Canon S3

[Frantasmic]

 

[pjpoohbear]

Ok, I have been reading the thread for months, got my S3Si for DCL cruise last December and the memory card went missing when I got home, this week it showed up in the bottom of my closet, yea! I really like the colour in this shot, now that I know more about the S3Si, I hope to take some really cool shots this upcoming trip.

Used noiseware, love it, thanks for that tip too.

Pj

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I think the only shots I have on auto are the very earliest ones I took with the camera. Some of them I posted them on the the thread. Soon afterward I started to try to learn about different settings. It was one of the reasons I got the camera in the first place - I wanted to learn more.

There are really a lot of great comments in the thread but one of them was that, while you "can" shoot in auto, it's "limiting" (in several ways); there's so much more you can do creatively when you venture out to the other settings a bit. That's kind of easier said than done, and I've posted here repeatedly that for me, there was quite the learning curve involved. But once you figure out a few basic things like ISO and those other pesky terms you really can start to play with the settings, understand them, have fun, and ultimately get nicer pictures.

With that said, there are people who stay in auto, are happy, too, and also get nice pictures. That's what's nice about the camera - it can be as easy or complicated as you want it to be!

If you don't already have a copy of Understanding Exposure, pick it up and read a few pages each night. It really helps it all come together. If you care enough about your pictures to post this, than you probably have a lot to gain. Give it some time and keep practicing!

 

[LMarge]

pj,
I would have died if I lost a memory card - how'd you keep from going crazy! My family knows that those are more precious than gold to me!!! I had one fall out while at WDW - I was trying to change it while walking and lost my grip on it - my DH swoops in with the stoller to cover it so no one would step on it until I could get my act together!!! If one ever went missing, before I had it copied off somewhere, I'd probably cry for days! Glad you found it and if that photo is any sign of what's on there - you've got some great stuff!!

 

[pjpoohbear]

I was very depressed, when I went to get it from my desk to upload. I had a iphoto photobook on the go, stopped that, just could not move forward with almost all my cruise shots missing and my last day at WDW. Thankfully I was sailing with a group of about 200 Disers and we did a group account on Snapfish and I was able to grab some shots from there, not bad about .30 each for hi-res.

I will get a shot of the blue bird in that show someday, lol.

Thanks so much for the pat on the back. I have learn so much about the camera from everyone on this thread that I have four tips files on my ipod that will be traveling with me. Lets see if I actually make good use of that knowledge.

 

[melanie18]

FYI - In case no one saw my other thread, I bought an S3 today at Target for $131.06 (inc. tax). They are on clearance for $174. Since they didn't have any more left, they sold me the display for 30% less!!! I am thrilled with it so far!

 

[TwingleMum]

Used noiseware, love it, thanks for that tip too.

Pj

I too love the colors they are awesome. Could you tell me (an obvious newbie) what exactly is noiseware? Do I have to buy it? How do I use it? What if I don't print my own pics but use Costco to develope? Thank you.

 

[jpeka65844]

I LOVE the FOLK picture! I'm a new mommy to an S5. What kind of settings did you use for that show?

I UNDERSTAND all about aperture, shutter, ISO etc....I'm still not clear about when you use what. I'm not good at the practical applications of it all yet...

 

[pjpoohbear]

The FOLK show settings, I am at the same spot, I know what they do, but not exactly when to do what with each.

-Shutter 1/160
-aperture: f/2.8
-ISO 1600, camera chose that, and it is the reason why using noiseware was a must.
-No flash

Ok, the settings also tell me my GPS co-ordinates and altitude, fun.

Twinglemom, noiseware is a wonderful program that cleans up those hi ISO shots that are messy. Do a search for noiseware, it will come right up and on the download page look for the community version.

Pj

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

The FOLK show settings, I am at the same spot, I know what they do, but not exactly when to do what with each.

A couple of guidelines to remember: As the light levels drop, the shutter speed must go slower. If you don't want it to be too slow, the ISO must go UP and the aperture must go DOWN (or, most commonly, both at the same time).

In bright light, it's the opposite; you can use smaller apertures and keep the ISO as low as possible and your shutter speeds go UP. You have a lot more options when the light is good; the ability to use the Av to control the DOF and the shutter speed to freeze or blur the action as you desire. Also, using the smaller apertures reduces Chromatic Aberration (also called Purple Fringing).

I used the Custom feature to save a set of settings specifically for the low-light photo-ops at Disney; Av mode: Av=2.7, ISO 400 and Spot metering and let the camera pick the fastest shutter speed it could. This way, all I'd have to do was switch to C on the dial and I was ready to go!

-Shutter 1/160
-aperture: f/2.8
-ISO 1600, camera chose that, and it is the reason why using noiseware was a must.
-No flash

WOW! That's a ISO1600 picture?!?

Considering how noisy the ISO 800 is on my S3, I fully expected the S5's ISO 1600 to be nothing more than "marketing hype" ... that doesn't seem to be the case!!

If you don't mind, could you post the un-Noisewared one for comparison?

 

[AshleyMWC]

Thanks to this board I have learned so much about this camera and photography in general, but I have one more question. I see a lot fo talk about metering- i.e. spot metering. Could someon please explain what exactly this is (I have the general ideea), some example situations for it, and where I find hat setting on ym camera? Thanks as ALWAYS!

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Thanks to this board I have learned so much about this camera and photography in general, but I have one more question. I see a lot fo talk about metering- i.e. spot metering. Could someon please explain what exactly this is (I have the general ideea), some example situations for it, and where I find hat setting on ym camera? Thanks as ALWAYS!

Metering in general refers to the light metering the camera is able to do in all of it's auto exposure modes (all of the Auto, Scene, also the P, Av and Tv modes). The camera uses its light meter to determine what aperture and shutter speed settings (and ISO in the case of the Auto and Scene modes) by trying to determine how bright the subject you are shooting is.

The S3 (and lots of other cameras, too) has 3 different metering modes; evaluative, center weighted, and spot. You access them through the FUNC menu (the FUNC button) and scrolling down the left-hand side; here's a link to the S3 online manual about the topic.

The more light the camera detects, the faster of a shutter speed it can use and the more likely it is to get a clear/sharp picture. Even excellent IS can't help if the subject moves while the shutter is open. This is why you (usually) want to use the fastest possible shutter speed that the given lighting conditions will allow.

This is where Spot metering comes in. When you are trying to take a picture of something that's well-lit but against a dark background (like performers in FOTLK) the Evaluative metering will look at all of that black and pick a slow shutter speed. Spot metering will look at ONLY what's directly in the focus rectangle, disregarding all of the dark background, and use that to determine the proper shutter speed, which will almost always be faster.

For example, when I was trying to shoot Nemo: The Musical in Av mode, without Spot metering the shutter speeds were far too slow; generally 1/4 sec. or less, and any pics were mostly blurred by even the slightest movement of the performers.

By switching to Spot metering, I was able to get a passable 1/60th of a second, and a few reasonably sharp pics.

Using Spot metering in these sorts of lighting situations can get you well exposed subjects and very dark backgrounds ... but, as most of the time the backgrounds aren't very interesting, anyway, it's OK....

 

[psimon]

I used the Custom feature to save a set of settings specifically for the low-light photo-ops at Disney; Av mode: Av=2.7, ISO 400 and Spot metering and let the camera pick the fastest shutter speed it could. This way, all I'd have to do was switch to C on the dial and I was ready to go!

Thanks for the tip on Custom settings..... how many can you store? Do you have any others?

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[Amy]

Thank you, Ashley, for asking and thank you, LPZ_Stitch for such a good explanation. I haven't ventured into changing my metering (I've just left it at whatever setting came from the factory, which I guess is evaluative), but now after reading that, I just might have to.

Ok, so for stage and spotlighted shows, spot metering is best. (Ooh, note to my brain: spotlighted show = spot metering.)

What about for Spectromagic?

 

[psimon]

By switching to Spot metering, I was able to get a passable 1/60th of a second, and a few reasonably sharp pics.

Using Spot metering in these sorts of lighting situations can get you well exposed subjects and very dark backgrounds ... but, as most of the time the backgrounds aren't very interesting, anyway, it's OK....

Sorry... another question.....

Sure sounds like SPOT metering is the way to go.... why would the "default" be the "EVALUATIVE" setting? Seems like you whould always want to perfectly light your intended subject, right?

---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Thanks for the tip on Custom settings..... how many can you store?

You can only have one Custom "entry", but it covers all of the settings of the camera (aperture/shutter speed/ISO + pretty much everything in the FUNC menu, as well as manual focus and zoom).

It's really an entire "Creative Mode" unto itself, just like P, Av, Tv and M.

Do you have any others?

Tips? I've got tons of 'em what do you want to know?

Here's one, since I was just talking about metering: I've found it to be so useful to switch between metering modes that I moved it to the "Shortcut" button.

Here's another "tip" : everything you need to know about the workings of the camera is here on this website ... it's better, IMO, than the printed manual.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Ok, so for stage and spotlighted shows, spot metering is best. (Ooh, note to my brain: spotlighted show = spot metering.)

That's a good way to remember it!

What about for Spectromagic?

I had better luck with Center Weighted, because the floats themselves are quite large but fairly evenly lit. I tried Spot metering, but it always came out too dark/too slow (just like Evaluative) ... not enough light in the spot, I guess.

Sure sounds like SPOT metering is the way to go.... why would the "default" be the "EVALUATIVE" setting? Seems like you whould always want to perfectly light your intended subject, right?

Not exactly. Each of the metering types is best as certain things and each have their strengths and weaknesses.

If you try using spot metering on a scene with varying colors and contrasts and lighting levels, you could very easily end up blowing some/all of your highlights (if you don't Spot meter off the brightest thing) or getting overly dark areas (the opposite of blown highlights).

Evaluative is "smarter" and generally takes the best-exposed pictures because it's evaluating the entire scene and not one single subject. It generally works best in all outdoor shots, and anyplace where the lighting is even.

However, as is the case with spot-lit subjects, it's also easily fooled by uneven/tricky lighting.

Center-weighted is kind of like the "middle ground" between Evaluative and Spot.

 

[psimon]

Sounds like I have a lot of playing in front of me for the next 3 weeks before I hit WDW. I've had the camera for a year now and really haven't dug into it like I should have. Sadly, it's been a pick up and shoot camera, with an occasional tweak here or there.

I am going to try out your "custom" setup you mentioned.

Tips for Fireworks, shots around the parks outside at night, and anything else you have would be GREAT!

Many thanks in advance....


---Paul in Southern NJ

 

[tyedye]

Ok, I have a question. I have the Panasonic Lumix FZ8 and I have noticed there is no thread with pictures from this camera. Would I be better trading up to the Canon S3IS? I take pictures of band contests as well as football games and an occasional trip to the mouse. The Canon is only about $50 more is it really that much better?

I have the Pana Lumix FZ20 and was considering the Canon also but after reading more about both cameras, like was already mentioned in a post it doesn't really make sense to switch as they are both similar. Now if Canon upgrades the optical zoom to higher than 12x, I may reconsider. I think there are 2 cameras with more than 12x optical zoom right now but I'm not interested in those... at the moment.

You are welcome to start a thread for people to post pics from the Lumix ultra zoom camera's if you'd like. I think alot of people on this board have the Canon camera and so someone started a thread.

I've had my FZ20 for over 3 yrs now and basically use it as a point and shoot and since it's similar to the Canon you can read thru thread and learn alot about the different features as they are similar.

Here is a link to some of my photo's with the FZ20:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1593722

 

[DisneyMom14]

Thanks so much for all the great tips! We went to the zoo today and I tried out some very basic things like trying out the vivid coloring - WOW! and foliage, etc. I'm still not sure of the tv, av, etc. but I'm still reading up on when to use them. I wanted to share my first really good pictures and then some I need help with. First some good ones: