Canon S95 Performance

Slow to average speed for a consumer camera.

Average startup and shutdown times here, very similar to the S90. Buffer clearing is faster than average, though burst rates are slow enough that a fast card can keep up.

Full autofocus shutter response in the default AF mode is slower than average at wide-angle, at 0.64 second. Full AF shutter lag is about average at full telephoto, at 0.62 second. Surprisingly, these results are about 50% slower than its predecessor, the S90. Enabling the flash increases lag quite a bit to 0.90s, due to the preflash metering involved. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of 0.096 second, which while fast, isn't quite as fast as some.

Shot-to-shot cycle times are slower than average, at 2.58 seconds for large/fine JPEGs. RAW cycle-time was a bit slower, at 2.88 seconds per frame. These results are comparable to the S90's numbers (2.43 and 2.96 seconds respectively).

The PowerShot S95's continuous shooting modes were faster than the S90's (almost twice as fast for JPEGs), but still somewhat sluggish for its class. The S95 captures large/fine JPEGs at 1.87 frames per second (vs 0.94 fps for the S90) , though the camera seemed to be able to capture frames continuously at this rate. The burst rate dropped to 0.98 frames per second when capturing RAW files (vs 0.70 fps for the S90), but again with apparently no buffer limit. The flash took 6.0 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, which is slower than average, but improves on the S90's 6.8 seconds.

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds were moderately fast.

Bottom line, the Canon PowerShot S95's timing performance isn't its strong suit. Startup and shutdown times were about average, autofocus speeds and shutter lag were slower than average, as were full resolution continuous modes. Buffer depths and buffer clearing were however quite good, but not really a surprise given the slow burst rate and 10-megapixel files.

Battery
Below average battery life for a lithium-ion design.

The Canon PowerShot S95 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Battery life is pretty short (and slightly worse than the S90's 220 shot rating), so we recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Canon PowerShot S95 accepts MMC/SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and does not include any built-in memory or a starter card. Canon recommends using a card with Speed Class 4 or faster for capturing movies.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SDHC memory card at least a 4GB card, preferably an 8GB or larger one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings, RAW files or video. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)