This is for you guys that have the Canon S-series digital cameras, the ones that are about the size of a pack of cigarettes.
I picked one up used last year (s100). It’s been great so far. And then there’s the battery. The battery that I got with the camera (NB-1L) lasts a very short time. So do some research and find there is a newer, interchangeable version called the NB-1LH. I buy one on-line (I don’t remember who from). I get it, I try it, and I deliberately use it up before I recharge it, part of conditioning the battery. I’m able to get off hundreds of shots, with flash and display on, over maybe two days. When it drains I recharge the battery and hit the road.

It is not until I am out of the country (I live abroad) that I realize the battery will only take so much charge: I get low battery notification in a very short time once I begin shooting. I figured it was the charger, which does charge the thing, but not to it’s full capacity. Picking up a new charger is on my list of things to pick up in the US when I’m back.

So now I’m looking into chargers, and keep coming up with this goofy looking thing that is a kind of clumsy for traveling with
like this, whereas the charger that came with the camera is pretty slick and about the size of the camera. I would really like a more compact charger.

Anyone else out there dealing with the same problem? As I understand it all the cameras in this series use the same battery.

I have had about four or five of these S-series cameras, beginning with the 110 and now I have the 500. I have never had the problem you describe, at least not with genuine Canon batteries. I usually do very well with the batteries, getting maybe a couple of hundred shots (with flash) before there is a problem. One thing that occurs to me is you bought a used camera, and there is the possibility it was on the market because the owner had a problem with it (of course, you have more information than me about who you bought it from, etc.). Maybe the camera is frying the batteries, in which case you may be SOL. Another possibility is if you are paying very little for the batteries, they may be counterfeits, or, at least, not manufactured by Canon. For example, I bought one once that was black rather than gray in color, but in all other respects looked like it had been manufactured by Canon, when in fact it had not been. These did not work well at all. Anyway, these are a couple of thoughts. Good luck.

I have a Canon A70 that I bought about a year ago. I love it. My uses 4 AA batteries which it goes thru like candy. I now use 1850mAh rechargable batteries and they last forever.

Harry

i experience short battery life as well. can't even sustain a couple of hours in st hotels.

now i'm getting the dreaded E18 error and only use the camera for viewing purposes since the lens has problems retracting and won't focus at all.

I've owned 5 Canons. Great hardware. I've also experienced a short battery life - but ONLY with batteries bought off ebay (non Canon batteries). With the original Co Manfacture battery I get a few hundred shots off each charge. (and just carry 2)

Good luck.

As long as we are talking about Canons here, I have owned more than I can count. I recently bought an SD500, and have been having alot of problems with the focus; it probably is dead on (or close) only about 50 percent of the time when I am doing "garota photography" (the S500 I had, which unfortunately went kaput, got in focus shots about 80 or 90 percent of the time). Anyone else have these problems with the SD500? It is so bad I'm almost at the point of purchasing a replacement, maybe the Fujifilm F10.

Laguy I had the same problem with my sd500 as my pics from last trip showed . Portrait shots were frequently out of focus. I have never had a problem with the sd300 I had before.

fuck - i got a sd500 recently too - (and was proud of it) - but on my last trip i too noticed too many blurry photos. many more than i ever had with the previous model.. any idea what's up with this?
rggggg.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but awhile back I did see some posts on www.dpreview.com making similar comments about the SD500. I suspect the posters were not using the camera the way we are though.

The first issue I had was whether mine was defective, or just indicative of a bad focusing algorithm or susceptability to camera shake. Either there are many defective units out there, or, there is something about the camera that doesn't work too well for what we are using it for.

So, what I think we need to do is experiment with the settings to see whether we can get better focus by playing with them. For example, next time around I may set the ISO to 200 to see whether that helps any; this might help if we have a camera shake problem. Also, I am going to compare the portrait scene mode with so-called manual mode to see if there is a difference in the quality of the focus. I guess also toggling between the different auto-focus modes might be informative. I have done some of these things before but not systematically enough. The problem though is I am not terribly happy about having to sacrifice photos of some of my experiences in order to see whether this thing can get solved. Any additional ideas would be appreciated. Also, if there is anyone out there who is getting satisfactory pictures with the SD500, at least most of the time, I'd like to hear about it, and whether there are any tricks used to get these.

what settings is the camera defaulting to when you notice the blur (iso, shutter, f stop)?

blur comes down to only two variables-- hand movement or too slow shutter speeds...

You can try pushing it a couple stops via the iso setting and try again. I don't have the sd500, but I imagine there is a low light warning (flashing amber?) Did you happen to notice it when you pressed the shutter release?

Since my trip I have been playing a bit with the camera and have found that for portrait type pictures the focus problem does not seem to occur when you disable the "artificial intelligence" auto focus(default is ON) and just use the standard single point focus. I think the problem was the multipoint focus selecting something else in the frame and focusing on that. Y'all with similar problems can try that as a first step.

I'm glad I still have my sd300 just in case.

I've been using a Canon SD100 (3.2 megapixel) for the past year. I was using an Olympus C3000 (3.3 megapixel).

I like the Canon's small size. I've been using it as my primary camera when I travel, but I am not impressed with its optics. There's a very noticeable difference in sharpness between images taken with the Canon vs. those taken with the Olympus.

I thought because of its small size, I might be shaking the Canon. Last week, I decided to do a test. I used a tripod and took images using the Canon and the Olympus. I was real surprised at the differences. The quality of images using the Olympus was far superior. I'm really disappointed with my Canon SD100.

On another matter, those eBay "knockoff" batteries for Canon digital cameras suck. They don't hold a charge compared to the Canon brand battery.

I noticed that too about the batteries. Must be why they always selllthem in pairs. I just use them in the interim until the OEM Canon battery recharges.

I have the Canon SD300 but prefer to use my Minolta DimeageX as it is smaller and more lightweight than the Canon and in my opinion takes a lot better pictures in lower light situations. Hell, it just takes better pictures than the Canon.

Well, neither my S500 or SD500 comes close to my Sony DSC F717 in optical quality (let alone my 20D), nor did I expect either to given they are super compact. However, I can live with some degradation in picture quality in exchange for the convenience of a very portable camera. What I can't live with is chronic mis-focusing and/or blur. What I'm going to do in the next few days is use one of the Canon programs for viewing my SD500 pictures which shows the focus points, as well as the other settings. That might help me evaluate what is going on, including whether the focusing algoritm is picking the right points (I should mention though I also have used the single center focus point option, and recall that I still did not get consistently in-focus shots).

After suffering with the Canon SD-500 and its focusing problems, I finally broke down and got a Fujifilm F10 as a replacement. The Fujifilm F10 is a much better camera IMHO, and focuses much better for what we do. The only thing to be careful with is with auto ISO it tends to default to 800 (!) when using the flash. I suggest manually setting it to either 100 or 200 ISO (note though that according to the review on www.dpreview.com, there is much less noise with the F10 set to 800 ISO than on other comparable cameras, something my experience is confirming. Anyway, those of you who are considering the SD-500 (or already have one and want an alternative) I can recommend the Fujifilm F10 while suggesting you stay clear of the SD-500. Any contrary opinions about either are, of course, welcome.

hrmmm--

well all you guys with focus probs-- feel free to send those sd500s my way.

Don Marco: You're too late. Its already been sledged. Sorry about that.

But the software on the Canon's is the best, no?

Regarding the battery, I've never had any problems. Here's my routine. I have two batteries, and I always carry the spare fully charged. NEVER recharge the battery until it's fully drained (not a problem since I always have the backup).

I often focus the camera by holding the button half-down, triggering the aiming light and the focus. MAYBE THIS ALLOWS BETTER FOCUSSING? Mostly I do this because I most often point the camera using the aiming light as opposed to the viewing hole nor the LCD.

The instructions for using the Canon SD-500 say to hold the button half-down, etc., and that is what I do (and I have the focusing light on, using it rather than the LCD or optical viewfinder to frame my photos). The F10 focuses much better than the SD-500. I am not saying this applies to other Canon models because I had very good luck focusing with the S-500 and preceding models. The problem (and I'm not the only one to experience this) is the SD-500 sucks. It is quite possible that the SD-400 and other SD models do not, although I have no experience with them, and don't know whether they have different focusing systems than the SD-500.

Thanks for the info, and pointing out the consensus on dpreview... sounds like it sucks!