Canon PowerShot ELPH / IXUS · announced February 2004

The Canon PowerShot S410 (Digital IXUS 430): the S400 with a print button, and a body nobody described the same way

Sold in Europe as the Digital IXUS 430 and in Japan as the IXY Digital 450.

In 2004 Canon kept the S400's lens, size and weight, added a Print/Share button and asked about $399. Reviewers liked its colour, Imaging Resource liked what it did in the dark, and they found its viewfinder tiny and split on its screen.

Launched

March 2004

Launch price

$399 estimated street price (US)²

Sensor

4 MP CCD

Lens

36–108 mm, 3×

Card

CompactFlash

Battery

NB-1L, NB-1LH

Specs and sources

Meet the camera

Canon's launch release, as Imaging Resource printed it, called the S410 the successor to the "enormously popular" S400 and promised a 3x all-glass zoom, a peak image of 2,272 by 1,704 pixels and movies with sound for up to three minutes.² Imaging Resource's reviewer put the change more bluntly: same lens, same size, same weight, and the only addition on the controls was the Print/Share button.³ The Register credited an updated DIGIC processor with faster shooting and better colour than the S400, and Steve's Digicams found it a bit faster than its predecessor, ready to shoot in about two seconds.¹⁰⁷ Canon lists the body at 87.0 by 57.0 by 27.8 millimetres and about 185 grams, camera body only.¹

It had three names. Canon's museum lists the PowerShot S410 Digital ELPH for North America, the Digital IXUS 430 for Europe and the IXY Digital 450 for Japan, and gives one marketing date for the page, March 2004, without saying where.¹ The US announcement came earlier: Imaging Resource ran Canon U.S.A.'s release from the PMA show on 9 February 2004, with the S410 at an estimated street price of $399 and availability from April.² The same release introduced the five-megapixel S500 and the SD110; Imaging Resource's review put the S410 about $100 below the S500.²³ In Britain The Register's October review quoted 330 pounds.¹⁰

Why this one was interesting

A button for the printer

The Print/Share button was the point of the update. Canon's release said it sped up printing to compatible printers and gave one-touch transfer to a Windows PC; the same release added an ID Photo Print mode for passport-style pictures, in-camera cropping and a Movie Print mode that laid out thumbnails from a clip on card-sized or postcard paper.²¹ Imaging Resource said the button glows blue when the camera is ready to print or transfer and flashes while it works (Canon's release said green),³² and The Register said it supported both Canon's Direct Print and PictBridge.¹⁰ How large a print the pictures could stand depended on who you asked: Imaging Resource saw very good detail at 8 by 10 inches, while Steve's Digicams wrote that the file was big enough for 13 by 19 on a photo inkjet.³⁷

The cheaper twin

Imaging Resource reviewed the S410 and S500 together and said the two were virtually identical apart from the sensor. It listed what you got by choosing the S410: slightly less noise, slightly less contrast in harsh light, better flash colour under incandescent light, a slightly faster cycle time, and about $100 off. What you gave up was resolution, a longer flash range and the S500's 640 by 480 movie mode.³ Its news item went further: the S410, it wrote, was the better deal, and the saving would buy a bigger memory card.⁵ We have no S500 review. Our SD400 and SD500 reviews cover the SD-card ELPHs that followed, and the S230 is a CompactFlash predecessor from 2002.

A metal body, described four ways

The reviewers who commented on the build liked it, but they did not agree on the material. Steve's Digicams' introduction called it a durable stainless-steel body, its conclusion a matte Cerabrite front that resists scratches, Imaging Resource a magnesium body, and The Register an aluminium shell that replaced the S400's metal-and-ceramic one.⁶⁷³¹⁰ Reviewed.com settled for a metallic silver finish.⁹ Canon's museum specifications give dimensions and weight but name no material.¹ We have not opened a unit, so we show all four and choose none.

What was lost

The screen is where the reviewers disagreed most. The Register called the 1.5-inch screen disappointing, pointing out that rivals were fitting up to 2.5 inches, and said it is not as bright as some of its competitors' and can be difficult to see in bright sunshine.¹⁰ Reviewed.com scored the LCD 5.5 out of 10 and said the image solarised when the screen was tilted.⁹ Steve's Digicams said the opposite: a high-resolution screen with a non-reflective coating, quite visible in bright light, with colour and contrast it found impressive.⁷ The optical viewfinder fared worse. Reviewed.com called it comically small and scored it 4.5,⁹ Imaging Resource measured 82 per cent of the frame at wide angle and about 77 per cent at telephoto against about 98 per cent for the screen,³ and Steve's Digicams, who put coverage at about 90 per cent, added that it had a good eye point but no dioptre adjustment.⁷ Canon's specification lists the screen at 100 per cent coverage.¹

Controls were thin. Canon's list of shooting modes is Auto, Manual, Stitch Assist and Movie;¹ Reviewed.com marked the absence of night, snow or backlight presets as a zero,⁹ and The Register called the manual mode very limited and the camera "about pointing and shooting".¹⁰

The dark: its weak point, and a surprise

The numbers for noise and the pictures taken at night point in different directions. In its standard tests Imaging Resource saw slight but visible noise even at ISO 50, thought ISO 50 and 100 fine for most people, 200 marginal and only 400 really objectionable.³ Reviewed.com's Imatest figures were mediocre by its own description, 5.13 out of 10 with automatic ISO and 3.95 with manual settings, with noise climbing sharply at ISO 400; it advised using the flash in dim light.⁹ Yet in Imaging Resource's night test the camera produced clear, usable pictures at all four ISO settings down to the 0.67 lux limit of the test, with colour holding and noise lower than the reviewer expected, helped by an autofocus assist lamp that focuses even in complete darkness (on nearby subjects).³ The Register found the flash and autofocus improved over the S400, with better exposure and fewer blurred shots in low light.¹⁰

The flash itself has a short reach. Canon lists it at 46 cm to 3.5 m at wide angle and 46 cm to 2.0 m at telephoto, with ISO on Auto.¹ Imaging Resource found its range somewhat shorter than the S500's.³ Reviewed.com called its position, upper left on the front where its tester's left hand covered it, a continuing aggravation.⁹ For longer exposures there is a Long Shutter mode that reaches 15 seconds and applies noise reduction from 1.3 seconds up.⁶³

Real photographs taken with this camera (EXIF model Digital IXUS 430). The exposure time is read from each file's own EXIF data; the files record no ISO.

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The little wins

How it drew the picture

Colour was the common praise. Imaging Resource called it very good to excellent under a variety of lights and good on skin tones, though it often preferred the manual white balance; it also found flash pictures under strong incandescent room light less tinted than the S500's.³ The Register's verdict was excellent colour and sharpness, with occasional purple fringing where building edges meet bright sky.¹⁰ Reviewed.com's Imatest run scored colour 8.08 out of 10, with 116.6 per cent mean saturation, which it called over-saturated but not far from natural, and a mean colour error of 7.44.⁹ The same lab measured a real resolution of 2.9 megapixels, 74 per cent of the claimed 4.⁹ Imaging Resource's chart showed strong detail out to 1,100 to 1,150 lines with a lot of aliasing beyond it,³ and its harsh-light portrait lost more highlight detail than it liked, though less than the S500's.³

The lens drew mixed notes. Imaging Resource measured about 0.7 per cent barrel distortion at wide angle and 0.09 per cent at telephoto, with soft corners (particularly on the left) and flare or coma, and weak colour fringing;³ Steve's Digicams described moderate barrel distortion at wide angle and a little pincushion at telephoto.⁷ A few lines on Imaging Resource's own page still describe S500 details (a 640 by 480 movie size and a larger still size); we follow Canon's specification, which gives 2,272 by 1,704 pixels and 320 by 240 movies.³¹

Photos taken with this camera (a Digital IXUS 430, or an S410 where the EXIF says so), from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.

Where it let you down

Its speed depends on whose stopwatch you trust. Imaging Resource timed 2.3 seconds from power-on to first shot and a shutter lag with full autofocus of 0.95 seconds at wide angle and 1.4 at telephoto, which it called slow, against 0.086 seconds with the focus pre-set; it clocked 1.92 seconds between shots, slowing to 3.45 after six large, fine pictures.⁴ Reviewed.com timed start-up at nearly two and a half seconds, about two seconds between shots and a shutter lag of 0.4 seconds.⁹ Steve's Digicams put shutter lag at under a second to about a second and shot-to-shot just under three seconds.⁷ Burst speed shows the same spread: Canon's museum lists about 2.2 frames a second in high-speed mode, the specification Steve's Digicams reprinted says about 2.5, and Imaging Resource measured 2.1 for four large, fine frames before the camera slowed to roughly one frame every two seconds.¹⁶⁴

The handling complaints were small and specific. Imaging Resource found the mode dial too easy to turn by accident, and the CompactFlash card hard to pull out because the lip on its back edge faces the door.³ Reviewed.com thought the dial awkward, with red symbols impossible to tell apart in low light, and called the cover over the A/V and USB jacks fragile and flimsy, likely to be ripped off within about two months of use.⁹

Battery claims do not match either. Canon rates about 190 shots with the screen on and 440 with it off;¹ Steve's Digicams said almost 200 with the screen on and more than double with it off;⁷ Imaging Resource ran a worst-case test, screen on, and got 94 minutes from a fresh pack.⁴ Imaging Resource and Steve's Digicams both recommended a second battery, because the camera takes only the lithium-ion pack (a mains adapter is optional).³⁷¹

What the reviewers said in 2004

The timeline

• 2003The S400, which Imaging Resource calls last year's model, is the camera the S410 updates.³
• 9 February 2004Canon announces the S410, S500 and SD110 at PMA; the S410 at an estimated $399, available from April.²
• March 2004The marketing date on Canon's museum page (one date, no region given).¹
• April 2004Availability in the US per Canon's release and Imaging Resource.²³
• 18 May 2004Imaging Resource posts its S410 and S500 reviews.⁵
• 25 August 2004Reviewed.com's review, by its page metadata.⁹
• 20 October 2004The Register publishes its review.¹⁰

Should you buy one now?

Buy one if you want a small metal CompactFlash compact whose colour reviewers liked, and you can live with a 1.5-inch screen, a viewfinder that shows at most about 90 per cent of the frame, soft corners and a flash with a short reach. It was announced at $399;² what it sells for now is a question for the sold listings, not for us. We have not tested a unit. Before you bid, check these:

• The name. It is the Digital IXUS 430 in Europe and the IXY Digital 450 in Japan, so search all three names.¹ Do not confuse it with the S400 it updated, or with the five-megapixel S500 announced alongside it.³
• The battery. It takes an NB-1LH or NB-1L and nothing else;¹³ Steve's Digicams listed a charger in the box, which takes a little over two hours on an empty pack.⁶⁷ A fresh pack is on Amazon ↗.
• The card. It takes CompactFlash Type I; a 32 MB card shipped with it, and Imaging Resource advised a much larger one.¹³ We have not confirmed a maximum card size. See our CompactFlash page, or search cards on Amazon ↗.
• The card door. Imaging Resource found the card hard to pull out;³ insert and remove one before you buy.
• The port cover. Reviewed.com thought the cover over the A/V and USB jacks fragile;⁹ check it is present and the USB jack is clean.
• The mode dial. Imaging Resource found it easy to knock;³ turn it through its settings and check each one registers.

If you are wondering why cameras like this are being hunted down again, we tell that story once, in Pictures that never left the card. For terms like CCD, DIGIC or AiAF, see our glossary.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗NB-1LH battery ↗

Sources

1. Canon Camera Museum: PowerShot S410 DIGITAL ELPH / DIGITAL IXUS 430 / IXY DIGITAL 450 (names, March 2004, specifications, battery rating, interface)
2. Imaging Resource, Canon announces three new ELPH digicams by Michael R. Tomkins (9 February 2004), with Canon U.S.A.'s PMA press release (S410 at an estimated $399, available April)
3. Imaging Resource, Canon PowerShot S410 Digital ELPH review (quick-look date 05/06/2004; see the news item for the posting date)
4. Imaging Resource, 'Picky Details' for the S410 (timings, battery run-time, card capacity)
5. Imaging Resource, Two reviews posted, for Canon PowerShot S410, S500, by Dave Etchells (18 May 2004)
6. Steve's Digicams, Canon PowerShot S410 Digital ELPH, page 1: introduction and specifications (Internet Archive copy; the page prints 'Review posted 3/09/03' and a 2004 copyright)
7. Steve's Digicams, Canon PowerShot S410, 'Steve's Conclusion' (Internet Archive copy)
8. Steve's Digicams, Canon PowerShot S410, software page: RemoteCapture, interval and timer shooting (Internet Archive copy)
9. Reviewed.com, Canon PowerShot S410 digital camera review by James Murray (the page's own metadata dates it 25 August 2004; includes Imatest lab scores)
10. The Register, Canon Ixus 430 digicam, by Andy Jameson (20 October 2004; 80%, 330 pounds)

Camera photos by Alisdair McDiarmid (CC BY 2.0) and Raimond Spekking (CC BY-SA 4.0); sample photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links.