Canon S70?

[rsachs]

I'm new to the forum and seeking advice on the perennial question of buy now or wait. Here goes:

I have had the S40, S50, and S60, the last of which was just stolen in Costa Rica. The S60 replaced the S50 which my wife dropped. Alas the S50 died not in vien, as I was able to take its LCD and put it in my S40 (which LCD had died about 6 months earlier, thereby leading to the S50 purchase).

So you can see I'm a Sn0 person, particularly because of the large investment in CF cards. I definitely like the self contained, pocketable form factor of the S60, its various manual modes, and its way improved user interface over the S50 etc. Now that the S60 and most of my cards are gone, I'm not committed to the Canon CF based line, but want the best all around "enthusiast point and shoot", i.e. something with various auto programs for a variety of lighting situations, but also full manual control when desired.

However, given the current crop of 6MP cams like the Casio Exlim, the 8MP like the Minolta A2, Nikon 8700, and Olympus C8080 it seems that Canon would surely come out with a 6MP or maybe even an 8MP "S70" or "S80" in the next 6 months or so? Has anyone heard anything like this?

So: Do I wait for Canon to raise the bar on the S series? Or jump back into the fray now with one of the above cameras? I'd give up pocketability but get very high picture quality and versatility.

Thanks for you assistance
Robert Sachs[/i]

[mikeg]

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/images/hiRes/HiRes_S70front.jpg


http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/images/hiRes/HiRes_S70%20back.jpg

:wink:

[rsachs]

Thanks! Impressive that you were able to get these off of the site; I could find neither the pics nor any documents related to them.
Anything on the details? Will this be 6MP? its clearly the same body, lens as the S60.

[ayS]

i just got a s70 and it's awesome. just after getting used to the familiar functions of the camera.

[adas]

I'm not impressed about the new s70 simply because it employs the same 1/1.8" sensor since the old s45.It seems that Canon is pushing the limit too far stuffing this sensor with 7.2Mpixels.I think noise will be high.

[Jon]

I'm not impressed about the new s70 simply because it employs the same 1/1.8" sensor since the old s45.It seems that Canon is pushing the limit too far stuffing this sensor with 7.2Mpixels.I think noise will be high.

Well, obviously it isn't using the same sensor as the S45. If it did, it'd be the same resolution as the S45. It's a new sensor of the same form factor, with improvements in the internal design as well as new supporting electronics. If you haven't actually used one, you're not terribly well placed to evaluate it, are you?

[adas]

My evaluation is based on the simple rule of "smaller pixels=>higher noise level".I don't have to buy it and see it after.

[Bellavance]

Has anyone compared the noise levels of the S60 and S70 at higher ISO?

Thanks

Pierre

[Fooj]

The S70 noise level is significantly improved over the S50, and marginally improved over the G6 (at the expense of subtle detail).

To quote the Imaging Resource test review for the S70 (http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/CS70/S70A12.HTM):

"Image Noise: Good image noise levels, a significant improvement over the G5 model. More importantly, a generally fine-grained noise pattern reduces the impact of the noise somewhat. This chart compares the PowerShot S70's noise performance over a range of ISOs against that of other cameras. The G5 is shown for the sake of historical comparison: It's interesting that both the G6 and S70 have lower noise levels than the G5, even though their CCDs have smaller pixels. A lot of what this chart is showing though, is the difference in anti-noise processing, and some of the most important information doesn't appear here. Namely, the impact that anti-noise processing has on subtle subject detail. The G6 and S70 both use the same CCD chip (and I believe the Sony P150 does as well), so the slightly lower noise levels shown in the chart above for the S70 have to come from more aggressive anti-noise processing."

Hope this helps!

Fooj
1976 Pentax K1000
1980 Pentax ME Super
1983 Nikon FM2n
1998 Olympus C2020
2002 Canon S45
2004 Canon S500
2004 Canon S70
2004 Canon 10D