how do you like your canon S1

[gail]

Hi I thinking of buying a second camera just to have to take places to keep from lugging the big Drebel out I want something small just to keep in my car. I have the Drebel and love it it's a great camera.

I just want something smaller to take around. I have been looking at the Canon S1, I like it because it has the stabilizer on it. and the 10X zoom.
So what do you think the ones that have it do you like? Is it a pretty decent camera for the price? I would appreciate any help thanks.

[Geeeyejo]

After two days - really loving mine. Taking great shots and learning about all the programmable features. IS really works and is a real asset - especially with the 10x zoom. Don't let the 3.2 MP scare you - it is more than sufficient - especially if you use your zoom to "pre-crop" your images. I paid only $311 - great cam for the money! BTW - the video is incredible, just get a big CF card.

[Geeeyejo]

BTW, here is a sample image of Mr. Grey.

[gail]

No image..... but thanks for the feedback glad your loving your camera. I'm sure I will like it also. I played around with it a bit in the store and from seeing the zoom it had I think it will be just what I'm looking for and the IS is awesome.

I wanted to see how some liked it before I bought it. So guess I will be making a trip back tomorrow to buy it. I had the G3 before I got my 300D and then pass it on to my daughter-law now wishing I had kept it. It was a great little camera to take when you just wanted something quick and light. That you could throw in your purse ha.

Now you should see me trying to put the Drebel in my purse LOL. I learned a lot from the G3 I was lost as of what to do when I bought it. This forum helped me so much with all the questions I had everyone here really helped me so much.

[gail]

BTW, here is a sample image of Mr. Grey.

Sorry I see the Image now. That is nice love the eyes nice shot. love to see more from you. congrat...on your new canon. 8-)

[Geeeyejo]

Thanks Gail,

Here is one of Santa - not quite Macro but pretty close with the zoom:

[gail]

Hey lovely color and very sharp. I like I like haha.:mrgreen: Hey BTW where did you buy your's? for 299.00 the one I'm looking at is at wal-mart and it has been marked down but still it's 359.00 So looks like I could save a few bucks for memory card are something.

[Geeeyejo]

Beach Camera in NJ - they have a website for on line orders too. I also picked up the CP-200 printer - really great quality prints just connect to the camera and go! Stay away from their "packages" though - the camera bag, CF card & cleaning kit could all be picked up cheaper.

[gail]

Hey thanks I will have to check that site out. I mis-told you the price at Wal-Mart is 369.97 so that is a bit jump price from yours. So I might just have to order off line and save a few and wait a couple days to get it in. And also have a nothing question does it not come with the remote? Like the G3 has? If not can you buy one for it? Cause I really like that with my G3 being able to use that little remote to snap the photos. setting it up on tripod and having the remote to trigger it with makes it so much easier. I love the swivel LCD screen too. that was one thing I miss about my G3.

[Geeeyejo]

No remote is not included - but is available. Be sure to purchase re-chargeable NIMH as the alkaline supplied with the cam will go after about 40 shots! I got 4 - 2500MA evereadies for $10 and a Rayovac charger with home and car adapters for another $15. They say the high MA NIMH batteries are good for a few hundred shots!
Here's another pic of Mr Grey with Mr Black - not a great shot (a little over exposed by the ears) but I loved their candid pose!

[gail]

awe how sweet that is just darlen. I had a few cats that were my practice Kitty's I would practice on taking shots of them cause no one else would stay still for me ha. And they loved it. But we had a big stray dog come up and ran them off. I miss them I don't know where they went haven't seen them in months being the dog's here they don't come home. I miss them too. These were taken with my Canon G3 http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/11/large/1_2.jpg

#2 they were grooming each other here so sweet.
http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/11/large/5.JPG

[Geeeyejo]

Nice photos and kitties!

[gail]

And here's one more....

http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/11/large/IMG_5623%20copy.JPG

[gail]

And one of my Dog Puggie...she's no longer with us. And she's very miss by us all.
she was a very loving dog. and smart as you can tell by the photo. she would stand like that for us for hours if we ask her too she wouldn't get down till we told her too.
She was a very smart dog. and very pretty I thought. lots of people said oh my what's wrong with her teeth. But she got into a fight with another dog and that's why they were like that and she even lost a few from that fight. She was a bad little doggie..haha she would fight the biggest dog on the block didn't matter to her.
My Puggie Gone But Not Forgotten...
http://photos.imageevent.com/gailsgallery/11/large/IMG_0930%20copy1.JPG

[gail]

Nice photos and kitties!

Thanks. :-)

[Velvet G]

Hi Gail. I'm glad you like yours. I'm in love with mine and if they ever come out with an S2, I'll buy that as well. I've had mine for about 4 months and have been more than happy with it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrian/ <- some examples of the picture quality (well... as well as I can shoot them anyway).

Good luck with yours. I'm sure you'll love it.

[Youngster]

I paid 470€ for mine, ridicilously overprised but then again there's a lot more to life than complaining about money issues..

Oh, about the camera. I've had it for 5 days now and I'm liking it a lot. Then again, I don't have a lot to compare it to since I'm fairly new to digital photographing and photographing overall.

For me it takes quite a long time to figure out the right setting for each and every shot, but that has go to do with my little share of experience I suppose. Somehow I find it very difficult to get a good shot in the dark. For instance, yesterday there were some beautiful northern lights I wanted to capture but I really got nothing but a very dark picture, no matter what I tried. ISO's, exposures...nothing worked! Perhaps it's just me, or then the camera is afraid of the dark..

[dsze]

Hey, I got my wife the S1 for Christmas as she hates using my rig, and because I use it for paid portrait work I'd rather she not use it! :) ....but, I haven't quite made up my mind on her S1 yet. I think I like it, but I just haven't used it enough. Here's one of the few images I've done with it....just playing around at a restaurant.

http://home.comcast.net/~randomphotos/IMG_0172.jpg

-daniel

[iwatkins]

Also got the S1 for my missus for Xmas.

She was using it quite happily at a New Year's Eve party and got some great photos even using the flash for most and the IS must of helped because she did get rather drunk. ;)

Cheers

Ian

[Bodryn]

I bought my S1 IS in May of 2004 and after taking about 1900 pictures with it, I can say I LOVE IT! Imagine this: I can set the optical zoom to 10x (don't bother with the digital zoom), and WITHOUT A TRIPOD, I can take absolutely wonderful wildlife photos. I have several of western grebes which were far out on a lake; the zoom brings them up nicely. The same for a couple of Caspian terns, which I'd never before seen. Image stabilization is indispensible for this because who has time to set up a tripod? It makes this camera much more versatile. Another thing I love is that the viewfinder tells you EXACTLY what photo you will get, and also all the camera settings can be made when looking through the viewfinder. You can set the Custom setting to whatever settings you want to have ready for a quick point and shoot and that includes continuous shooting. You can set the shortcut key to whatever setting you want immediately without going through a menu. Despite all this, it makes a great point and shoot camera if you just set it to Auto or to P, then as you continue using it, you learn more about it.

One thing I don't like so much is that I have to put the lens cover on each time after shooting and I am used to my A70 which automatically closes the lens cover. (I keep the lens cover on a strong thread so it never gets lost.) Also there are no filter rings in front of the lens so to use filters you need to buy an attachment. Many 35mm photographers like to put Haze filters in front of the lens as a general protection for their lens. Also I always kept a circular polarizer in place on my 35mm to improve landscape photos. Scratched haze filters are easily replaced; the camera lens itself is not. Seems to me one could fashion something that would hold a haze filter in place at all times. If anybody does, I would like to hear from them.

[skiziks]

Been playing with an S1 for a couple of weeks and I want to know how you S1 users deal with the very slow focusing on this camera.

My old A40 was faster than this one.

Also, I tried the tele-converter from the A40 on the S1 and the S1 cannot focus with this lens. Never shows the green AF frame.

What makes the TC-DC52B teleconverter, the one recommended for the S1, so different from the TC-DC52?

[Bodryn]

My S1 focuses SUPER FAST. I wonder if yours may be defective??? :-(

[dsze]

....."focuses super-fast??" ...compared to what? Athough, I can't complain too much about this camera, overall I'm really liking it so far, there is no way that I can understand how anyone could say that it focuses "super-fast." Maybe mine IS defective. To what are you comparing and/or what do you call super-fast?

-daniel

[skiziks]

Focusing is a lot of hunting, and rehunting. It keeps trying to find a clear focus.
Sometimes it's faster than others, but it's not blazingly fast.

Getting back to me original question: what's the deal with the teleconverter?

The TC-DC52 lens worked fine on the A40, but it's hopeless on the S1. Why? What's the TC-DC52B got that the TC-DC52 doesn't have?

Do I have to spend another $120 for the TC-DC52B or is there an alternative teleconverter?

[Bodryn]

Oops, I'm sorry :confused: I was being absent minded; I meant that the zoom was super fast. As for autofocus, it seems to take at least half a second or so. However it doesn't wander back and forth in and out of focus: it goes directly into focus and stops. (I have it set to focus only when I press the shutter button.) Occasionally at 10x zoom I am not satisfied that it is focused precisely at infinity when it should be, as when pointed at the moon. Photos afterward bear out the fact that sometimes the infinity focus is off a bit. Also, it would be nice if it could focus in a tenth of a second. It is annoying to have to wait a bit while that bird flies out of view.

As for the teleconverter, I can't say directly but from what I know about optics I suspect that the teleconverter has to specifically match the camera lens it is being used with. The S1 with its 10x zoom has to have a very different design than the 3.2x zoom on, for example, my A70. I have a wide angle and 3x telephoto for my A70; I might try these on the S1 and see what happens - I haven't so far because I expected them to be badly out of focus. (Years ago I made a homemade wide angle lens out of available lenses. Crude, but fun.)

My apologies for being asleep at the keyboard and misunderstanding the question.... :-(

[Bodryn]

More about focus: if you know ahead of time what focus you'll need, you can set that focus and lock it. Right now I have the custom setting ("C" on the dial) set at infinity focus, manual focus on and zoomed out 10x. As soon as I turn the camera on, it sets itself to that. When manual focus is set, the camera doesn't require any time to refocus. Some people advise leaving your camera on and focused so you can get off a quick shot.

[skiziks]

Thanks for the answers. I will have to try the custom setting.

I suspect that you are correct in that the S1 would need a specific lens. What prompted me to ask this is that the lens from the A40 didn't work and also there was a seller on eBay offering a teleconvert claiming that it is better than the Canon TC-DC52B. It may or may not be a compatible lens, too much of a hassle to find out.

If you ever get around to trying out your A70 lens on the S1, I would be curious to know what your results are.

[Bodryn]

By the way, I do understand that there is a better lens and hood adapter attachment than the plastic one Canon offers. Somebody posted that information here awhile back saying that some company offered a metal adapter which would seem to be a lot tougher and able to take punishment without breaking. I don't have that website right now but you might check on that on older postings here. Some of those third party offerings are probably worth looking into.

[skiziks]

You're right, I did purchase one of the aluminum adapters.
Got it from BugEyeDigital.com $14.95

[cameron]

I've had my S1 for about 4 months now, my image count is up to about 6,000 or so.. and I am very pleased with it. For the price, it's my opinion that this is the closet thing to the Rebel in Point-N-Shoot format.

Here's a link to my blog, everything on here was taken with my S1. I hope you go for it and get the S1!! :)

S1 Pictures (http://cameron.allkidsplay.org/pixelpost)

[Velvet G]

Focusing is a lot of hunting, and rehunting. It keeps trying to find a clear focus.
Sometimes it's faster than others, but it's not blazingly fast.

Getting back to me original question: what's the deal with the teleconverter?

The TC-DC52 lens worked fine on the A40, but it's hopeless on the S1. Why? What's the TC-DC52B got that the TC-DC52 doesn't have?

Do I have to spend another $120 for the TC-DC52B or is there an alternative teleconverter?


What problem exactly are you having? Did you change the IS so it would work with the teleconverter? If not, hold down the IS button on the left side of the camera, you should see some options pop up. Change it to the teleconverter you're using. See if that helps.

[skiziks]

Velvet

Excellent question and accompanying suggestion.

First thing in the morning I'll be giving that IS setting to telephoto a shot.

Guess I will be finding out if the TC-DC52 from my old A40 is going to work or not.
Still would like to know what makes the TC-DC52B so unique and camera specific.

Thanks so much for the tip.

[gail]

Thanks everyone I appreciate all the feedback It's help me a lot. And some very nice pictures you have with the S1 nice close up seems like it does a pretty good job. I think I will be getting one soon. But thinking of ordering it off line to save a little seen it was cheaper than Wal-Mart prices. Beach Camera has it for $310.00 to where Wal-Mart is $369.00 so thought I could pick up an extra media card if I order on-line. But again thanks for the help appreciate. :-)

[aardwolf204]

I've had mine for about 2 weeks and I've shot about 1,000 so far. I think the auto focus could be faster especially when shooting birds, I'm going to have to figure out that trick with the C mode. Thanks for the tip on the hood from http://bugeyedigital.com/product_main/bow-aubs1.html its cheaper than the on at http://www.lensmateonline.com/S1.html . I wish the S1 IS was named something else, the search on this forus wont search for "S1" and "S1 IS" gets a bunch of results with the word "is". I havent been able to find much info from other owners of this camera and so far no community sites specific to the camera. The manual focus is a bit akward but at least it has it. has anyone else found any good resources for this camera?

[flugelboy]

I purchased this set from Fotodiox on eBay a while ago. It comes with the aluminum 52mm lens adapter, 1 clear UV filter (perfect for everyday shooting and camera lens protection), 1 polarizing filter, a mini tripod, a 52 mm lens cap and a hood. The hood is separate from the lens adapter which was not clear to me in the description. Each lens came in it's own protective case. For ~35 dollars, this is a great kit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43441&item=3864676663

[Jon]

Cute Peke, Gail.

The S1 IS looks a tad chunky compared to the A75/85, S-60/70, or S410/500. Those, especially the S410/500 would probably fit nicely in a purse or pocket, so be even more available. They won't have the telephoto range, but they're good for lots of snap-shooting. I use my A80 as an "anywhere" camera. This:
http://www.potomacpekes.org/rescues/Rescue_Meng_Tzu.JPG
was with the A80 while BaGe was running up to the camera (knocked down substantially for display on our rescues page (http://www.potomacpekes.org/rescues/))