Image quality is good
How is the image quality like?
The Canon 300HS an excellent camera as long as you accept that it's not a "baby S95." If you want fast access to manual controls, this is not the camera for you. If you like scrutinizing the image pixel by pixel, this is not the camera for you. However, someone who's a non-photographer and wants good-looking photos from a small camera in "Auto" mode will almost definitely love it.Likes:--------------1) Image quality is good for a camera in this price range. Yes, there is some mild corner softness at 100% magnification, and there are some chromatic aberrations in high contrast areas, but looking at the whole photo at any reasonable magnification, I'd be hard pressed to criticize the quality. The noise is well controlled, and there is enough fine detail to avoid the dreaded "water color painting" effect of some other popular cameras. Auto white balance does a good job under a variety of lighting, exposure is generally spot-on, and low-light images are better than I expected. ISO 1600 is usable for small prints in low light.2) Video quality is very good. It uses a high bitrate compression, which eats memory fast, but I can see details in the video that other cameras simply smudge over. My only complaint is that the 1080p video is recorded at 24fps, and is somewhat choppy in motion. Switching to 720p or lower resolution results in 30fps video, which produces noticeably smoother motion. The stereo sound quality is decent, and the mics are plenty sensitive. When zooming during video recording, there is some motor buzz that's picked up by the mics, but it's only noticeable in a quiet environment.3) I like the 24mm wide angle lens, and prefer that over some 100x mega-zoom. It lends itself well to landscape shots, interior shots, close-ups, and other creative photography scenes.4) The camera is pretty quick to power on, and the controls have good response. It focuses in under 1 second, there is minimal shutter lag, and shot-to-shot times are about 2 seconds.5) The controls are intuitive, well-organized, and the buttons are plenty big for such a small camera. I had most functions figured out in a few minutes without having to resort to the manual. The mode switch provides a convenient thumb rest when holding the camera.6) Construction and build quality seems solid. I bought mine at a local store and made sure to get the version made in Japan. I haven't observed the problems mentioned by other reviews, like shaky video zoom or easily scratched finish. The battery door seems somewhat fragile, though.Dislikes:--------------1) When completely zoomed out, the lens casts a shadow from the flash in the lower right corner.2) Video mode is mostly automatic, you can't even adjust exposure compensation. I have older compact cameras which can do this, it would have been nice to have that feature here.3) The quick-set menu is somewhat slow to operate because it does not present as much information at once as other cameras, for example Panasonic's Q-menu. It's a vertical layout with vertical submenus, whereas a horizontal layout with vertical submenus would have been better.4) There is no wind-cut option for the microphones.I'm not taking points off because these are relatively minor issues, considering the camera is aimed at a novice user. It's not perfect by any means, and it's missing some toys found in other cameras, like a high resolution screen, auto HDR, or auto-stitching panorama. However, if your priority is the end result - the quality of images or video coming out of the camera - this one stands above the competition. I would recommend it to anyone looking to produce good-looking photos with minimal fuss. 