S2IS and Wildlife?

[Stephen2904]

I was thinking about buying an S2IS. I will primarily be using it to take pictures of the kids etc. But would also like to take photos of wildlife, particularly birds. What do you think? Any good for wildlife shots?:rolleyes:

[nwyman]

if you'd care to visit
www.nwyman.blogspot.com

any of the photos shown after August up until now (excepting snow geese shots) were done with the S2, by someone who is still unsure of her technique. All are handheld, most with the Canon teleconverter.

Nancy

[Stephen2904]

Thanks Nyman. That answers my question very nicely.

[Woldsman]

The S2IS is capable of good wildlife shots. However to some extent this is more the realm of the SLR's. It all depends how close you are expecting to be able to get to the wildlife. For instance would you be photographing birds at a feeding station set up by you where the birds are reasonably used to you and you can get in fairly close without disturbing them. My own experience of wildlife shooting with the S2IS is that I can't get close enough shots even with the 12X zoom to do them justice. Maybe my technique is wrong, or the wildlife is skittish.

Other posters on here may well disagree with what I have said, but this is an honest opinion of my experience with this camera. Don't get me wrong the S2IS is a great all round camera and I wouldn't swap it for any other point and shoot model.

Examples of wildlife nature shots that I have taken with the S2IS can be seen on the nature galleries of www.meltonrossnewbarnetby.co.uk

Regards
Roger.

[Diminished29]

Look up Dave's pictures, he's an outstanding wildlife photographer. He's mainly into birding but he truely does have some amazing pictures, they all look like they came from an SLR. He uses an S2 with a tele converter.

His username is snowrdr

[Stephen2904]

:) All very useful comments and some very nice shots taken with the S2 IS. Decission made I think! look-out for some photos from me in the next few weeks. Thanks everybody for your contributions and comments.

[Diminished29]

Make sure you take an "emotional" shot for the #6 Powershot POTN competition! ;)

[sonnyJ]

I'm also a birder and use the S2 with a 1.54x TC. Biggest problem is bird in tree or brush where the S2's relatively large focus area makes it difficule to get sharp focus to separate bird from branches. Manual focus is terrible. Also, I'm still getting use to the EVF.
With my 35mm film SLR I can get a much sharper image in view finder and quickly focus using manual focus.

If bird in open or camera does happen to get sharp focus of bird in tree the pcture is great. The 5 meg allows me to use computer to crop.

While my pictures don't match up to some of the others they are available at
www.jeffsbirds.shutterfly.com

[Stephen2904]

Thanks sonnyJ. I've ordered the camera now, so we'll see how I get on! Had a look at your link, very nice shots.