I impulsively gave my camera away to Bob, who wanted a better camera to take to Russia with him. Now I really miss it. He told me to buy a new one but I thought that the camera I really wanted (a lower end DSLR name the Nikon D60) was cheaper than it really is. I should have read into the fact that you have to buy the body and the lens separately. I could get a perfectly good point and shoot camera like the Canon S5IS. But it doesnt have RAW images and I am thinking this would be totally cool to learn. So if any of you folks who read my blog know anything about digital cameras and could give me some advice, vote on the poll to the right!
THANKS!
4 comments:
I don't know much about camras, so I just chose one. You take aweome pics! You ought to be a photographer in your spare time! Hey, thanks for commenting on my blog...it means that people are actually reading it! You know, everything I am writing is completely true, I would write if otherwise. It' art of who I am and how I became me. How did you become you? I would be interested in reading that...
I didn't vote because I'm not familiar with the models you list ... BUT...
My camera is a Canon S3. I like it. I notice your poll lists a Canon S3IS. I don't know if that's the latest version of mine or not, but here is my opinion of the S3:
It is a great camera, simple to use, very powerful, lots of features, reliable, well made, and surprisingly inexpensive for all you get. It has an astoundingly high-quality lens for a camera in this price range, and I like the image stabilization feature. I like having the manual overrides on almost all the settings, too. In short, I love it, for the money.
HOWEVER, it does have some drawbacks for the high-end photographer. And your reference to the .RAW image type indicates you are probably "high-end". Here's some things about my S3:
Con1: Unless I missed something in the manual, my Canon S3 does not do .RAW images. Perhaps the new version (S3IS) does, but before you buy, double-check to make sure if .RAW is important to you. (Not being a true professional, I don't miss .RAW capability.)
Con2: The S3 does have a surprisingly limited dynamic range for a camera with this many features. In other words, the camera's features would tend to suggest it was designed for the high-end photographer, yet its dynamic range is disappointingly limited from a professional's point of view.
What this means is, when you have very dark and very light surfaces in the same shot, the camera either washes out the light ones, or turns the dark ones black. A wider dynamic range sensor CCD would be able to handle the sharp contrast, even in the same shot.
As an example of what I'm talking about, go to my blog for the post on Monday, July 21, and count down the photos. Click on the fourth photo down to get the big image. Notice the "white" leaves which were in the sun in the foreground? A camera with a wider dynamic range would have been able to handle the sharp contrast and would have made the foreground leaves a brighter green, rather than overexposing them so badly.
A better example is in photo 13 (counting from the top) of that same blog post. It is the five-pointed white and yellow star-shaped flower. Click on it to get the larger version, and notice how the top of the blossom is washed out to the point where you can't see the texture of the petals? The camera can't handle the stark contrast between the light flower and the dark background.
Con3: The manual focus is practically useless. It is very difficult to properly focus manually. The flip side of this is that the S3's automatic focus is almost perfect 100% of the time. I've never owned a camera with such a good autofocus. Because of the difficulty in manually focussing a shot, every shot you see in my blog was done by the autofocus. Like I said, it is perfect almost 100% of the time. Shots 11 and 22 on that post, for example, show just how clear the photos are, even in macro mode, and highlight the great lens and focus.
All things considered, I'd say the S3 is a lot better than many cameras in its price class, and overall, I really do like the camera. Go back to the top of my blog, and on the list of archives, click on JUNE, and scroll down to the "Behold the Rockies" entry, and scroll through the pictures. These were almost all taken in "automatic" mode. I simply turn the camera on, point, and shoot. (You are welcome to scroll through my other archives, too. I post lots of pictures. You can see from my various blog posts, I take all kinds of photos, from landscapes in the sun, to indoor shots, to macro close-ups, to portraits: see my parents' portrait at the very bottom of the MAY archive.
http://kd9la.blogspot.com
Let me know if you'd like to borrow my camera for a day or two and experiment. I'd be happy to let you try it out if you're seriously considering the S3IS and assuming the S3IS is the later version of the S3.
Upon reading my long-winded post above, it makes it sound like I'm a professional photographer who knows what he's doing. I'm not. Far from it. But I enjoy playing with toys. I didn't spend a lot of money on my S3, but it has enough settings to where I feel like I've got a nice toy that I enjoy playing with. My experimentation (e.g., "playing") with it has taught me a lot. The .RAW format is for those who additionally want to play around with the image on the computer after they've taken the picture. That might be fun, but for an old geezer like me, given the choice between being in the field a few minutes longer vs. manipulating the image on the computer, I'll take the field... even though it's hot as Hades out there this week.
Thanks for your input! I appreciate the information and your opinions as well because I respect you a lot as a person. I am leaning towards the SLR, but am still not 100%. My next door neighbor has the Canon S5IS and I played with it a little. I like the camera but it isnt an SLR- fast shutter speed for constantly moving subjects (such as children)!
BTW- the IS added to the Canons is for Image Stabilization.
One of the best things about shopping for a camera is all of the knowledge you gain about them! Research shopping is fun!
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