The Canon Powershot ELPH 300 HS is part of Canon’s new “ELPH” camera line. It’s a middle line model which will run you $250 MSRP. The camera comes nicely packaged in a fairly small box. In the box you will find the software that runs with the camera which is Canon’s Digital Camera Solution software, USB interface cable, AV cable, wrist strap, battery pack, and the camera itself.
Canon advertises this as the world’s thinnest digital camera with a 24mm ultra Wide-Angle lens. This camera also offers 5x optical zoom. It features full 1080p HD which I have to say looks fantastic. The camera optical image stabilizer works great when you are walking and taking video. The camera features 12.1 Megapixels which accounts for a very sharp picture. The DIGIC 4 Image Processor improves shooting in a lower light situation. I must say that the flash works very well, even when taking a photo in a completely pitch-black room the picture turns out great. The camera has many different shooting modes as well as an auto mode that will choose the best mode for the photo. The different shooting modes include: Auto, movie digest, portrait, kids and pets, smart shutter, high-speed burst, best image selection, handheld night scene, low light, fish-eye effect, miniature effect, toy camera effect, monochrome, super vivid, poster effect, color accent, color swap, beach, underwater, foliage, snow, fireworks, long shutter, stitch assist, and movie. I have tested this camera out in many conditions and it performed well in them all. Having a good memory card is important and will affect the transfer rate. There are several ports on the camera; one of them is an HDMI port which allows you to connect your camera to an HDMI source, like an HDTV. The video quality when connecting to an HDTV is amazing and looks like a very professional quality camera.
The software that this camera utilizes is a very user-friendly type of software. It is easy to organize your photos and send them via email. There is also a Youtube uploader included in the software pack which allows you to upload videos taken on the camera directly to Youtube. This is a very convenient feature because it allows you to bypass some of the steps that Youtube requires to post a video. The quality of the build of this camera is also very good; however, the coating on the camera is fairly easy to scratch. If you have this camera in your pocket with a set of keys it is definitely going to get scratched up. I would strongly recommend buying a case. This is the only con that I found with this camera.
Overall this camera exceeded my expectations in every category. If you are looking for a good camera to take on vacation and capture some high quality photo and video, this is the camera for it. At $250 it is a great value.