We’ve Updated Our Canon S100 Review

Yes, nearly 20 years later, we’ve updated our Canon S100 review. Why? Well, you’ll see in our review that we talk about how retro tech is back. And after being gifted one of these cameras, I found that it it’s very capable of bringing me joy that Japanese cameras once brought me. Plus, they’re going for really affordable prices still. Below is the updated text from our review.

Update January 2026

In January 2012, Mike Pouliot originally wrote the review of the Canon S100 for the Phoblographer. And in 2026, I, the site’s founder and Editor in Chief, was gifted one of these cameras by one of my very good friends. So now, I’ve got the Canon S100 and the S95 — which I’ve already given immense praise to.

I’m fortunate enough to run a publication that has been around for almost 20 years and to also still be at the head. So when I say that I was there to experience the original Canon S100, I really do mean it.

The Canon S100 is every bit as cool as I’d expect it to be. There’s a lot to love about it too. The S100 packs in GPS at a time before cameras defaulted to using the Wifi signal from your smartphone. On top of that, it lets you shoot RAW, apply in-camera filters like the positive film setting, and remains really small and versatile. Plus, there’s cool features like image stabilization, a simple menu interface, and good image quality.

I’m a middle millennial — and I’m writing this update a month before I turn 39. My 31 year old friend, who is on the other end of the millennial side, wondered why Gen Z was getting into digicams like the S100. And when I explained it to her, it made so much more sense.

Cameras like the S100 have returned because of the cost, the fact that the camera isn’t trying to do everything for us, there’s less AI algorithm processing, and the images just truly feel organic. What’s more, when you interact with a camera, you interact with a phone far less. And in 2026, so many of us want to get away from our phones. In a Discord group that I’m in, one of the men talks about how when his iPhone dies, he’s going to switch to a dumb phone of some sort.

Though I’ve always been around using dedicated cameras as part of my job, I totally get what Gen Alpha and Gen Z are saying about using their phones too much. I wear analog watches, recently bought a reconditioned iPod to own my music after years of streaming, play video games on my switch, and have mostly returned to using a computer to do tasks instead of relying on my phone.

In the same way that many of us Millennials were all about film cameras when we first were coming up, these humans are all about retro tech from another era. Unlike Gen X and Baby Boomers before us who discouraged us from having these experiences, I am surpassing that generational trauma to tell younger humans to embrace it and experience. Most importantly, I hope that they have these experiences more in-person than through a digital simulation.

Billion-dollar companies generally don’t really seem to care about their customers until their bottom line is affected. Using a camera like the S100 is a peaceful protest against the dopamine casino that slips generative AI into our drinks the way that a shady bartender would try to roofie you. I’m really sick and tired of the dopamine casino that is social media. And I’m very tired of being sick of generative AI.

With that said, the Canon S100 still exhibits good enough image quality at 12.1MP. It’s crazy to think that even today, Sony still puts out the Sony a7s III — which boasts 12MP. The S100 is also pocketable, fun, has a built-in flash, kookie effects, a zoom lens, RAW file capability, and it makes me have to use my brain. That’s important in a world where technology is actively trying to rob us of cognitive thinking. If anything, not adopting the tech is making us smarter because by willingly choosing to be luddite-like, we’re preventing our regression back to being mindless apes in this case.