Did I take a wrong decision with S2 IS !!

[kousik_s]

Well, this is my first post here. I got myself registered on this forum as I wanted to learn something about photography in general. I consider myself a beginner in photography, but willing to learn.

In the past 2-3 months I researched a lot (online) on digital cameras to upgrade from my Nikon Coolpix 2100. I wanted a camera which takes great pics, has a nice zoom lens and is not too heavy. Also, couldn't afford or justify a DSLR at this time. Finally I zoomed in on Canon S2 IS and Sony DSC H1. Within my budget and fits the requirements well. Finally liked the swivel screen and battery life of Canon and bought it.

I read through the manual 2 times. Then browsed the forums - dpreview and others. This is where my question comes in. After reading a lot of posts in the forums, I get a general idea that Canon S2 photos are not that good, even compared to H1. And with that amount of money, I could have waited few months and got a Nikon D50 or KM Dynax 5D with kit lens. People do not seem to be happy with the quality of Canon S2 pictures and its ISO 400 performance, low light focussing, etc. People are okay with the features but not with the photos.

When I bought S2, I thought its the best out there I can get without buying a DSLR. As a beginner I couldn't justify a DSLR, but hope to get one later.

But after reading some of these posts, I am beginning to think I have taken a hasty and wrong decision. Is Canon S2 really that bad, or underrated.

[nwyman]

Uh - pretty much a beginner here as well. I'm very satisfied with the S2
you can check out some of my results at:
www.nwyman.blogspot.com

I started photography last February, with an A95, upgraded to the S1, and think I've settled in with the S2. The important thing is to keep practising, get comfie with your camera and maybe even take a basic course in digital photography if you are near a
community college or some such thing.
I'm still making mistakes, but it's me, not the S2.

Nancy

[kousik_s]

Nancy, you definitely have a good hand and eye. Any suggestions on how to get a good shot at a zoo. Also, how would you rate pictures from S2 as compared to A95.

[RossW]

Unless you do tons of shooting in low-light, or must use ISO 400, I wouldn't be too concerned. I looked at the dpreview reviews of both the S2 and the H1. In each, there are direct comparisons to each other, and the reviewer notes the differences are very subtle, and largely alterable in settings and usage.

For the H1 review, the review comparison concludes The differences between these two new - and very similarly specified - cameras are minimal in terms of detail, overall tonal range and color. The H1 image has higher contrast, higher in-camera sharpening and a slightly more natural color rendition (though, as ever, reds are very saturated), and also very slightly lower luminance noise. Ultimately I very much doubt that anyone seeing a print from both cameras side by side would see any significant difference, with the possible exception of the H1's higher default contrast. I personally prefer not to have so much contrast out of the camera (there is always the risk of clipping of extreme highlights/shadows) - fortunately the H1 allows you to reduce the contrast - and the sharpening (which is also a little high) with a simple menu option.

And in the S2 review the comparison says Again the differences between these two new - and very similarly specified - cameras are minimal in terms of detail, overall tonal range and color. But if we thought the S2 IS had over-sharpened results then the H1 is verging on the ridiculous, with visible sharpening halos at all high contrast edges. The Cyber-shot's contrast and saturation are also higher (though of course these can be toned down in-camera). Noise levels are broadly similar, with the H1 slightly better (especially considering the half a stop difference in sensitivity), but overall, using the default settings, the S2 IS has the slight edge here in photographic quality (although to be fair we're talking about very small differences).

(The bold highlight is mine.)

[nwyman]

Nancy, you definitely have a good hand and eye. Any suggestions on how to get a good shot at a zoo. Also, how would you rate pictures from S2 as compared to A95.

thank you (she said modestly!) - it's pretty much been just luck so far. I'm dying to get to a zoo to see what I and the S2 could do - maybe come Spring?

As for the comparison - I got the A95 at the same time a friend of mine in Pa. got an S1 - we both set out to capture bird shots. She's had previous film camera experience; mine was limited to P&S. Her S1's were much better than my A95's in so far as the detail revealed, and I put a lot of that down to the extra zoom on the S1.
I did like many things about the A95, especially it's portability. I gave it to my son, a Civil War re-enactor, and he is enjoying it quite a lot. I had a very hard time trying to decide which to take to Europe (the A95, or the S2). Finally decided to go with the S2, because after all, that's what I bought it for.

Nancy

[kousik_s]

Another question Nancy, I am planning to get a tripod also - a small pocket one from Jessops costing about £6. Do you really think it is useful and will be used much. What percentage of your pics were taken using a tripod.

[PDA Bach]

I finally got my 2 month-old S2 to a zoo yesterday. Overall, kousik_s, I don't think you should worry about the camera's capabilities.
Most of my shots pleased me and I was worried about soft focus issues from what I'd read here. Were they all perfect? Nope, the one of the parrots clearly shows I need to practice a little more. The composition was fine but the birds were a little out of focus--but the background was as sharp as I could want it. This tells me I need to work a little more on what I'm doing.
Overall, I think I made a good choice in my S2 and I think you'll probably like yours with a little time on it.

[kousik_s]

I am using a nice program called Exif Viewer to see the Exif information for my pictures. The program has a feature to compare Exif information side-by-side of several pictures and can export the Exif information of all pictures in a directory to a CSV file. I compared a nice sharp picture from Canon S2 and compared to one from Nikon Coolpix 2100. I found that the picture density of Canon S2 is 180x180 dpi and of Nikon Coolpix is 300x300 dpi. Can this be a reason why many people are saying that Canon S2 pictures are comparatively soft?

[nwyman]

Another question Nancy, I am planning to get a tripod also - a small pocket one from Jessops costing about £6. Do you really think it is useful and will be used much. What percentage of your pics were taken using a tripod.

I've never used a tripod - just invested in a monopod last week, and have only had a chance to use it once and was pleased with what it did. You might have noticed that most of my shots are outdoors, with critters as the subject. They don't sit around long enough for me to adjust a three-legged contraption.

In our camera class (which I finished right before Xmas), our instructor told us that the average price for a decent tripod should be around $60.00 US. (I think that translates very roughly to 30 UKP). But that is for the collapsable, full-size models.
When I'm shooting around the house, I usually prop the camera up on some convenient piece of furniture, books, or something like that.

Nancy

[nwyman]

one other note re: small tripods.
Once, last year, I made an unwise purchase from an not so nice online camera shop - as a "reward" they included a small tripod with my purchase. This tripod was about eight inches tall, had poseable legs, etc.,and I, in my innocence, thought it was quite nice.
The first time I tried to use it, I ended up knocking my camera off the table.
My klutz factor, which is quite high, has to be figured into this, but I felt that it was a hazard waiting to happen, and haven't used it since.

As for cameras, and which is better - I have a feeling there is a lot of "the grass is always greener" syndrome going around. Unless one is aiming at true professionalism , I think most of these cameras are little wonders, each one having good and less good features. Many of the people in my recent camera class had Rebels and XTs. I have to take myself firmly in hand from time to time and tell myself just why it was I decided on the S2 in the first place - viz., portability, image stabilization, zoom, and the AA cell business. And then I'm happy again. <g>

Nancy (who stll yearns for a 20D, despite the above)

[kousik_s]

Nancy, I don't have much idea on tripods. I know that I will not be using it much anyway. However, when I do need one, I want to feel comfortable that I have one in my pocket or bag e.g. night portraits. I tried 1 with Nikon Coolpix 2100 and never tried it again. Hence, I am thinking about a budget tripod, but one which is reasonably stable and portable. Could you have a look into this model from Jessops http://www.jessops.com/search/viewproduct.cfm?PRODUCT=JESDPE&BRAND=&CONTINUE=false&FEATS=&FIRSTPRICE=&KEYWORD=&LEVEL=&MODELNUMBER=&NEWQUERY=True&NODE=340&ORD=ASC&ORDERBY=&QUANTITY=10&RECENT=0&REFINE=&SEARCH_FOR=&SEARCHNODE=0&SEARCHURL=dointellisearch.cfm&SECONDPRICE=&SHOWCASEID=&STARTROW=1&SUBS=&WORD_SEARCH=N& and say is this one to spend few bucks on.

[nwyman]

I wouldn't know how to advise without seeing it in person. One good thing - it seems reasonable enough in price to take a gamble.

Nancy

[justrick]

Kousik. like you im to trying to find my feet in photography, did many nights online reading reviews,comparing cameras. dont have the means to outlay big bucks on a high end dslr, but my wish is to get the S2IS.for me it will be tops
this will help me get to know my self and how to handle a camera. hey and there is a great bunch of people on this forum to assist me also. my only problem is just got to get the camera... so welcome, looking forward to see you posts in the future. cheers rick

[kousik_s]

Did anyone notice my post above on dpi (post # eight).

[DavidW]

dpi figures embedded into digital camera pictures are meaningless. It's the number of pixels that matters. Adobe Camera Raw 3, which I use with my 20D, allows me to choose the dpi figure at the time of the RAW conversion; I leave it at the default (240dpi, I think).

When you get to printing, that's when it matters - as you then have a size and a number of pixels, which you can turn into so many pixels per inch (it's arguably better to talk about ppi, not dpi).

There's no difference between a 1000x500 digital camera image with 300dpi embedded, and one with 150dpi embedded. Both contain 1000x500 pixels.



David

[kousik_s]

dpi figures embedded into digital camera pictures are meaningless. It's the number of pixels that matters. Adobe Camera Raw 3, which I use with my 20D, allows me to choose the dpi figure at the time of the RAW conversion; I leave it at the default (240dpi, I think).

When you get to printing, that's when it matters - as you then have a size and a number of pixels, which you can turn into so many pixels per inch (it's arguably better to talk about ppi, not dpi).

There's no difference between a 1000x500 digital camera image with 300dpi embedded, and one with 150dpi embedded. Both contain 1000x500 pixels.


David


Thanks for the info. Another thing I noticed using the software EXIF Viewer. I know that S2 IS do not save the ISO data when in ISO auto mode. Same if the see in EXIF Viewer in "Single Picture" and "Picture Comparison". Now, when I use the "Statistics" on my picture folder with S2 photos, it shows the following ISO - 64, 100, 200, 300, 400 and all the ISO Auto are in the ISO 64 bracket.

[Jon, The Elder]

Hey KOUSIK - As you are just getting into photography, your expectations might be a bit high. I bought the S2 as a 'backup - fun' camera to supplement my 300D and 20D. I've been shooting for 40+ years so.

People have seen over sharpened and oversaturated prints all their lives. as a result they think that is how images should look in the camera. when you buy into the digital world, you also buy into computers and now YOU are the darkroom/lab.
You have purchased an excellent camera that is capable of very high quality images. Unless you just want "snapshots" using the greenbox mode, YOU are required to do some of the work. Learn the relationship between and the definition of aperture and Shutter speed. It is all about speed and light, understand that relationship and how to get the right mix - your images will improve tremendously. Make the camera work for YOU, not the other way round.
see my samples at www.pbase.com/jpferguson