The New Canon S5 IS

[EOSimages]

Well, I bought me the NEW Canon S5 IS and I absolutely love this thing. I am really impressed with the zoom capabilities and the Super Macro on this thing. It's a little small in the hands compared to the SLR's but, I think it's a much better camera than my 300D I had. This is a nice camera and I got a really sweet deal on it also. It was just $336 NIB with shipping.

[NOsquid]

They're pretty decent for what they are. Shoot at low ISO at all times :) Here's some motivation, from my S3, everybody loves hummers. Full telephoto, pretty substantial crop. Not so bad?

http://i22.tinypic.com/2e3xr89.jpg

[F1Addict]

Wow! Great pic!

I've had my S5 about 2 weeks now, and loving it. Still learning, and shooting as much as possible, and I'm loving every minute of it. I purchased the S5 as a stepping stone up to a DSLR, so I could learn a little more before I jump into a 40D.

[paul79uf]

If you do a lot of flash photography, get the 430EX.

I sold my S3 on ebay just to get the S5 & 430EX. It's a great combination!

[EOSimages]

Nice photo! I am truly impressed. Thanks for the skinny on the 430EX flash.

[darosk]

That thing is cute - great shot!

[ront]

Here is another motivational shot. It was taken this summer with my S3.

Ron

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/ront1/Canon%20S3IS/Humming%20Birds/071007019.jpg

[NOsquid]

Great shot, I can't believe the flash froze the wing! Maybe a little overexposed, highlights on the bellly there. I'll need to try it whenever they come back. My question is how in the world did you get the focus, you didn't use the green light in the dark did you? Manual focus? You were close too! Barely any zoom.

[ront]

I was very close to the hummers. Probably no more that two feet. They get used to you very fast and will fly very close to you. Most of my pictures were taken not long before dusk. I think they were getting their fill for the night. I have had them land on my finger before. I used the flash and a shutter speed of around 1/500 sec. I used manual focus also. I had A LOT of bad pictures, but a few keepers also.

Ron

Here are a couple more.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/ront1/Canon%20S3IS/Humming%20Birds/071007015_filtered.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/ront1/Canon%20S3IS/Humming%20Birds/IMG_3270.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/ront1/Canon%20S3IS/Humming%20Birds/IMG_2822.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/ront1/Canon%20S3IS/Humming%20Birds/Fighting%20Hummers/IMG_3261.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/ront1/Canon%20S3IS/Humming%20Birds/Fighting%20Hummers/071007089.jpg

[NOsquid]

I had A LOT of bad pictures, but a few keepers also.


That's everyone's secret, most just don't say it :D Great shots, some could use a little post processing. I can't believe the flash freezes the wings, I guess it's because it's such a short burst of light? In daylight I shoot them at 1/1600s and the wings are still blurry.

[Jon]

Right - a flash exposure is typically 1/2500 sec. or less. And the closer you are to the subject, the shorter the flash is.

[NOsquid]

Cool, thanks. Do you know how the flash exposure compensation works? Does it fire for longer, or brighter? And this is the same thing as adjusting the flash in Manual?

[donatroth]

I sold my S3 on ebay just to get the S5 & 430EX. It's a great combination!

I did the very same, never looked back!

[Jon]

It fires longer or shorter. Same basic idea as changing the power level in flash manual. Basically, your flash has a capacitor that builds up a charge and then sends a spark through the flash tube. The more current in the capacitor, the longer the spark will last, so the more light you'll get. Of course inside it's more complicated than that, but that will help you understand the principle.

[NOsquid]

Thanks. So, in Manual, I get only three steps of adjustment for the flash. In the exposure comp, it gives me adjustments from -2 to +2 in 1/3s, is it actually making more subtle adjustments than in Manual or no?

[Jon]

Yes, but. Manual gives you absolute power levels. FEC will give you all those steps if and only if the subject's far enough in the flash working range. If your subject's so far away that the flash needs to fire at full power to give you a "correct" exposure, +2 won't give you any more flash - your flash duration can only get shorter (underexposing). There just isn't any more flash to give. Similarly, if the subject's at the near end of the flash range, you won't be able to underexpose since the flash is already firing as short a burst as it's capable of.

[NOsquid]

In messing with the camera I suspect it is doing a combination of changing the flash power and changing the aperture in FEC. Is this plausible? In Manual I can get similar results to FEC by leaving the flash on the same power level but stopping the lens up/down.

Edit: Actually ISO will change the exposure too, should have figured that. No visible effect from shutter speed. Maybe if I had a dark background.

This is weird to me. It seems like when I raise up the flash in Av the camera isn't "really" letting me decide. Because Av 2.7, ISO 80, 1/60s w/flash doesn't look the same as those settings in manual at any of the flash settings, in my quick test. So the camera must be doing something sneaky in Av with the aperture and ISO to get the exposure in between the flash settings, without telling me.

[Jon]

No, it isn't. A little reflection will tell you why. If it were to rely on changing aperture as well as flash power, you'd be sadly disappointed in your Av exposures, since it'd be changing the aperture on you when you wanted a specific one. Further, if you were wide open and wanted more light on the subject, it'd have no way to go. Yes, changing the aperture in M will give the same effect as far as exposure goes, but that's because changing the aperture, like changing the flash output, changes how much light is available.

Shutter speed won't affect your flash exposure, since the flash burst is very short, on the order of 1/2500 sec. So no matter how long you hold the shutter open you won't let more light in. The 1/250 sec. flash sync speed is strictly a timing issue - they want to make sure the shutter's fully out of the way when the flash fires. It may be possible at a faster speed, but due to mechanical variations, this won't be predictable or reliable.

What you're doing is confusing the light output from the flash (which is what you control with the Manual settings) and exposure settings (which you get with the EC control. And, by the way, though we've been calling it "FEC", it's not exactly that - it's controlling the overall exposure. At high-enough light levels, the ambient light (windows, overhead lights and the like) will contribute to the overall exposure, especially if you've got a long enough exposure. In fact, in the EOS cameras, when you use auto flash with Av, the camera sets the exposure based on the ambient light and then uses the flash to "fill in" the primary subject.

[NOsquid]

So the bottom line is that the FEC controls flash power, not aperture or ISO, and with potentially more fine tuning of that flash power than is available in Manual? Yes? It seems silly that there would be less control in Manual, that's what is confusing me.

[Jon]

Well, would you want to try to figure out the infinite possible range of changes? What Manual gives you is full stop intervals, which you then use to calculate the "correct" aperture to use. But when you use the flash on manual, you need to calculate, in advance, the aperture to use; figuring out the light output for 43.2% output and then determining the aperture to use with that for a subject at 16.3 ft. would be a nightmare.

[EOSimages]

WOW! I never expected so much valuable info on this thread. Thanks everyone!

[Jon]

WOW! I never expected so much valuable info on this thread. Thanks everyone!Our goal is to overwhelm . . .

[EOSimages]

...and that you have done, lol. Thanks again!