O/T Cameras

[Eileen Stein]

Thanks, guys. And welcome to the Boards, Heidi.

[Pipedream Farm]

Eileen,

 

All of my puppy shots have been taken with a canon powershot sd450 which we chose knowing that I'd eventially be getting a dSLR. BTW I will be getting a canon 30D this winter with 2 zoom lenses (24-70 f2.8L and 100-400 f4.5-5.6L), YEA!

 

Mark

[Kelliwic Border Collies]

Hi Eileen,

 

Check out Digital Photography Review if you haven't already. It helped me narrow my search. I bought an S3 IS this summer. My stepdad is very much of a camera guru and worked at Agfa for 30 years or something like that, so I had his guidance. For about $200 more than what I paid for the S3 IS, I could have gotten a good quality DSLR, but what ultimately decided me on the PowerShot was the video capability. This seemed very useful to me in having the ability to film lessons or trial runs and such, and for as little filming as I will probably do, I didn't want to buy a fancy camera *plus* a camcorder. It can take stills while filming, which is a feature some people might like (although the audio will record the camera shutter noise, and that sound can't be turned off).

 

I'm definitely not camera savvy. In my layman's opinion, I'd say the S3 IS is basically a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. As was said above, it doesn't like low light, and it struggles with speed and light when zooming in at a distance. It has a *lot* of features and photography options in the menus, which impressed my stepdad (for the class of camera), but which I will never understand or use. In general, I find that the "standard" settings on this camera produce falsely rich color, but that's what the "average" consumer seems to like--colors that "pop," even if they don't represent the actual colors. There are simple settings that allow the images to appear closer to true-to-life color. Normal portrait/close up shots without too much action are generally very good quality.

 

My avatar pic was taken with my S3 IS, in shade, and cropped a bit. Here are some other pics I've taken with it. The first four were all taken with the camera at totally standard/auto settings. The last two were after some timing-variable and other adjustments by my stepdad (but not at the time/location the pics were taken).

 

Some wildflowers in my yard, shot in the shade, no cropping. My first day with the camera, just messing around with it.

 

A close up of Kaylie, just zoomed in...no cropping. Bright hazy day, also first day with camera.

 

My friend's dog. Mostly cloudy day, shooting basically into the sun. (Yeah, I know better, but sometimes it can't be helped...)

 

After cropping.

 

My friend and one of her other dogs. Bright somewhat overcast day, again into the sun.

 

And after cropping.

 

As for video, this is Dare (I've posted this once before), taken the second or third time I used the camera. It was misting/drizzling, and I was probably about 100 yards away (??), up a steep hill. (Yeah, my filming skills stink!) The original video was surprisingly GOOD quality, even at full-screen size, but was too big to upload to Google (plus the program I used to make the titles wouldn't let me save the file as the original file type ). So...I'm not sure if this gives you a true idea of the video capability and quality, but here it is anyway.

Dare video

 

I hope this helps you with your decision.

[Kelliwic Border Collies]

PS, if you don't mind having the camera shipped to you, I found Beach Camera to be consistently the lowest price for the cameras I was considering. They are not terribly far from me so I went and picked it up. It's carried in a lot of stores so you can try it out almost anywhere.

[Anda]

I agree that having a good quality video feature is something I am also looking for, in case I find the money to replace my Canon Powershot S50. The SLR's don't have that, and as Megan said, I don't film enough to justify buying a separate camcorder. My husband disagrees If we get to go to Italy next summer, I might get a camcorder, but not until then.

 

I was looking at the Canon Powershot S80 that they have out now. I like the fact that is compact, easy to carry around and is considered (by Canon) as a High-End Digital Camera.

 

I am very happy with my Powershot S50, which I bought in 2003 online for about $450 -that was about $200 less then what they were selling it at Best Buy, with the exception of the low quality video output.

[SoloRiver]

I'm in the market for a small digital camera myself. The Achilles heel of all of them is the teeny tiny sensor, which (a) makes noise a big problem (especially for high megapixel count cameras) and ( almost completely removes the ability to use selective depth of field unless you are shooting macro photos. For me not being able to play with depth of field is a big problem. It's also why small digicam photos always look sort of flat -- everything is in focus. (This sounds like it's supposed to be a good thing. It isn't.)

 

The way I feel about it is that if you want to take nice photos and are willing to get something as large as some of the prosumer "super-zoom" cameras out there then you may as well spend a little more and get an entry level dSLR. The Nikon D40 is an excellent new choice and you can get the kit with body + lens for about $600. If I get a small point-and-shoot digicam I'm going to look for something small and pocketable, which the S3 IS is not. I've been ogling the Panaxonic LX2/Leica D-Lux 3 (same body, some different tweaks and different branding) as well as the Canon Powershot SD series.

 

On the other hand, there are a lot of good reasons to choose one of the smaller super-zoom type cameras -- I posted this before but Magnum photojournalist Alex Majoli does some pretty hard-core stuff using Olympus point-and-shoot cameras.

 

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_pag...cid=7-6468-7844

 

I'm surprised that Natalie's Fuji doesn't like low light -- they are supposed to be the king of low light digicams.

[ness_bc]

As point and shoot camera's go I recently purchased a Ricoh R5 after going to a number of camera stores explaining what I wanted.

 

It has a nice optical zoom and has a very quick start up time which is great for taking pictures of fast moving objects - like BCs for instance :cool:

 

The other advantage is that it isn't overly bulky either.

[Lunar]

Melanie - Well, it is about 5 years old. A pretty decent camera too - 3mp, 6x optical zoom. Works great outdoors. And like you I'd love to get a small pocket camera to take with me where I can't bring one of my bigger ones... but that will have to wait.

[sandyleew]

Megan Q - That is some pretty impressive poison ivy you have there.

 

I am extremely envious. I want a Digital SLR more than anything, but funds do not allow for it.

[Kelliwic Border Collies]

Ivy-schmivy. I'm lucky I have not ever gotten poison ivy, so far, as no matter how often people point it out to me, I never recognize it. Good with plants like I'm good with photography, I guess.

 

The pic was supposed to be of the little flowers, which unfortunately are not the focus of the shot. I think they are called monkey flower, but I'm not sure. They're cute as can be though.

[Eileen Stein]

I think it's a dayflower, probably the Asiatic, possibly the erect. We have lots of them around here. In any case it's a beautiful picture, and the shot of Kaylie is awesome. Thank you (and the other posters) for all this helpful information.

[Jack & Co.]

My husband is highly allergic to poison ivy but is incapable of recognizing it.

 

Just remember: "Leaves of three, let it be!" You can also recognize it by the small "thumb" that sticks out on the side of the leaf. The roots and vines are hairy and you can get a reaction from touching them also.

[juliepoudrier]