I just recieve my new camera in the ........

[ang]

mail. I am so excited! I ordered it back in dec. 17. I bought canon powershot S3 IS from dell for $249 its never this low. ($400 camera never lower than $359)
I bought it for our coming trip. My old digital doesn't work so hot anymore.

Will, I had to share..no one is home..

Does anyone has one of these....any clues how to work it..

I posted this in the community boards...I have not been to DIs boards in years..Then Amy told me come here...So here I am.

I did do a lot of research before I bought this. Everyone seem to really like the camera. I like all the different options.

Hows the moving mode. My dH is excited with this...

 

[theblondebee]

WOW! Great price. I got mine as a slightly early Christmas gift as we were going to Disney on 12-23. I waited until the last minute hoping for a sale...no such luck. Anyway, it was very easy to use and I think I got some pretty decent pics.

One thing I didn't know until it was too late was that you can take photos while you are shooting video. Also, the video came out very well.

I also love the selective color mode. This is what swayed me from the Sony to the Canon. You choose one color to show up and the rest of the photo is B&W. Another thing I didn't find out until on the trip home is that you can take a full color picture the same time as the color-select photo if you have the settig.

We did quite a few character meals so the first thing I did as soon as we sat down at the table was take a few test shots with and without flash, changing white balance, slow sync flash etc. due to the different lighting conditions in the various restaurants. No tine to fumble with settings when the characters come by.

I got some pretty good night shots without taking the ISO too high and the zoom is great. I hope you like yours as much as I like mine.

 

[Amy]

Glad to see you found your way over to the Photography Board, Ang!

By "moving" mode, do you mean taking video or the sports mode on the dial that looks like a person running?

The video mode works really well for short stuff - I took some movies of DS playing a herald trumpet (those really long trumpets with the banners hanging from them) over Christmas. The movie mode was good for about one verse of a carol. (I'm sure the techies on this board could tell you exactly how much video you get for settings, but this is my low-tech estimate. )

Now the sports mode is one of my favorites! The best thing about it is that you can use continuous shutter - just hold the shutter button down and it keeps taking picture after picture. Great for taking pictures of my boys during marching band season!

My best advice is just to play with that camera - there's so much that it can do. I've had mine since Sept. and I know I haven't even tried half the stuff it can do. Enjoy!

 

[Master Mason]

Should have my wifes from the same deal tomorrow

 

[Jeanne B]

Great price considering I paid $427 for my S3 in May!!

 

[ang]

Movies mode...I want to be able to take movies or video with the camera and take a snap shot at the same time. This evening I was trying different things and taking a movies..there so much...my DH said every day he wants be to play with it to learn how to work it then teach him...LOL

I bought a 2mb Ultra 2 sd card from Staples this past sunday for $40. I should get almost 2 hours of movies.

Also, bought 2mb sd card for pictures.

It was nice to just slide the card into my laptop.

 

[wdwmom2]

Congrats on your great buy!!!! I love my S3, I hope you are as pleased with yours!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Also a new S3 user ($305, Amazon - not bad), but I have to say I haven't been having the best luck yet. It could be that I'm reading "too much" into it, but it seems it's going to take me longer than I thought to learn the various settings and what to best to use under which conditions. Today is a beautiful day, I might just go out and play with it some more outside (so far I've mainly used it inside). Wish me luck! (I'll get it eventually...) Have fun with yours!

 

[S. C.]

I was just reading reviews on the S3 here.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/s3is.html


here is what it says on the movie mode.

The S3 has a very high quality movie mode with sound, capturing your choice of 30 or 15 frames per second at resolutions of 640x480 or 320x240, and a high frame rate of 60fps at 320x240. The 30fps 640x480 Fine movies consume about 2-megabytes per second of recording but they look like they were shot with a camcorder, very smooth with no compression artifacts. While many digicams prevent zooming during movie recording, the S3 IS allows it because the ultra-quiet USM motor does not interfere with the audio. Speaking of audio, the S3's performance is exceptional. Both the microphone level and audio sampling rate can be set from within the S3's menu system. The S3 also has a wind filter that can be enabled, reducing the amount of wind noise present in the audio track. In-camera editing of movies is provided in playback mode, allowing you to cut from the beginning and/or the end, and saving the edited clip as a new file or overwriting the original. The maximum length of capture in any quality setting is limited to 1GB or 60 minutes, whichever comes first. If you plan to exploit the S3's movie mode, make sure to get a large and fast SD memory card.

Canon has integrated the S3's still and moving image capabilities well. Unlike other digicams, the S3 has separate shutter buttons for stills and movies; movies can be taken in any of the S3's still picture modes, and stills can be captured while the camera's mode dial is in the movie mode. Not only that, but stills can be captured during movie recording; the movie will be flawed with a brief series of black frames and the audio will contain the shutter release sound, but Canon has redefined the term "shooting priority" with this feature.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Hey Ang, great to see you again. Super!!

I have an S2, the predecessor to the S3 (they get tricky with there numbering, LOL). And enjoy it a lot.

Here are some videos I took back on my Dec '05 trip, a few stills taken along the way (you can here the click). There are a few other videos that should be on that page too.

As said, max video that can be taken is 1 gig, regardless if larger card. At best setting (you should use the best) you will get about 9 minutes of video, double that at lower quality.

This is a great book (a CD-rom also is available with more lessons) to help you learn easily. http://www.shortcourses.com/bookstore/canon/book_canons3is.htm

Again, as said, play with the camera, it is a lot in a small package. BTW, GREAT price. And once more, good to see you.

 

[ang]

Hi Dan, Good to here from you!

I have been on the boards a lot these last couple of days...LOL

It seem I will have to play with this a lot.

I am going to check out the cd book.. I need all the help I can get.

Sorry Dan, but I could not click on your click to check out your movies....I really want to see them.

??? Is this hard to down load....the movies...where do you send them? Windows or to the canon? Is it hard to seperate the movie from the pictures you take while you are shooting? Does that make sense? I have not tried down loading a movie yet...Can of scared>>LOL

Have anybody try to take a picture while someone blowing out candles on a cake...what setting did you use...without lights on in the house.

Pea-n-Me, I know....I been reading the book and just flipping on the camera and trying different modes....Gee, then I wonder, am I going to remember all this.

My daughter just turn 16 and we are having a Maskquerade party called Unmask the Night. So, I will be taking a lot of pictures...so I will be trying different setting..then I will post them...

Thanks, S.C., for steve website....great info! I have my camera set at normal I think..so that mean I should set it on fine...

Another stupid ??? what do you set it on...Large or Medium for pictures...I don't ever print out 11x8 pictures...once awhile 5x7.

Thanks everyone....there is so so much to learn....
I will be on a lot to pick your brains....

 

[Master Mason]

My suggestion is to always use the largest finest setting on the camera. You can always edit out information... it is impossible to add it back if you didn't capture it in the first place.

 

[ang]

Hey dan, loved your digital pictures....i had fun looking at them...

When I went in dec. 2003 i took a lot of pictures with my digital camera (a old one)...when I got home, I download my pictures, I lost 1/2 of my pictures...I bought pyn card, I screwed up alot of my pictures...and my camera was loosing the pictures as well, I was so upset....Paid $150 fto fix the camera and dish the PYN card. Now I am having problem again with the camera...so thats why I bought a new one...I am scared because its canon again...hoping I won't experience that again.

 

[ang]

Master Mason, thanks I will change my setting.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Ya use the best quality setting. You should get two or three pictures on that 2mb card. But that price was too high. Most people can get a 2 gigabyte card for that, hehehehheeeee

Just kidding, I am sure you got a 2 gb.

I bought DW an S2 and she loves it. But we paid like $275 a year ago...


Mikeeee

 

[jann1033]

great price! make sure you post some pics...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My suggestion is to always use the largest finest setting on the camera. You can always edit out information... it is impossible to add it back if you didn't capture it in the first place.

So true. The other day I shot over 100 pictures in a skating rink. Good experience, I thought. But I inadvertantly changed the pixel setting to I think 1MP. The reason this happened is because I didn't know what M, M1, S, W, etc stood for, and although I was fumbling through the manual, with six kids ice skating, I couldn't find the information I needed right then (my previous camera just had stars). I figured it out later, but the pictures for the most part were a bust.

The good thing was, though, that I'll never make that mistake again.

I can only speak for myself, but each time I use this camera, I've made dumb mistakes like this. One night at a Christmas party, I spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out why the flash wouldn't work. I didn't have the manual with me, and I was looking over every button on the camera. Others tried to help too, to no avail. I realized later it was because I hadn't raised up the flash. Duh. I'd used it before, but apparently forgotten. Not many pictures came out well.

And so it goes. But I figure, this is all part of the learning process. For some, it will take less time. For me, it's going to be a while. But I've finally gotten to the point where I've read my photography books to learn basic terms, pretty much read through the whole manual (and got a camera bag large enough to keep it with me at all times), and think I understand it all in my head. Now it's just a matter of putting it all together and testing it out. It's fun learning, and I know eventually I'll have great pictures to show for it.

 

[Amy]

I can only speak for myself, but each time I use this camera, I've made dumb mistakes like this. One night at a Christmas party, I spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out why the flash wouldn't work. I didn't have the manual with me, and I was looking over every button on the camera. Others tried to help too, to no avail. I realized later it was because I hadn't raised up the flash. Duh. I'd used it before, but apparently forgotten. Not many pictures came out well.

Oh geez, I made the same mistake myself!! I was so used to my old Canon where you have to remember to turn OFF the flash; then I got the S3 and you have to remember to RAISE the flash! I don't know how many pictures I took of my DS and our dog and I kept saying "why won't the flash fire?"

Just keep repeating.....we learn from our mistakes!

 

[Dan Murphy]

........Sorry Dan, but I could not click on your click to check out your movies....I really want to see them. .......

Duh. I guess adding a link would make it easier, LOL.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5337760111394047435

See if this works. There should be one, then a few more on the right, if you click on the 'From User' link.

As for uploading, I just set up a free Google video account, followed the directions and uploaded them. I think a few ofthem I even uploaded from my hotel at WDW.

Again, great to see you.