Canon S3

[Papa Deuce]

Awesome - I always wondered what "noise" was and have noticed that graininess in some photos, but never put two and two together - LOL! I happen to have Paint Shop Pro XI and with some poking around - I found the "automatic noise removal" function (which I had never tried!) and it worked like a charm!

Carol

Does photoshop elements 5 have that, I wonder?

 

[polkadotladybug]

when you are in Elements - go to the Help/index and put in "noise" and look for removing noise - I know that I put in "removing noise" first and came up with nothing - I had to search for noise first, then look up removing/removal as one of the sub-cats.

for Paint Shop pro - you go to "Adjust" and it's one of the first options - "automatic noise removal".

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

We took our DS10 to a Young Eagles airshow, this weekend. It's sponsored by a veterans group and several local law enforcement groups for families with disabled children (and adults). It's a great time; in addition to police cars, fire trucks and ambulances to look at, a couple of local hot rod clubs (hot rods, PT Cruisers, Corvettes, classic cars...) also show up. The local ANG brought a C30 cargo plane to walk around in ... you could park a couple of buses in that thing!

The owners of the cars, and the police/sheriffs, give the kids rides around the airport, and you also get to ride on an airplane or a helicopter.

We rode the helicopter; a Robinson R44. It was loads of fun, and I took a bunch of pics and video (love that movie mode ) ... I think this is the nicest pic:

While we were there, the ANG brought a big Chinook helicopter in for some practice (I don't think it had anything to do with the YE Show, but it was still pretty cool!). I love how you can see the exhaust from the jet engines causing the background to ripple:

 

[Groucho]

The biggest problem is one that it shares with other long-zoom PnS cameras (except the Fujis), the small 1/2.5" sensor. In the Canon line, you need an A6xx-series or one of the G-series to get the somewhat larger 1/1.8" sensor.

The small sensor is what causes the high noise levels, but it also allows the camera to be relatively small. These are unavoidable trade-offs.

That seems to be the main issue with the camera. I'd recommend carrying a small pocket tripod to use for night photos whenever possible, you'll also need to use the 2-second delay in order not to shake the camera when pressing the shutter, since you can't use a remote shutter release with it.

Noise reduction helps but it also removes "texture" detail, which leaves things looking fairly "plasticky".

 

[GrumpyOne]

That's what I thought from reading the wiki. It seemed that everything loads from the memory card and that there isn't any replacement of the firmware. Glad to know that's the case.

Are you using the RAW mode or just the other features? If you are, what are you using for PP and have you noticed any problems with the 10-bit RAW output?

I can't make mods until the weekend at the earliest. One of the 620s is in the shop and the other is being used by her for a school project and she gets nervous when I start modding things.

 

[bethbuchall]

I love the optical zoom on this camera! I don't have any Disney photos from it, unfortunately, but here is one that I took this weekend at a swim meet.

This is inside a relatively dimly lit pool. (Everyone there said that it was a dark, dreary pool.) I am shooting hand-held across a 6-lane pool, and I was about half-way down the pool, too. Plus there is space on either side of the pool. This wasn't the full length of the optical zoom, but it was pretty close, I think.

I haven't done anything to reduce the noise yet. My c: drive is too full, so Photoshop can't do anything. (Maybe that is a down-side to the camera...too many pictures!) Also, I'm very new at this and haven't had any training other than experimenting on my own, so I'm sure that others could do much better with this shot. It isn't spectacular, but I think that it will make an ok 4x6 print, especially considering what other people (non-photograpers) consider ok prints.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Are you using the RAW mode or just the other features? If you are, what are you using for PP and have you noticed any problems with the 10-bit RAW output?

I'm not actually using the RAW consistently, but I have used it. There don't seem to be any problems, either.

I use UFRaw and the GIMP 2.2 for processing, but so far I'm not very good at it.

Comparing the RAW images I processed to the JPEG images that come straight from the camera, I've yet to prefer one of my PP'd RAW files to the JPEG! So far, I think the DIGICII processor is better at it than I am!

I guess I just need some experience with RAW PP....

 

[Granite State Heidi]

3) Ditto and battery life - where do I see the battery life indicator


.

I really miss not having a battery life indicator.

On the positive side, the batteries last a wicked long time in my S3.

On the negative side, when it starts to flash the low battery warning, I've got about 4 seconds before the whole camera just goes dead.

If you don't plan accordingly, you'll find yourself fumbling around in your camera bag, trying to locate your second set of batteries, meanwhile "missing" all the great shots.

 

[bethbuchall]

Not sure if this has been addressed because I am a few pages behind, but my memory card fills up soooo much faster than it did with my Kodak. The Kodak was a 5 megapixel and I shot on the highest settings. It seems to be videos that are taking up all my space. I shot 10 pics and less than 15 minutes of video and it filled up a 1gig card!!!! Any thoughts??

I haven't noticed it on the card so much (I haven't shot any video), but my c: drive is filling up fast!

 

[Granite State Heidi]

I haven't noticed it on the card so much (I haven't shot any video), but my c: drive is filling up fast!

 

[Sir Bouncealot]

Some pics I took this morning....

 

[polkadotladybug]

I've had my Canon s3 for a few weeks now - and I love it! But I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to get some sort of cover for the lens (not the lens cap, but something that stays on) - sorta like what we bought when we got our video camera a number of years ago. It protected that lens from sand, grit, fingerprints, etc.

Do you use one? Do you recommend a certain type?

 

[shirleyb]

Andrew,
Love, love, love that last photo especially.

 

[AndrewWG]

I used a UV filter for quite awhile on my S2 for fear that something would get in the lens. You need to get a lensmate or similar barrel adapter for the camera first. However, now I just keep the adapter on to help prevent me smashing into something with the lens as I think my photos are clearer without the UV filter. So far, I have had no problems but I do have to clean the lens a bit from time to time to get of all the dust that will eventually collect on the lens.

Andy

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

I've also got the Lensmate adapter on my S3 (52mm) and I've been using a Circular Polarizer as my main outdoor filter. I've also got a UV just in case I feel like I need to protect the lens from blowing sand or whatever when I'm not using the CPL.

I haven't noticed any differences in my pics with or without the UV, but the polarizer makes a big difference in some situations.

If I find myself switching from outdoor to indoor a lot (like I expect at Disney) I've just been removing the entire adapter instead of unscrewing the filter....

A "real" clip-in lens cover fits the adapter and filters.

 

[denise5374]

Time for another "I know nothing about photography" question.

On another thread Stitch was talking about lensmate products, the 52mm and 58mm lenses and poalrized filetr, UV filters.....What are all these things and under what circumstances would I need them???

Thanks!!

 

[Amy]

Time for another "I know nothing about photography" question.

On another thread Stitch was talking about lensmate products, the 52mm and 58mm lenses and poalrized filetr, UV filters.....What are all these things and under what circumstances would I need them???

Thanks!!

Denise - the way the S3 is made, you can't use any kind of filters on the lens, not even a clear filter to protect the lens. (As a former film SLR user, I had all kinds of filters for my lenses.) But you CAN buy this kit from Lensmate - it covers the S3 lens and allows you to add filters. I didn't get it for my S3 mainly because (the way I understand it anyway) the Lensmate is always extended from the camera, like the S3 when you have it fully zoomed out. I just think it'll make the S3 way too bulky for me. The filters just enhance your shots - the polarizing filter acts like sunglasses for your lens, etc.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Denise - the way the S3 is made, you can't use any kind of filters on the lens, not even a clear filter to protect the lens. (As a former film SLR user, I had all kinds of filters for my lenses.) But you CAN buy this kit from Lensmate - it covers the S3 lens and allows you to add filters.

Just for the record, Canon also makes an adapter for the S3 ... the *lens* isn't designed for filters (because it extends and contracts) but the camera itself is. The Lensmate adapter isn't a "kit" in the sense that you need to alter the camera in any way to use it.

I've been using my CPL (circular polarizer) quite a bit, lately. It really helps reduce glare and improve color saturation out in bright sunlight or when taking pics of shiny objects like cars. It also makes sky and water look better. It also protects the lens from bumps and any sort of grit or grime. I've also got a UV filter which is just for protection when I don't want to reduce the light coming into the camera ... the polarizer reduces the light by about 2 stops so it also doubles as a neutral density filter (which you use to get slower shutter speeds in bright light -- like a silky-smooth waterfall in the sun.)

It does stay on the camera all the time so it makes the camera feel like the lens is extended all the time which makes it a little less compact, but I like having the extra surface area to hold the camera and it just feels "safer" with the adapter on.

You can always remove the adapter -- it comes off in less than a second -- and store it separately in your bag.

You can also use the adapters to attach teleconverters (to extend the zoom), wide angle converters, or macro lenses to increase the macro magnification....

 

[denise5374]

Thanks for the replies.

What is the signifcance of at 52mm and 58mm lens? How does is differ from the lens that is on the S3?

 

[Sir Bouncealot]

Lensmate, at lensmate.com, makes an adapter that will fit onto a S2 or S3 (they make adapters for other models as well, but I am assuming you own a Canon S2 or S3) that will allow for the use of filters and/or lens hoods. The lenses that are available for the SLR cameras (film or digital) have a size at the end of the lens stating what size you would use for a filter....52mm and 58mm are two of those sizes. If you do not have any filters at all from a previous SLR camera, then either size would be fine. If you choose to purchase the Lensmate adapter and some filters, they must be the same size. 52mm adapter with 52mm filter. You can do a search on the web for camera filters and you will see with/without pics and what a filter can do for your pics. Lens hoods will help as well by themselves or in addition to a filter by blocking out any rays of light (sun or artificial) that might cause a flare on your lens. Again, you could do a search on lens flare and you might fins some exapmles of what this looks like on your pictures. The adapter does not change the lens on the S3 at all. The lens on the S3 is a fixed lens that does not come off.