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Canon PowerShot S95 photos

The Canon PowerShot S95 offers a great manual feature set in an attractive, functional, and extremely compact body.

Lori Grunin

Sept. 27, 2010 12:13 p.m. PT

Lori Grunin

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1 of 4 Sarah Tew/CNET

Overall design

I have to admit, the S95 just has a very nice-feeling body. It's well built, with a slightly more textured finish than the S90. The front ring can be set to control shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation, manual focus, white balance, stepped zoom, i-Contrast, or aspect ratio. The functions can be set independently of shooting mode, so that, for example, it can control focus in Manual mode or shutter speed while in aperture-priority mode.

One not-so-pleasant holdover from the S90: the inconvenient flash placement. Although it makes sense from a red-eye prevention perspective, most people hold their fingers right where the flash pops up.

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Back

The back controls remain basically unchanged from the S90, although the dial is better and not quite as free-spinning as the previous model. I do have the same problem as Josh, who reviewed the S90, with the review button--I keep hitting it accidentally.

3 of 4 Sarah Tew/CNET

Modes

The ability to save a group of custom settings for quick mode-dial access is very nice. I find the placement of the shutter button a little too far toward the middle--I feel like I have to reach--but that's just a personal preference.