28-Year-Old Canon PowerShot 350 Reflects Digital Photography’s Growing Pains

Mar 12, 2025

Jeremy Gray

A Canon PowerShot 350 digital camera is displayed against a vibrant background with vertical red, green, and purple stripes.

There has been a lot of new gear for Gordon Laing of Cameralabs to review the last few months, but with CP+ now squarely in the rear-view mirror, the time is nigh for Laing to take a trip down memory lane for another Retro Review. This time, Laing’s target is the Canon PowerShot 350 from 1997, Canon’s second conventional digital camera and a fascinating relic of digital photography’s past.

Canon’s first conventional digital camera, the PowerShot 600, launched in 1996. Laing reviewed that model in 2021. Although the PowerShot 350 arrived just a year later, it looks dramatically different. As Laing explains, this is because Canon “didn’t actually make the PowerShot 350. Instead, it’s based on the Panasonic VZ-XP1 launched at the Comdex show one year earlier in 1996.”

“It wasn’t unusual during the early days of digital cameras for even the biggest names to share components or even rebrand entire models from other companies as they found their feet in the market. Preceding the later PowerShot A, G, S and Pro series, the 350 was a one-off, a gap-filler to test the market and one that’s quite hard to find today,” Laing writes.

After scoring one for about $40 on eBay after years of on-and-off searching, it was time for Laing to test the nearly 30-year-old Canon (or Panasonic) camera. The tall, beefy camera features a laughably small Type 1/3 CCD sensor with 350,000 pixels. While that may sound like a fair bit when phrased like that, it is a 0.31-megapixel sensor, the same megapixel count as Apple’s first digital camera, the 1994 classic QuickTake 100.

Rusty railing with a circular opening frames a view of a long pier extending over a pebble beach. The pier has a building with a domed roof. The sky is clear, and people are visible on the beach. — This photo has been upscaled to match *PetaPixel*‘s standard formatting. The smaller ‘full-resolution’ is available here.

The camera sports a massive crop factor thanks to its tiny sensor, turning its built-in 6mm f/2.8 lens into a 43mm equivalent prime. Between the fixed focal length lens, complete lack of manual control over settings (save for exposure compensation), and finicky menu system, the Canon PowerShot 350 delivers a rather frustrating photographic experience.

However, Laing argues the PowerShot 350 is worth considering in 2025, if not for its capabilities as a camera, as an interesting footnote in Canon’s storied digital camera history. The PowerShot 350 arrived at a flashpoint in photography as companies grappled with evolving digital sensors and how consumers might want to use them.

Photographers may want to look at later Canon digital cameras if they are interested in a more usable vintage camera. Still, if they want to “turn some heads,” the PowerShot 350 is a unique option in Canon’s illustrious library.

A cup of espresso sits on a saucer with a spoon, placed on a wooden table. The background includes part of a wooden easel or stand. The espresso has a smooth, dark surface with some crema visible. — This photo has been upscaled to match *PetaPixel*‘s standard formatting. The smaller ‘full-resolution’ is available here.

Laing delivers an in-depth breakdown of the Canon PowerShot 350 in his video review above and the written version on Cameralabs. Readers will find many more real-world sample photos in all their 0.3-megapixel glory there.

Image credits: All photos by Gordon Laing / Cameralabs. More of Laing’s video Retro Reviews are available on his YouTube channel Dino Bytes by Gordon Laing.