Canon S3

[jkcd513]

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any recommendations when it comes to Disney and charcter meet and greet for the best settings for my camera S5 is? I would set the custom setting.

Recomendation for outside photos with characters to make sure son, character, and possiblley me and my husband are all in focus (when camera is handheld)
Recommendation for inside judge's tent at MK for photos.


Thanks again.

Jennifer Crider

 

[Doe]

pics were way too big. oops.

 

[DueyDooDah]

...Recomendation for outside photos with characters to make sure son, character, and possiblley me and my husband are all in focus (when camera is handheld)
Recommendation for inside judge's tent at MK for photos.

Outside for your requirements above, try Av mode and f/16 or above. This should give you great results if the sun is out. Step it down to f/8 if it's cloudy. ISO 50 or 100 should work well.

Inside, try Tv mode and 1/60th or faster. Adjust the ISO to give you a clear shot. Start with ISO 100 and bump it up a notch if it's too dark. Keep going until you are happy.

 

[AndrewWG]

Outside for your requirements above, try Av mode and f/16 or above. This should give you great results if the sun is out. Step it down to f/8 if it's cloudy. ISO 50 or 100 should work well.

Inside, try Tv mode and 1/60th or faster. Adjust the ISO to give you a clear shot. Start with ISO 100 and bump it up a notch if it's too dark. Keep going until you are happy.

I think that f8 or higher in Av mode should be ok. That way the camera will pick the best shutter speed for your picture. Keep your ISO at around 100 and that should be fine. The one "problem" with point and shoot is that they usually have TOO MUCH depth of field. It is much more difficult to get a background out of focus with them. Therefore, you should have absolutely no problem getting depth of field at f8 or higher.

That is so long as your photo isn't perfectly centered. Be sure to follow the law of thirds! just kidding about that of course.

 

[daisy2]

This was taken at the All-Star resort with my Canon Powershot S3

 

[daisy2]

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa241/bonpryr/fireworks20073.jpg Okay I will try this again this a picture of the fireworks at magic kingdom. and here the the other picture I took that did not come up on the last reply I wrote on.http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa241/bonpryr/wdw2007disc3188.jpg

I hope it works this time

 

[PhotobearSam]

 

[AndrewWG]

Nice shots! You are going to love that camera. You may want to download noiseware community edition if you haven't already done so. I ran this pic of yours through it (I hope you don't mind) to see what it looked like. Turned out quite nice!

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

Nice shots! You are going to love that camera. You may want to download noiseware community edition if you haven't already done so. I ran this pic of yours through it (I hope you don't mind) to see what it looked like. Turned out quite nice!

Ooh! Ooh! What is that program??? I had my ISO on the COMPLETE wrong setting, and I had a bunch of pictures turn out grainy. I was preoccupied with the shutter speed, and I didn't even think about the ISO.



Also, another question: I was at a birthday party today with DS. I was trying to capture him going down the slide, but the shutter speed was too slow (1/50). Any faster, though, it went dark. It's something with the aperture, right? Help!!

 

[donaldsgal]

Hi all!

I wish I could say I was all the way through this thread. I just discovered this yesterday so I'm only up to page 55!

Anyways, I am planning a purchase this week of a new digital camera. This is my first digital camera purchase, and I'm pumped! I went to Best Buy yesterday and talked to a couple of salesman about good options. A friend of a friend who is into photography recommended a Canon ELPH. I like the compact size of that camera, but I want a really good camera that's going to produce the quality of pictures I'm seeing here. I know little about cameras, but I am excited to educate myself. I'm going to purchase some of the materials you all have suggested for new owners to acquaint themselves with the camera and just play around with it. I have a definite creative side to me, and I don't feel I feed this enough, so the camera will be not only to take great shots at Disney, but also just to feed my creative cravings day-to-day.

So a couple of questions raised by my time with the salesman:

1) Why is a S5 (or S3 - but there was no S3 so I'd have to purchase online) better than a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9? They seem pretty similar in size and features, although the Soney goes up to ISO 3200 (not that I'd ever necessarily want or need to use that) and has the 15x zoom.

2) The salesman really pitched to me that the Sony would be better given the lithium ion battery that can be recharged as opposed to needing to change out the AAs after 125 pictures or so. He didn't tell me the cost of the battery, which I've read to be about $60. Is relying on the AAs going really to be such a big hassle time- and -expense-wise?

3) I keep reading "SD" here - what does that mean?

4) Will a 1 GB memory suffice? What does the camera come with upon purchase? If I'm uploading my pictures to my laptop daily, will I need something bigger than that?

5) The S5 won't work in extreme cold - how extreme is extreme? Will it survive in cold Ohio winters, or chilly Florida nights?

I apologize for jumping to the end of the thread to ask these questions. I never like it when people do that because maybe they are overlooking the answers that were given already. But due to time I wanted to make sure I got to ask these.

Thanks - I'd appreciate any feedback from the veterans on these questions.

 

[PhotobearSam]

Nice shots! You are going to love that camera. You may want to download noiseware community edition if you haven't already done so. I ran this pic of yours through it (I hope you don't mind) to see what it looked like. Turned out quite nice!

I downloaded one but I don't know what setting to run th pics through? Full Supression? I just don't understand it yet.

I love what you did...What did you do?

 

[PhotobearSam]

Ooh! Ooh! What is that program??? I had my ISO on the COMPLETE wrong setting, and I had a bunch of pictures turn out grainy. I was preoccupied with the shutter speed, and I didn't even think about the ISO.



Also, another question: I was at a birthday party today with DS. I was trying to capture him going down the slide, but the shutter speed was too slow (1/50). Any faster, though, it went dark. It's something with the aperture, right? Help!!

Here is a link to the thread where I asked about it...
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1682319

 

[PhotobearSam]

Just saw some cat noses so here a few from my house...

Bebe (15 yr old male)

Moozer (his 15 yr old sister from the same litter...)

and Chewie the one year old troublemaker...

ohhh.....and an eye always watching...

 

[AndrewWG]

Ooh! Ooh! What is that program??? I had my ISO on the COMPLETE wrong setting, and I had a bunch of pictures turn out grainy. I was preoccupied with the shutter speed, and I didn't even think about the ISO.

Also, another question: I was at a birthday party today with DS. I was trying to capture him going down the slide, but the shutter speed was too slow (1/50). Any faster, though, it went dark. It's something with the aperture, right? Help!!

Here is a link to the download page for Noiseware. You want to download the one at the bottom. It is the community edition and it is a free standalone program. I am not sure if it is for Mac users but I know it works for Windows.

http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx

If you want faster shutter speeds, you should probably put the camera in Av mode and put the aperture to the widest open (smallest number like 2.7) valur that it has. If that doesn't work, you should up your ISO value to 200, 400 or 800. If you go up to 400 or 800 you may need to run the pics through the noiseware program mentioned above.

PhotobearSam: I just ran that pic through using the default setting. You can go for more noise removal using different settings, but I just use default all the time.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

1) Why is a S5 (or S3 - but there was no S3 so I'd have to purchase online) better than a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9? They seem pretty similar in size and features, although the Soney goes up to ISO 3200 (not that I'd ever necessarily want or need to use that) and has the 15x zoom.

There are several reasons why the S3/S5 is better (IMO) than the Sony H9:

The S3/S5 has a lighter approach to noise reduction ... though the pictures might look a little grainier, the S3/S5 retains more detail that can be extracted with better noise reduction software. The H9 is more heavy handed with it's in-camera NR and tends to blur detail at the higher ISOs (not that you'd ever want to use them!).

The S5 has a flash hot-shoe for attaching an external flash.

Both S3/S5 have a folding/flipping/rotating LCD which is great for composing unusual shots like very low to the ground or high above your head.

The S3/S5 have the best video available in a digicam.

The S3/S5 have faster lenses (3.5 at full tele vs 4.5.

2) The salesman really pitched to me that the Sony would be better given the lithium ion battery that can be recharged as opposed to needing to change out the AAs after 125 pictures or so. He didn't tell me the cost of the battery, which I've read to be about $60. Is relying on the AAs going really to be such a big hassle time- and -expense-wise?

Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) AA batteries are cheap and reliable ($5 - $10 for set of 4 w/charger at most electronics stores).

I get well over 300-400 pictures (with LCD and occasional flash) from a single set of 2500mAh batteries, and shot all day long at Disney with just two sets of batteries.

Plus, in a pinch, you can always buy AA batteries just about anywhere. If your proprietary Sony battery dies in the middle of the day on vacation, you're out of luck. With AA's, you can just go buy some from a gift shop.

3) I keep reading "SD" here - what does that mean?

SD is Secure Digital ... it's the type of card that the S3/S5 camera uses. SD memory is cheaper and more readily available than Sony's MemoryStick. And, now with SDHC, you'll be able to get SDHC cards with 32G capacities!

4) Will a 1 GB memory suffice? What does the camera come with upon purchase? If I'm uploading my pictures to my laptop daily, will I need something bigger than that?

It depends on how many pictures you expect to take and how much video you're likely to shoot. Video chews up memory cards very fast (~8min/G!).

When we went to Disney, we took 7G worth of SD cards (3 2Gs and 1 1G). There were a couple of days were I needed all of them!

5) The S5 won't work in extreme cold - how extreme is extreme? Will it survive in cold Ohio winters, or chilly Florida nights?

I've never heard that S3s/S5s "won't work" in the cold ... I took dozens of pictures of an ice storm a few weeks ago with no problems.

The *batteries* can have problems in the cold, and you shouldn't charge them where it's very cold (below freezing). But, the camera itself has no problem with cold that I'm aware of. It also helps to keep an extra set of batteries warmed in your pocket when shooting in the cold.

You'll have no problems in Florida.

 

[polkadotladybug]

I have a Canon S3 that we bought last April 07. I LOVE it. I just noticed that the small part of plastic casing that is on the right side of the camera near the bottom screw (I say right side when you hold it like you are taking a picture) has what looks like a stress crack on it - Kinda like the screw might have been too tight (I haven't touched the screw - it was like that).

I know that it has never been dropped as I have been very, very careful with it (and everyone knows not to touch my camera - they all have their own).

As far as I can tell - it does not affect the photos, but it bothers me that I paid a not so small sum for a camera less than a year ago and it has that crack. It would definitely lower the resale value if I sold this to buy a dslr. You can push against the casing and see that it's not as tight against the body because the screwed end part is detached.

I purchased it at Staples and got the extended 2 year warranty. I know Canon has a warranty as well, but I don't know the length of time. Does anyone know the procedure for taking it in? Will they fix it if it's not causing photo problems? It's more than cosmetic - in my opinion - but I'm not sure if that will count as cosmetic for them. I wonder if light will eventually leak in?

Anyone have any advice? Do I call Canon or take it into Staples? Will it be gone for a long time? Will they replace it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doe]

Trying out my new S5. I took them from inside the house (too cold for me to venture out!).

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

Here is a link to the thread where I asked about it...
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1682319

Here is a link to the download page for Noiseware. You want to download the one at the bottom. It is the community edition and it is a free standalone program. I am not sure if it is for Mac users but I know it works for Windows.

http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx

If you want faster shutter speeds, you should probably put the camera in Av mode and put the aperture to the widest open (smallest number like 2.7) valur that it has. If that doesn't work, you should up your ISO value to 200, 400 or 800. If you go up to 400 or 800 you may need to run the pics through the noiseware program mentioned above.

PhotobearSam: I just ran that pic through using the default setting. You can go for more noise removal using different settings, but I just use default all the time.

Merci beaucoup!! Will check those links out ASAP!!

 

[donaldsgal]

The S5 has a flash hot-shoe for attaching an external flash.

What's a hot-shoe?

Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) AA batteries are cheap and reliable ($5 - $10 for set of 4 w/charger at most electronics stores).

Are these different than the regular AAs you'd buy in a store?

SD is Secure Digital ... it's the type of card that the S3/S5 camera uses. SD memory is cheaper and more readily available than Sony's MemoryStick. And, now with SDHC, you'll be able to get SDHC cards with 32G capacities!

Yeah... you had me until SD - what's HC?

I've never heard that S3s/S5s "won't work" in the cold ... I took dozens of pictures of an ice storm a few weeks ago with no problems.

I was basing this on a previous post in this thread about not working in the mountains or when it's really cold. That poster did share that they popped out the batteries and put in ones that they'd been keeping in their pocket.

By the way, thanks for such a thorough response! I was hoping I'd get a knowledgeable S3/S5 vet like you to respond! Thanks again!

On my drive home tonight, I was looking at the scenery and imagining all the great pictures I could have taken. How exciting! :

 

[polkadotladybug]

bumping to see if anyone knows about this.