Lissener, it would be more usefull if you described what you are taking pictures of and in what lighting conditions. In other words, do you need a telephoto lense or a wide angle lense? Indoor or outdoor? How big of a print will you be making?
Well, I have an S-400 and am really impressed with it so far. Mainly because of battery life. I used to have an old hp photosmart 620 camera that used AA batteries. I used the LCD in 'after-shot preview mode" only - that is, the picture you just took appears on the screen for 4-5 seconds after taking it, then turns off. For all other uses I used the manual viewfinder. This netted me about 40 minutes of battery life. Plus, it took forever (25-30 seconds) to power on, so even if you tried to be conservative by shutting it off, it was a hassle to use. I eventually got tired of carrying around 3 sets of Ni-MH batteries!
Enter the S-400. Using the LCD as a viewfinder - which I’ve found that you need to do as the photos won’t center properly with the viewfinder without lots of practice, I can get 3-4 hours of life. And because Canon uses the same lithium-ion battery pack in so many of their digital cameras, the aftermarket battery prices are great - I paid $34 for 3 additional batteries, and that included shipping! Also, the battery charger is 110/220 so it only needs a “plug adapter” when traveling overseas, not the bulky “voltage converter”.
The picture quality ranges from excellent to “meh”. Like most digital cameras, it takes stunning pictures outside on a sunny day. In darker conditions - like the inside of a dark nightclub - pictures can be either “OK” or crap. But from what I know, this appears to be a problem with digital cameras in general, not the Canon in particular. You can take the S-400 to “total manual” mode, but I’m too lazy to dust off my old photography knowledge just to take holiday snaps.
Lastly, I’m assuming the S-410 is about the same size as the S-400. If so, buy your camera case off eBay. I found a seller in Charlottesville, VA that did a “Buy It Now” for $7.50 (shipped) for the “official” Canon leather case. The best price I could find from a “normal” online seller or local B&M was $19.99 (plus shipping from Dell. I ordered the case from Dell and shortly after was sent an email that said the “estimated shipping date” had been changed from a “couple of days in the future” to “4-5 weeks”. :mad:
Although I would have preferred to buy some of the cameras mentioned above, turns out that budget was the primary driver after all: no matter what camera I showed to my bosses, their first question was “How much?” Retarded AND cheep. Also, to remind you of the criteria, these are architects using it primarily for recording the progress of a structure; getting preliminary photos to draw plans from; etc. Plus did I mention they’re retards? Also, I wanted to buy from the camera shop on the same block as out studio, since I was leaving the firm (I have in fact left the firm) and I knew they’d need backup within a narrow geographical radius. So I ended up getting them the Pentax Optio 43 WR. They’re THRILLED with it, and it was only $300. Pretty nifty little camera. Not for art-photographers, but great for their purposes. At the same time I bought myself a tiny little Pentax digivid (just made that up; I HATE “camcorder.”), but gotta run–babysitting–will post a link and model number later, if any interest.