and Hawaii. He even saw one that had stopped working because the owner kept it stored in a stuffy closet. When the owner eventually took it out to use it, the temperature change back to normal room temperature was enough to fry the camera. I was told that this damage is not covered under warranty and that the manual cautions users not to subject their cameras to this sort of treatment. Canon will not provide service on cameras that suffer this fate. If this happens to your camera during the waranty period you're basically out of luck. You lose the investment you made in the camera and any peripherals that you bought. I hope anyone interested in purchasing a Canon digital camera will learn from my very expensive mistake in purchasing one. See the review section for the S400 on Amazon.com for even more stories from people who have had this same problem. What I said about the S400 holds true here as well. The camera is very nicely designed, but it's poorly engineered. If you plan to use the camera indoors only this is a great model. But if you plan to use the camera both outdoors and indoors, if there is a difference in humidity and temperature between the two where you live, and if you don't want to run the risk of totally losing your investment in the camera, this isn't the model or brand for you.