This camera has 10X optical with an "Image Stabilizer". I was wondering if any of you guys have used it and what you thought of it. I could really use a 10X camera for some of my hunting pictures and I must have a digital camera. The image stabilizer seems to be the ticket for using 10X freehand and not packing around a tripod.

JJ,



I use the Olympus 2100, which also has a 10X and IS system. BUT...it's discontinued and the Olys with 10X do not have the IS system now. The Canon is a decent one, but you might also check out the Panasonic Lumix. It has a 12X Optical zoom with IS. The Panasonic is also 4.0 MP. -TONY

Thanks Tony as always your camera knowledge is spot on! I have been using a Canon powershot for 3 years now and I love the way it works. I also have almost all the features memorized. Because of that I would like to stay with a Canon to eliminate the learning curve of a new cameras operation.

Now I know what you're thinking, if you already have a canon digital why are you buying a new one?

Well while packing for my trip, I leave in a couple days. I had my canon digital in the dining room table. It seems my 2 year old son did not like the way the camera's sliding cover worked so he decided to remove it for me. This caused a lot of stress for me and very likely a bit of momentary fear in him! Needless to say we both learned a valuable lesson from this. I don't leave anything important where he can reach it. And he does not touch things that are not his. Yeah right, everything is his at 2 years old.

It could have been worse in 1000 ways the camera was old beat up and the screen was scratched to death. I beat that poor camera up in backpacks, saddle bags, fanny packs, shirt pockets, sandy South African bush, wet miserable PNW and Alasaka wet and freezing weather. That thing was nearly bullet proof unitl it finally met it's match with Jesse the destroyer!

Since my computer already has the software and the operation of Canons is known to me, I just figure it is a logical choice to go with Canon. I also like the feature of the 1 gig Compact flash giving and hour of move footage from that little camera. 3.2 megapixel is plenty. There is a point of diminishing returns at about 4mp I think. At least for 5X7 size photo's and even 8X10's. Anything bigger then that would certainly be better with greater resolution.

The double A rechargable batteries are also much nicer then the current battery pack. Best of all I found it for 374.00 bucks brand new!

JJ,



I totally agree that "familiarity" breeds loyalty, and I'm surely not going to downplay Canon because I have used their 35mm stuff for more than 20 years now.



My Oly is actually only 2.1 MB and you have likely seen many of the photos it produces around here. Plus, I used a bunch I shot specifically for my book, and they printed out great. So, the Canon at 3.2MB should be plenty for what you want.



The only reason I mentioned the Panasonic is because of the 12X vs. the 10X capability. Not much but perhaps just enough for a specific critter pic.



The OLY also uses AAs. I have two sets of rechargeables and the charger. It is definitely the way to go rather than having to buy some priority battery. In RSA last year, I managed to get through the first 10 days, shooting just over 100 pix, on one set of batteries before charging them. And for most of the shots, I had used the flash, too, which eats up a lot of power.



Lastly, even if your AA nicads bite the dust, you can purchase a set of AA akalines just about anywhere.



Go fer it. -TONY

One other thing I forgot to mention about this, although I have not seen them in person.

There is a telephoto lens you can add 680mm, and a wide angle lens you can add. With the IS function that 680mm will rock! But most important for me, is the scuba enclosure for underwater use or for Alaska and PNW. I might have to get that enclosure just to protect the camera for my packing and hunting trips!

I generally shy away from the add-on type lenses because every added layer of glass generally degrades the quality quite a bit. That's also why I have never used the "protective" UV or skylight filters on my 35mm lenses. That said, my end uses for the pix are quite different from most.

Is the Canon add-on to achieve 680 some sort of tele-converter like the ones for 35mm -- perhaps a 1.5 or such?? -TONY

You might wish to have a look at these sites, they have reviews which will be of interest to you.

DP Review
DP Resources
Steve's digicams

Here is what I used to make my decision today.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/s1is.html

They now have a Hitatchi 4 Gig Compact flash that will give you an hour of very high quality video with this camera. It's awefully impressive, especailly at under 400 bucks!

I have had over a dozen Photo's in magazines in the last two years with a 3megapixel Canon camera. How big the photo is has a lot to do with the minimum pixel count. If you were to do a cover shot it would likely need to be 5mp or better. For 1/2 or 1/4 page shots inside 3 plus is good enough.

JJ

How noisy are they? ie for still photos of live game undisturbed?

Hack I have one and I will send you my websight to look at photos

www.photoisland.com
login as retreever@adelphia.net
password bwana
album Africa

slideshow run

enjoy

wife took most of athe photos and there were 450 photos I took...I put on a sunshade and had great ressults on medium setting...128 stick gets 340 pics....Taking it to Zim this August and used ciragette lighter to charge batteries

Mike

Thanks for the link Mike,

Nitro, nearly silent operation even in Zoom mode. Not even noticable sound compared to other motor driven zoom lenses. This was a Key feature for me as well.

Nitrox,



RE: publications



At least three different magazines have used my digital images from the Oly. Volume 9, Issue 2 of the Africa Sporting Gazette has four of them on pg. 93, and they were very compressed, small JPG images I had emailed to John X Safaris.



One publication even uses the digital scans I do on my HP scanner from prints and slides. The prints are generally 3"x5" that I get from guides, hunters and anglers to use in "hero" type articles I write. The majority of the 200+ photos in the book are these type, as well. After I scan them, I massage them a bit in PhotoShop, though.



RE: movie mode



I can't speak to the Canon, but the movies from the OLY aren't too bad quality-wise. They are MUCHO shorter, however -- about 3 minutes with audio.



RE: 10X



It could vary, depending on what the WA is. On my Oly, the WA is 38mm, so the 10X optical amounts to 380mm. I believe the Canon S1 is the same. In fact it looks very much like the OLY 2100, too.



Here's a good Review of the Canon S1. -TONY

JJ,

How ironic!

I was writing my reply to Nitrox in Notepad and found the same review you noted. BUT...I didn't see your message until I had already posted mine. -TONY

JJ-

I have the Lumix FZ-10 that Tony mentioned. It has a 12X optical zoom and image stabilization. One thing I ws very concerned about was the write speed of the camera, some are very slow to recover and take the next picture, this one is better than some.

As far as the image stabilization, it works great! Today I took a picture of the mountains at 12x in a very strong wind, freehand and got a crisp picture. FWIW, anyway.

JJ, I was looking at the Powershot last week for our office. Am thinking of one for myself, though I found it too great of our office needs, so went with the A75.

FWIW, the salesperson warned me that the image stabilizer motor eats up battery power bigtime. Want to make sure it's off, if you don't need it.

I have an S1 as well and absolutely love it.

Well, I got my hands on this camera and played with it last night. The function of this one is nearly identical to the other Powershot cameras so the learning curve was near zero effort.

The Regular battteries were dead within an hour but I did play with it taking lot s of photo's and reviewing them for quality. I also took several short videos with it. Since the compact flash is the same used in my other powershot I have plenty of memory. I think I have 2 248's and 4 128's so memory is not a problem!

The Zoom is unbelievable for such a tiny camera. Also the IS function does a great job at keeping the image focused and clear. I took photo's of my pack goats over 100 yards away and they look like you could reach out and touch them. The zoom in the viewfinder to see the quality of the picture is not just three stages as it was in my other camera. It will zoom in so far you cannot see what your looking at.

The Zoom motor for the telephoto function is as silent as can be. And it's so fast you need to be delicate with the trigger. The autofocus is slow but once locked in it's flawless. The manual focus is a bit confusing for me. I will have to tinker with it a bit more to learn it.

You can manually slow the shutter to blur images like a waterfall or something running. You can also take incredible bright photo's without the flash indoors. The flash is very powerful, it seemed I was over exposing some indoor shots. I was fooling with the settings and just decided to put my finger over 1/2 the flash. That worked perfect believe it or not. Not too high tech but what the heck! I'm sure I can learn a bit more about this before I leave in a day but right now I think it was the best choice

The rechargable batteries by the way are still in there and never went low. They will easily out last the standard batteries by 2-3 times. My quick charger put them to full charge in an hour. I have two 2000ma sets, and a 220 volt plug, 110volt plug, and a car charger plug. How can you go wrong with that setup!

I'll be back at the end of June with plenty of photo's to share! Not to mention a full test of this cameras functions. I do have 17 hours to study the manual on that flight over!

Nitrox,



Here's a scan of the page from the African Sporting Gazette. Photos 2,4,5 & 6 are ones from my camera.



Obviously, it's shrunk down greatly from the actual size, but it will give you an idea of how digitals print. Also, the ones used were VERY compressed, low quality JPGs that I had sent through email. I later put all the large, original hunt photos on a CD and mailed them to John X, but it was too late to stop the presses.



You might also note that whoever wrote the captions didn't know the difference between a kudu and an nyala. -TONY