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redsky009
14th of August 2006 (Mon), 10:57
Hi,
I am new to this forum but have been reading through the posts over the last day or so. I have had two other canon digicams, the A20 and the IXUS 40 (SD300) which have been fun to use but now I am looking for something that will give me more manual control.

After searching around I have narrowed it down to the Sony H5 or the Canon S3.. but I am leaning towards the canon as I am familiar with the controls and I have always liked the image quality of canons.

I have a Hoya +7 macro lens set (52 mm) for my A20 which I loved using, but I couldn't use it with my SD300 so its been sitting in my drawer.

A friend is going over to the US and said he would pick up the camera and some other stuff if I wanted as its cheaper there. :cool:

Ordinarily I would get the camera and then wait and see if I needed any accessories but as he is going and I have the macro set already I thought of getting the Lensmate 52 mm adaptor and a polarizing filter (I like landscapes)... what do you think? :???:

Other accessories I thought of getting are the Lowepro Edit 100 or 110 bags and a couple of COrsair x133 1 gb cards (a friend suggested this would be better than a single 2gb, in case one card fails, I'll have a spare) Is this a good idea?

Thanks!

Stefan A
14th of August 2006 (Mon), 11:34
The S3 is a good camera and you will be happy with it. But I wouldn't spend the extra money on a x133 card. Those are overkill for the S3. Also, what do you do if for some reason you need to take the camera back. Is the price difference that great that you shouldn't buy it locally?

Stefan

redsky009
14th of August 2006 (Mon), 11:34
The polarising filter I was thinking of is a Linear polariser, but have recdently read that some cameras struggle with autofocus and exposure with linear polarisers, but others work fine. Anyone know if this will work with the S3?

redsky009
14th of August 2006 (Mon), 11:39
The S3 is a good camera and you will be happy with it. But I wouldn't spend the extra money on a x133 card. Those are overkill for the S3. Also, what do you do if for some reason you need to take the camera back. Is the price difference that great that you shouldn't buy it locally?

Stefan

What is the speed card you would recommend for the S3? (bearing in mind that dragging 1gb of photos off a slower card onto my pc could take ages!)

The price diff. is about £100 - basically I can get the camera + all accessories mentioned for about the same as I can get the camera alone here.. (£300-£400 for the camera here).??? The returns issue does worry me a bit though.:(

Jon
14th of August 2006 (Mon), 13:09
I wouldn't worry about using a linear polarizer with the S3; that is generally an issue with DSLRs, which use a partially-reflective mirror to pass the beam used for focussing to the sensors. The S3 works differently. OTOH, if you contemplate moving to a DSLR at some point, getting a circular polarizer now means you won't need to replace that] too.

I don't stint on card speed. Even if the current camera can't make full use of the card, subsequent cameras will. Plus, as you noted, the faster cards will download faster via card reader.

redsky009
14th of August 2006 (Mon), 18:38
Thanks for the advice, I think I will stick with the faster card, its only a few bucks more..

I was going to get it from NewDigg but they don't accept international billing addresses but BestPriceAudioVideo seem to:
http://www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com/catalog/46/5496/

anyone have any experience with them? They seem to have good reviews on BizRite