Canon S3

[LPZ_Stitch!]

YES he does

LPZ I want to see some pics from you

I just took a couple of nice photos in PA's Lancaster County (Amish country) and some macros from my backyard with my DCR-250 ... I'll try to post a couple (maybe later tonight).

I've been doing way more *talking* about photography than practicing it, lately!

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

OK, here's some pics I've taken recently with my beloved S3!

An Amish farm in Lancaster county, PA:

Another Amish farm:

A country road beside a grain field in Lancaster county:

A very orange sunset, from the parking lot of my place of employment:

And one more, a TINY beetle taken with my DCR-250 macro lens; this beetle was probably less than 1/4 the size of a grain of rice!:

There's no post production on any of these except for resizing with the GIMP 2.0. All pics were taken with my S3 with the My Colors set to Positive Film. I like Positive Film because it gives all the colors a little pop but not as over-the-top as the Vivid modes can be.

 

[Goofy Rulz]

I just found this site and I can't tell you how excited I am!! I recently purchased the S5 and have been playing around with it. I love this camera!! I'm starting to read this tread from the beginning (currently only on Pg 3!) and have already learned things. I'll probably be an expert by the time I read everything through that you guys have to say. Just wanted to say thanks for all the advise and I'm glad there's a place like this to come to. I'm sure as I play more w/my camera I'll have questions. Especially about getting great firework and water shots. I want to have all this down before we go on our trip.

 

[bob100]

I enjoy my Canon S5, it takes great pics on auto mode and has every manual control you would want - a good way to learn. The CHDK programs are nice too, especially the battery meter (why did Canon leave that out?)

 

[mmkk]

I love taking photos and my DH just recently informed me that we can get a new camera (probably won't be until Christmas but still excited none the less!) and I have been reading reviews on SOOOO many cameras. I think I have decided to get the Canon S5 after reading so many good reviews and especially this thread.

I wanted to get a camera that will take good pictures at night and that can zoom in to the smallest of things, without breaking the bank.

I can't wait to get the camera so I can read up on it here! You guys are awesome!

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

I wanted to get a camera that will take good pictures at night

Just a warning ... the S3/S5 is a GREAT camera, but *no* small-sensor P&S takes good pictures at night without long shutter times.

Cranking up the ISO on an S3/S5 to get anything close to a "fast" shutter speed will result in noisy/grainy pictures that *must* be cleaned up with noise reduction software like Noiseware.

A lot of people are disappointed with the S3/S5 when they first use it in a low light situation, thinking they'll get DSLR-like quality because the camera has all of the controls of a DSLR ... however, it doesn't have the huge DSLR sensor!

That said, with a little work and a little software you can certainly get good low-light pictures (this thread has tons of pics that are proof of that).

Another plus is that Canon generally takes a very light touch with it's in-camera noise reduction, and that leaves more detail (though also more noise) for Post-Production NR software to recover. Most of Canon's competition (especially Panasonic, IMO) uses heavier in-camera noise reduction and the results look smeary or watercolor-y, and detail is lost that cannot be recovered by other software.

 

[FletchFab5]

I've found that in low-light or night shots--band concerts in auditoriums, dark Disney rides, fireworks, anything that is itself lit up-- I use the Sports Mode with the flash OFF. Sometimes I have to run them through Noiseware but otherwise no problems! Here's a couple I took yesterday:

and a few other examples:

 

[Dodie]

Could someone explain what it means to "run them through noiseware"? I keep seeing that and have no idea what that is.

Thanks for helping someone new to more advanced photography ideas. I've always been an automatic settings, point and shoot, crop and print kind of gal.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Could someone explain what it means to "run them through noiseware"? I keep seeing that and have no idea what that is.

"Run them through noiseware" just means loading the picture in Imagenomic's Noiseware and clicking the Run button. The software removes high ISO noise (graininess) from pictures. All digital cameras have noise at high ISOs, and small-sensor P&S cameras (like our S3/S5's) have quite a lot. Using noise reduction software (like Noiseware) makes the noisy/grainy pictures look much nicer (especially when printed).

For an example of what Noiseware does, here's an ISO800 shot of an extreme closeup of a fern:

And, here's the same picture after Noiseware. There's much less "grain" in the dark areas:

Imagenomic makes several versions of their software to meet varying needs ... but, they even have a FREE version (which is what I use).

 

[awoltoday]

Imagenomic makes several versions of their software to meet varying needs ... but, they even have a FREE version (which is what I use).

I caved and bought the basic version a few days ago. It is VERY nice to have batch processing and EXIF data! I've been taking a lot of pictures at the kids' swim meets and end up taking a lot of higher ISO pictures as the evenings progress. It was sure nice to set up the batch and walk away rather than repeatedly doing the open, go, save as thing!

 

[SplshMtn99]

Hi everyone. I'm the original OP of this thread. Boy, you guys sure know a lot. I'm one just happy using Auto & the scenes.

I wanted to share something I thought pretty funny. Recently took a 2wk trip to CA with friends. They brought 3 cameras with them. All Canon. One pocket size & 2 large digital cameras with all types of zooms & lenses. Midway thru the trip, we exchanged all the photos we had taken so far. Next day after reviewing mine, she was blown away by the (digital) zoom on my S3 compared to this big ole lense she was lugging around.

Fast forward a few more days & she's been googling our camera every chance she got. Mind you, we are STILL on vacation at this point. She took my camera & was having a ball playing around it with. LOVED that fact that it had on board histogram. She ended up buying it online (an S5) & having it shipped to the hotel the next morning. They shipped their other big cameras home. She even bought one for a nephew.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that. She also told me I had no idea what I was missing by not using the rest of the features in the camera. I told her I DOOOOO know because of this thread and all the great photos you take. There just isn't enough time in life to do & learn everything I would like. Maybe some day. If I ever get around to putting some photos online, I'll try to remember to link a few here. I've been trying to catch up from vacation, but returning with summer in full swing doesn't leave much spare time.

 

[Amy]

Hi everyone. I'm the original OP of this thread. Boy, you guys sure know a lot. I'm one just happy using Auto & the scenes.

I wanted to share something I thought pretty funny. Recently took a 2wk trip to CA with friends. They brought 3 cameras with them. All Canon. One pocket size & 2 large digital cameras with all types of zooms & lenses. Midway thru the trip, we exchanged all the photos we had taken so far. Next day after reviewing mine, she was blown away by the (digital) zoom on my S3 compared to this big ole lense she was lugging around.

Fast forward a few more days & she's been googling our camera every chance she got. Mind you, we are STILL on vacation at this point. She took my camera & was having a ball playing around it with. LOVED that fact that it had on board histogram. She ended up buying it online (an S5) & having it shipped to the hotel the next morning. They shipped their other big cameras home. She even bought one for a nephew.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that. She also told me I had no idea what I was missing by not using the rest of the features in the camera. I told her I DOOOOO know because of this thread and all the great photos you take. There just isn't enough time in life to do & learn everything I would like. Maybe some day. If I ever get around to putting some photos online, I'll try to remember to link a few here. I've been trying to catch up from vacation, but returning with summer in full swing doesn't leave much spare time.

Welcome back to your thread, Splash! Haven't seen you posting here for a while.

Your story is the whole reason I'm holding back on taking the plunge and buying a dSLR - I LOVE the zoom, and you don't have to lug around all that equipment. Plus, I still don't know all the features of my S3 (I couldn't tell you the first thing about a histogram, other than it shows the dark and light areas of your photo and you're supposed to try to get your exposure so the biggest hump is in the middle). I think I'll stick with my S3 for a little while longer.....

 

[Tigger1221]

Just returned from our first major vacation with the S5 and it was AMAZING, DH mostly used sports mode for everything! Also used beach mode and some on Auto. Can't wait to use it more now! Will upload a pic or two later.

 

[ktdaiwik]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ok that is a happy noise after looking for over a year and reading everything on here over the last wee I bit the bullet and purchased the S5.I started looking through the manual and I can say I am overwhelmed.We own a Kodak camera that we purchased 5 years ago so this has way more features and things to learn.I am glad I got it now so I have just over 5 months to try and learn what everything does.One question though is places where you are not allowed flash photography is there a way to turn the flash off?I tried to take a pic tonight but it keeps telling me I need the flash and wnot let me take the photo?
I know people say to use the sports mode and no flash for fireworks?Is that right but not sure how to do that when I cannot taqke a pic without it telling me i need the flash?
Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[jpeka65844]

In a nutshell, what's the difference between Custom and Program mode?

I just returned on Friday from a hectic 7 day trip. I didn't have too much time to stop and fiddle and take good exposures. There were lots of snapshots of the fam and not a lot of artsy fartsy. Oh well. I managed to snap off a few that I'll post soon.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Here are some more of mine:

 

[awoltoday]

In a nutshell, what's the difference between Custom and Program mode?

I just returned on Friday from a hectic 7 day trip. I didn't have too much time to stop and fiddle and take good exposures. There were lots of snapshots of the fam and not a lot of artsy fartsy. Oh well. I managed to snap off a few that I'll post soon.

Custom mode is a way to store your settings and use them later. You can go to Program Mode (or Av,Tv, M) and set up the settings you would like to save. Then go to the record menu and select 'save settings'. The next time you want to use those settings, go to custom mode and all of the settings that were in effect when you saved will be set for you.

Just returned from our first major vacation with the S5 and it was AMAZING, DH mostly used sports mode for everything! Also used beach mode and some on Auto. Can't wait to use it more now! Will upload a pic or two later.

I noticed that there was a small herd of S5's running through the canal and have been looking forward to seeing some of the fantastic pictures posted over here!

I thought I would drop in and moon everybody!

Focal Length: 72.0mm (x1.7)
Exposure Time: 0.020 s (1/50)
Aperture: f/5.4
Manual Focus Infinity
ISO equiv: 80
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Spot
Post Processing: Crop only

 

[TotalSnowWhite]

Some S3 shots from our Memorial Day week trip (May 27 - June 2). They almost all raw images. I think I may have cropped a few for printing, but other than that, they're straight off the camera. I'll probably run a few of them through Noiseware, though.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

One question though is places where you are not allowed flash photography is there a way to turn the flash off?I tried to take a pic tonight but it keeps telling me I need the flash and wnot let me take the photo?

The S3/S5's flash won't fire unless you manually raise it. It's very convenient because you *always* know ... if it's not up, it can't fire. I think quite a few people take flash pics on darkrides not because they're rude and don't care, but because they aren't sure how to turn their flash off....

I know people say to use the sports mode and no flash for fireworks?Is that right but not sure how to do that when I cannot taqke a pic without it telling me i need the flash?

Sports more will allow pics with no flash, even if the camera thinks it's too dark. Some of the Auto/Scene modes *won't* allow a pic to be taken without the flash if the camera thinks it's necessary.

The camera *never* stops you from taking pictures using the "Creative" modes (P, Av, Tv and M)....

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Some more pics taken today at a local wetlands nature area:

One of the wooden walkways that meander through the area:

The ironwork wheels that open a sort of floodgate to control water levels in the wetlands area:

And a macro of a cool blue dragonfly ... the first time I've ever got one of these "flying jewels" to sit still long enough for a picture!