I've had this camera for years now and it still continues to impress me. With its swivel screen and interchangeable lenses, settings for super macro and manual focus and so many specialty uses, this camera has everything you could ever want!

So I purchased this camera for use to take photo's at school sporting events and functions. I have used the camera about 50 times in the two years and I now have a lens that won't retract. Now that I have searched for this problem, I see it is very common. I found this site for people who don't have the money to send for repairs on some common things to try to fix the problem http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2007/12/fixing-lens-error-on-digital-camera.html

Good luck,

I own one and I echo the fine comments and review on this camera here.
The S3 IS is nothing short of an excellent professional camera. Packed full of great features rendering clear sharp photos that a camera 10 times it's cost delivers. So if you want a camera that puts the "P" in Photography and Professional this camera is a good choice. I did my research and decided to purchase the S3 IS feeling very good about it.

Just get yourself a 1 Gig high speed SD memory card and you are on your way to making great photos. What still amazes me today is the many great features this camera has and the quality of it all. Canon doesn't make good camera's they make great camera's and I can safely say Nikon and the like don't have anything on Canon. Canon is right up there with the best.
I know a couple professional photographers and they said to me that Canon
makes quality pro camera's equal to Nikon and Canon's optics rank right up there with Nikon. In fact one of these photographers was amazed by the quality of this camera and it not costing a few thousand dollars.

Truly a gem this camera!

I got this camera in February of this year so I've been using it for about six months. My other camera is a Canon EOS Rebel 35mm SLR which I've had for years and love. The film processing was getting expensive though, so I decided to try a digital. I did have a Kodak digital camera several years ago but it was past it's usefulness and was taking horrible pictures. I was not able to afford a new digital SLR but wanted more than a point-and-shoot. When I found this camera I thought it would be a great compromise and the price was really reasonable.
Having had an SLR I did not think it would take too long to get used to this camera. I was wrong. Six months into it and simple things like focusing are still frustrating me. I read another review which mentioned this; I have missed so many shots because this camera cannot decide what to focus on.
For example, recently I had a perfect shot of a bee on a flower- I swear he was posing for me- and for almost 5 full minutes (it was a patient bee)I tried every conceievable picture mode and every time the camera would just not be able to focus the way I wanted it to. It would focus for a second and then when I clicked to take the shot it would blur out of focus. Even in Macro mode I was unable to get a decent picture. Every shot is fuzzy or overexposed. The same goes for any indoor pictures I take. I've also noticed that any movies I try making indoors always have a blue hue which I find odd.
My frustration may partially be due to my unwillingness to read through the entire manual (I have skimmed). However, in my defense, I am not completely inexperienced with cameras and one would think that unless this was a hightly specialized professional camera (which it is not!) anyone familiar with SLR cameras should be able to figure it out fairly easily.
If I do eventually realize that my frustration is due to something I'm doing wrong, I will update my review. As it stands I'm increasingly frustrated with this camera and beginning to regret my decision to buy it.

I loved this camera - until, not too long after the warranty period ran out, it stopped working. Specifically, the image is always black ... the display works OK but it acts as if the lens cap is on even when it's not. Now they want $160 and 4 weeks to repair!

I have always handled the camera with care, there were no drops or bumps.

This is my last Canon. It's a fine product when it works but I expect more lifetime from such an expensive product.