Canon S2

[Kelly Grannell]

oh, and the usual "Welcome to the Canon Family!"

 

[Shutterbug]

I currently have the A75 as my digital and also I have the Elan IIe with several zoom and wide angle lens's. Trying to figure out if the S2 is worth it to me for the extra $100 it is over the A540.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

yes it does. The IS at the long end (or on the wide end, taking night-time shot) is really helpful. Imagine 1/16 sec shutter speed at 36mm... handheld.

 

[Shutterbug]

yes it does. The IS at the long end (or on the wide end, taking night-time shot) is really helpful. Imagine 1/16 sec shutter speed at 36mm... handheld.

Well I have a 50mm with a 1.5 aperture. With 400 or 800 speed the Elan takes great evening or low light shots. I used it for the shows at MVMCP. I also used the a75 set at the same ISO 400 and the print film blew the digital away. Thats why I am kind of wondering.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Digital point and shoot can never replace you Canon Elan IIe.

May I suggest a Canon RebelXT, refurbished maybe? Yes, it's going to cost you around $600 for a mint refurbished RebelXT, but the pictures, especially at high ISO is 100% better than S2 IS, plus the instantaneous on, no shutter lag, etc.

and I believe, I may be wrong, you can use your current lenses on the RebelXT.

Regardless, at ISO 100, 36mm (that's as wide as the S2 IS go), night shots at 1/16 sec shutter speed... sweet and drool inducing thanks to IS.

I personally can't wait to play with my 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens and taking night shots handheld.

 

[Shutterbug]

Yeah thats what I figured. Rebel is too much for me right now. Plus when I go that route in the distant future I plan on taking the "go big or stay home" approach and go all out for something like the 30D..until then I need something better to fit my budget.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Considering you will use high ISO, I can only recommend Canon S3 IS (relatively clean ISO 400 with useable ISO 800 (easily be cleaned to perfection using a freeware), or Fuji F10 (very clean ISO 800, but very little zoom and no IS)

 

[hlbtimes2]

The optical zoom is worth the $100 difference! We love our S2.

 

[yanjan]

i love it as is. from my a510 big difference. when i went there last time most of my pictures where blurry now i dont want to make the same mistake. i was basically doing all auto shots.

i wont be doing that mistake now. pse help me with the settings for

nightshots
fireworks
fast shots during day.

i need the setting that work best in manual or where should i start to expirement from

once again tks for the tip on the s2 and keep up the good work

nick

 

[Kelly Grannell]

just to make it easier:

1. go to SCN mode, and find "night snapshot" for night shot without tripod or "night shot" for night shot with tripod

2. go to SCN mode, and find "fireworks", tripod is required

3. go to SCN mode, and find "children" mode. Alternatively you set the camera to Tv (shutter priority) set it to 1/400 (minimum) to 1/800 and then set the ISO accordingly to achieve that speed without underexposing the picture.

 

[yanjan]

tks kelly just want i wanted to know


for the tripod is there a brand thats better then others? also is buying all those extra lenses worth it?

i have so many ? to ask about this but so little time to experiment with it

nick

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I've tried those extra lenses. Well, they are good compared to nothing at all (if you really need 28mm wide, for example, it's better to have not that excellent pic than nothing at all, right?). Due to the luxury of having a friend who owns a store, I tried several different brands. They don't matter too much as long as they are no less than 0.7x magnification (to make the lens wider -- lower than 0.7x magnification will create more barrel distortion, everything close up looks like baloon -- imagine fish eye lens) -- the number is approximate, of course. Canon's original is 0.7x, other brands sells 0.65x, or 0.8x. If you can afford is, of course, get the Canon original. The adapter tube, however, just get one from eBay. No need to buy original Canon that's (at the time, don't know now) priced 4x more than the knock-offs.

For zoom... you REALLY do not need more zoom.

Tripod, if you have a bit of budget, I very extremely strongly and highly recommend Manfrotto MODO. It's not expensive and it is designed for point and shoots and digital videocam.

 

[yanjan]

sounds like a great pod

now mini maxi or mono lol i tought they were gonna be more expensive then that. that i can do




nick

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I'd go with the maxi. The mini is only 38" tall, whereas the maxi is 50" (based on the neck retracted. Try to not extract the neck more than 25%-30%, best is to keep it retracted for best stability)

 

[LaurieA]

I think I have my choices narrowed to Canon PowerShot S2 IS or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7. This would be our first leap into a camera like this. Wanting this camera for an alaskan trip and of course Disney. I am really new to the camera world . Can you tell me which camera you would choose and why, or if you would choose another.

 

[jann1033]

from the reviews i read both are good...i am going with the s3( some places only charge about $100 more than for the s2, i put s3ie in the google search and check the prices on pricegrabber and other places like that)

the reason i chose the s3 over the panasonic was when i went to the store and held them both , the panasonic is a little larger and just seemed clumsy to me. it 's more rectuangular, the canon more squarish ..also the movie seemed good with the s3 and i don't have a camcorder...it's been a while but i think the panasonic does not use aa batteries ( figured the cost for rechargables is cheaper with the c3 plus if i need them in a pinch i can find aa anywhere.) i also like the color features of the c3( selective coloring etc) and I think the panasonic received a "recommended" vs the c3 a "highly recommended " on one review i saw.

some places with reviews if you haven't seen them
www.steves-digicams.com
www.dpreview.com

my biggest "con" with the canon is i have had problems with their customer service in the past( with a printer) but i figure unfortunately that seems more the norm. any more..and i don't know how panasonics would be

 

[JR6ooo4]

Alright Jan!
stepping up to the plate with the review... and beating Kelly and Captain crash to it as well.
MIkeeee

We bought a S2 for my wife and are pleased with the photos and the cameras functions. Sorry, I have no experience the other camera.

 

[jann1033]

Alright Jan!
stepping up to the plate with the review... and beating Kelly and Captain crash to it as well.
MIkeeee

i have learned from the masters

 

[Kelly Grannell]

another thing: Panasonic is too eager in using their noise reduction for their high ISO shots. Here are the samples of Canon's high ISO noise, Canon's high ISO noise cleaned using a freeware, Panasonic Lumix high ISO with their auto noise reduction (can not be turned off)

Images on the extreme left and right are taken from dpreview showing ISO 400 (or is it 800) performance of Canon vs Panasonic. The image in the middle is cleaned by myself using Imagenomic Noiseware freeware.

 

[Shutterbug]

Considering you will use high ISO, I can only recommend Canon S3 IS (relatively clean ISO 400 with useable ISO 800 (easily be cleaned to perfection using a freeware), or Fuji F10 (very clean ISO 800, but very little zoom and no IS)

I dont plan on using the digital camera for anything over 100 or possibley 200 ISO. For any hand held night shots I will still use my Elan IIe along with my 1.5 aperture 50mm lens along with 400 or 800 speed film, as both films show almost no grain at all compaired to the digital camera. I took photos at it MVMCP of the Celebrate the Season show in front of the castle. I used the 400 speed film and the 1.5 50mm lens with the Elan. The film shots totally blow away digital ones in sharpness and color. The digital at that same ISO were blurrry and noisey. I do have a minolta deditcated slide and negative scanner to scan those photos in and put them in the computer.

Also for firework, 15 seconds is not enough time for me. Mostly because most the objects in the foreground usually need a longer than 15 second exposure to be exposed properly.

Also I have a 24 wide angle lens for my 35mm.

Plus I LOVE the Eye-Control focus and metering so in any case my Elan IIe is ALWAYS going to be in my camera bag

I am just looking for a camera that will let me take regular non artsy fartsy shots but let me closer to the action if I need to be.

But in any case I very much appreciate your input...thank you!