I am a big Canon fan! I've owned Canon cameras since 1992. (Rebel II SLR, Rebel XS SLR, digital A40, digital S2) Last week I just bought my FIFTH Canon camera, the S3.

My favorite is the S3 because of all the things it can do. It has 12x optical zoom, a neat feature called 'color accent' (allows you to have one thing in color the rest in B/W), fast start up and shooting times and great video capability with sound. Plus a host of other neat features for a person to experiment with while learning.

I'd highly recommend the S3 for several reasons:
  • It can be used simply as a point and shoot
    It can be used with more advanced settings as you learn them
    It can be used as a mini video camera
    A super macro mode allowing for focusing on items laid directly on the lens!!!
    It has a great optical zoom and 6 megapixels
    Since the announcement of the S5 the prices on the S3 should drop quite a bit


I don't regret my purchase of any Canon camera I've gotten and have never had any type of mechanical errors or problems that were not user related (I once had to send in my Rebel II when I got water in it after shooting near a waterfall all day)

Here's a sample of pix I took last week around my house with the S3