The Canon S70 is probably the best compact camera for the serious photographer. While not as compact as some of the recent wafer-thin models, it offers a very rich feature set, and still fits easily in a shirt pocket. It offers extremely high resolution, along with control over all the important photographic parameters.
One of the things that sets it apart from most other compact digital cameras is its ability to go to the equivalent of a 28mm wide angle. This makes it much more versatile for architectural and landscape photography than most other "point and shoot" digital cameras.
The S70 can go even wider, to the equivalent of 19mm, with the use on an additional lens. The Canon LA-DC10 adapter mount allows the use of 37mm accessories. I already had a Nikon WC-E68 wide angle lens for my Nikon 5000, and so I used a 46mm to 37mm step-up ring to put the WC-E68 on the S70.
Here is what it looks like. It's still pretty compact:
They work surprisingly well together. The WC-E68 is a very sharp lens on the 5000, and it remains so on the S70. There is hardly even any corner softness. In addition to being lighter in weight, this set-up is much less expensive than buying an ultra wide-angle lens for a DSLR. The WC-E68 is easy to buy used on eBay for a relatively modest price, while the Canon LA-DC10 adapter is about $25.
The LA-DC10 adapter is plastic, but fits the camera very precisely and holds the lens very solidly. There is also an alternative, metal adapter available from www.ckcpower.com, for about $50, but I have not tried that yet.
For some full size samples: http://www.pbase.com/samk2/s70_tests
I've compressed these quite a bit, so there are some jpeg artefacts (but they are still over 1 mb each).
The WC-E68 produces a relatively modest amount of barrel distortion. It can be easily corrected with the superb (and free) PTlens software from http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/
Just copy the following into your PTlens profile_canon.txt file:
begin lens
group: canonS70
multiplier: 4.843
menu_lens: WC-E68 (full wide)
converter_factor: .68
converter_detected: 0
cal_abc: 5.81 0.026854 -0.077694 0.000000
end
Canon has recently announced a new model, the 8 megapixel S80, to replace the S70. Its body is a bit slimmer, so it requires a new adapter, the LA-DC20, to attach extra lenses to the camera. I have not tried the S80, but its sensor and lens size are the same as on the S70, so it is reasonable to expect that the WC-E68 would work with it also.
You can send me questions or comments to knopflersam aaat yahoo.ca
(c)By Sam Knopfler, March 2005
I have recently written a review comparing the Canon Powershot G7 to the Nikon Coolpix P5000. You can read that by clicking here.