Canon Powershot S3

[wildrice]

Does anyone own an s3? How is it?
I heard some good and bad things about it.

[TypeS]

I just bought one the other day, I'm really really pleased with it!
I was trying to decide between the Canon and the comparable Panasonic...but the panasonic one just felt so cheap in your hands for some reason.
I've never really had any other camera of this quality so for me its the cats ass of anything I've used, it makes taking beautiful pictures effortless. Plus as I mentioned it feels really solid in your hands, feels like a good quality camera.
I'll be taking it all across Europe in a month or two, I'll tell you how it holds up!

[C4S]

Go Go Go .. GO Panasonic .. :rofl:

I am biais ... get a FZ7 ... :thumbsup:

[Pihsiak]

Between the Fz7 and S3 IS, I'd go with the Canon

But if you wanted to shell out the bling then I'd get the Panasonic FZ30


Originally posted by Pihsiak
If DSLR is still not your cup of tea, might I suggest the FZ30 from Panasonic?
It's around the $800 range right now and I was thinking about it when I was making my purchase, It has the Manual focus and zoom ring on the lens, 12x optical zoom (432mm telephoto), Image Stabilizer, flip out screen on the back for angle shots and a digital view finder so you still see everything the lens sees. Throw in an optional flash mount, obviously it will still have manual control options so if you did know how to use them or want to learn it would not be a problem.
I think they also give you an extention tube, and the lens hood... it's a big fucking box.

The down side about it would have to be the lens, It's not a crappy lens.
Panasonic teamed up with German lens company Leica as a joint venture, but unlike some panasonic camera models, after Panasonic produced the lens, it gets shipped out to Germany so the Lecia people can put together the lens and then they ship it back to Japan to be put together. (That's why on the lens barrel you see the word "Leica" next time you look at simpler panasonic camera all you see on the barrel is "Lumix" which means Panasonic did all the work)
But the thing i don't like about this lens compared to the older model FZ20 is the fact that the FZ30 is not a straight f2.8 lens....


http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicFZ30/images/allroundview-001.jpg (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicFZ30/images/allroundview.jpg)

[seer_claw]

Read the review here (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3is/) it doesn't look like it has the best optics in its class but overall not too bad.

[Pihsiak]

Originally posted by seer_claw
Read the review here (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3is/) it doesn't look like it has the best optics in its class but overall not too bad.


What other models have 12x zoom and Anti-Shake Mechanism?

Panasonic FZ7
Panasonic FZ30
Panasonic TZ1 (10x zoom)
Sony H2
Sony H5
Kodak Z612
Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z6 (filed for bankrupcy?)

Nikon 8800 (released in 2004 but worth mentioning)
Olympus C-2100 (released in 2000 but is worth notable mention because they were the first brand other than Canon to release an IS camera and got their asses sued)


What would you choose from the group?

[OrderedCHAOS]

Originally posted by wildrice
Does anyone own an s3? How is it?
I heard some good and bad things about it.

Just picked one just before the weekend.

It's a pretty capable camera for the price (low $500). It's no SLR, but it does do a lot of things well especially the IS 12X zoom and a fanastic movie mode, but there is trade-offs off course. Since the sensor is so small, noise is an definite issue at anything higher than ISO200. It also had a very hard time focusing in low light, would try and hunt and then just give up. Using manual focus does bring up a magified section, but it's still very hard to tell if it's focused or not. I did find that if I eye-balled it and then use Focus Bracketing, there was a good chance that one of pics would be usable.

[seer_claw]

Originally posted by Pihsiak


SNIP*

What would you choose from the group?

I really don't konw but looking at them the Canon really doesn't look so bad. OF the few reviewed it does get the highest reviews.