Canon S3

[madge]

bumping up an old thread about the Short Course book - I'm looking at getting one for the S3. Are the printed book & ebook essentially the same thing? Or, are they companion pieces, and I should have both?

Thanks

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I really need to order this, too.

How are you finding the S3 to use, Madge?

 

[madge]

I really need to order this, too.

How are you finding the S3 to use, Madge?

honestly? hit and miss so far - it's very easy use, and I love that. But, I think I'm trying to do too much without really knowing what the camera can do, if that makes sense. I'm on the verge of loving it, though.

 

[polkadotladybug]

I see all this talk about different lenses - are those strictly for the SLR's or can you add them (or some) to the Canon S3? what are the main different ones? What do they do? I would love an even stronger zoom as I love close ups.

thanks!
Carol

 

[AndrewWG]

Carol,

I believe that it was stated in another thread that the 12x optical zoom on the S3 is equivalent to a 400mm (or more) lens on a DSLR. Therefore you would already have more zoom than most DSLR users here, I believe.

Filters can be added to the S3 by purchasing the add-on tube assembly that goes around the lens. A filter can then be screwed onto the end of the tube and be used that way. When the lens extends, it comes out to just about the end of the tube but no further. These work well if you like filters. I personally bought the tube adapter and just left it on the camera with no filter. This adds a slightly better protective feature for the lens. It does, however make the camera even a bit more bulky to carry around. It is not permanent though. You can take it off whenever you want.

There are certain "lens" type items that you can buy for the S3 but I don't know how well they work. They just go over the lens that is on the camera to begin with. Here is a link to the tele converter which would make your max optical zoom about 650mm. There is also a wide angle version, just scroll down the amazon page.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-TC-DC58B-Converter-Digital-Camera/dp/B0009NEUOA

If you do purchase one of these, do some test shots with and without them and let us see how well they turn out. I know there have been questions about them in the past and I haven't seen anyone post anything.

Andy

 

[ukcatfan]

Andy covered almost everything, but I have one question for you. By close ups, do you mean macro shots or tight framing of something that is far away? I am pretty sure that the tele adapter also makes the closest focus spot farther away, so it sounds like they are not right for macro work.

Kevin

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

There are teleconverters, wide-angle lenses, and macro lenses/filters that work with the S3 (if you have the adapter tube AndrewWG mentions -- the one from Lensmate is IMO the best; I'm very happy with mine. And, the Lensmate company is excellent to deal with!).

Teleconverters increase the zoom capabilities of the camera at the expense of wide-angle. The camera was designed for and works best with a 1.5x TC -- which increases the effective zoom to 648mm -- which is quite a long distance. Raynox makes a very nice 1.54x TC, as does Canon (1.5x). Many S3 users, on another forum, have had excellent results with a Nikon TC that 1.7x but, unfortunately not made anymore so needs to be purchased used. You get into focusing problems when you go much higher than the 1.7x, so I've heard; and, the IQ isn't very good.

I'm not really sure how much of a difference the wide angle converters make, but I think they go down to about 28mm or so (a bit wider than the S3's "natural" 36mm).

And, there are also macro lenses and macro filters for increasing the magnification while shooting macro subjects. Raynox makes an excellent 8x lens and Hoya makes a set of filters that can be mixed and matched to get a variety of ranges up to 7x. I LOVE macro photography and I'm looking forward to getting the Hoya filters (and possible the Raynox lens, too! )!!

Filters like Polarizers, Circular Polarizers (which are essentially the same on an S3), Neutral Density, Graduated Neutral Density ... all do the same thing on the S3 that they'd do on an SLR/DSLR ... modify the light entering the lens in some way (usually by reducing it).

 

[polkadotladybug]

When I meant closeups - I was talking tight framing of something far away - like wildlife, etc - I've also heard talk about different macro lens and that's part of my question in a way - I'm just more or less asking about the different lens and what they do - telephoto, wide angle, etc.

 

[Marty Joe]

Hi Ho all,
I decided on the S3 IS because there seems to be a huge following here and that many thrill seekers can't be wrong. Well, they could, but not likely. I held the new S5 IS in my hand but at almost $500, the differance was not that big a deal (slightly larger screen, 8 megp, same zoom). I also looked hard at the sony H9. Again, the differance was not that big a deal at $450. My plan is to keep the S3 SI for a year or so and pass it along to my daughter and move into a DSLR (unless gas prices are a $5.00 a gal!).
Polynesian bound - 6/23/07

 

[Amy]

Welcome to the S3 club, Marty Joe! I see you're heading for the Poly on 6/23 - have a great trip! We just got back tonight from an 8-day trip to WDW and USF/IOA - stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. I just downloaded over 1,000 photos I took with my S3 - can't wait to see what they look like on the computer. Don't be afraid to play with all the settings on the S3, esp. when you're trying to take shots of difficult subjects, like Spectromagic or fireworks. I tried the fireworks setting on the S3, but I just didn't like it, so I ended up using the sports setting. I'm willing to bet I'll have some noise to clean up, but I think (hope!) I got some decent shots. I'll be posting some photos in the next day or so once I get a chance to go thru them.

 

[Donaldfan81]

I guess I can say that I am too. I haven't recieved it yet. Just ordered it from amazon last night but i actually own it. Can't wait to start learning how to use it. I really have never been a photographer, however I decided i wanted to start trying it as i need a hobby(boredom can only go so far) and I am going to disney in august with my dsis8 and my parents. I hope i made a good choice. Im so excited.

 

[S. C.]

Hi Ho all,
I decided on the S3 IS because there seems to be a huge following here and that many thrill seekers can't be wrong. Well, they could, but not likely. I held the new S5 IS in my hand but at almost $500, the differance was not that big a deal (slightly larger screen, 8 megp, same zoom). I also looked hard at the sony H9. Again, the differance was not that big a deal at $450. My plan is to keep the S3 SI for a year or so and pass it along to my daughter and move into a DSLR (unless gas prices are a $5.00 a gal!).
Polynesian bound - 6/23/07

I guess I can say that I am too. I haven't recieved it yet. Just ordered it from amazon last night but i actually own it. Can't wait to start learning how to use it. I really have never been a photographer, however I decided i wanted to start trying it as i need a hobby(boredom can only go so far) and I am going to disney in august with my dsis8 and my parents. I hope i made a good choice. Im so excited.

Congrats to both of you & to the S3 family.

 

[hjd0411]

Welcome to the "Family" !!!

And don't forget to post your first photos, too - always interesting. And I'm always on the lookout for any tips re the camera - I'm very much a novice, so I like it when we share!!

Heather

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Another "Welcome to the Family"

Be sure to post your first pics over on the S3 thread!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Congratulations, enjoy!!

 

[Talking Hands]

DH took me to Best Buy yesterday to buy the S2IS but I ended up getting the S3. Took it to church today to photograph our deaf ministry. Can't wait to get it to Disney and take pictures there. Also was able to buy a 2G memory card for $20. My husand is truly a sweetie pie.

 

[Amy]

I found this thread buried back on page 3 - we have some new S3 owners, so I figured it deserved to be back on page 1!

We just got back from WDW yesterday, and while I'm still going through my shots, I figured I'd post this from Spectromagic. I had a tough time figuring out which settings to use for night shots and I ended up shooting mostly in Sports mode, even for fireworks. I found the shutter speed on the fireworks setting too slow - I don't like full streaks, I like to see some points of light, if you know what I mean. Since I ended up using Sports mode so much, I need to run my fireworks shots through Noiseware before posting.

But so you can see, here's a shot of Chip & Dale taken using Sports mode. Here's before Noiseware:

And after using Noiseware:

 

[madge]

I like how that looks, Amy! I can't wait to see more of your vacation pictures I still have 3+ months of practice before my family's vacation!

 

[Talking Hands]

Just got my S3 yesterday and took it to church with me today. Took picked of my small group teacher on portrait mode and was amazed that there was no hand blur. Picture was taken while she was talking a mile a minute. Also took some of my fellow sign language interpreters and no blur either. Will post as soon as I download them from the camera.

 

[Amy]

Ok S3 owners, here are my best shots of Illuminations and Wishes. I figured most people are curious how the S3 does with night-time photos, so I got these uploaded to Photobucket today. I'll do some of my other vacation photos in the next couple of days and will share them then.

I didn't have any luck using the Fireworks setting on the S3. (Bear in mind that I still haven't figured out how to use Macro, but I CAN get great shots using SuperMacro, so maybe it's operator error that caused the Fireworks setting to give me worse-than-bad shots.) Anyway, I got the best results using Sports mode; due to the high ISO that Sports mode uses, I had to run all of these through Noiseware. I took my Gorillapod with me and had it wound around a railing for Illuminations, but once the show started I realized there was a tree right in the way. So I picked up and moved.

All of these photos (both Wishes and Illuminations) were shot hand-held.