I'm an S45 user

[MarkL]

I'm a new S45 user. Previously had a Nikon2500, and uprgraded to the s45 as it has a whole bunch more features.

I live in NZ and was lucky enough to pick it up in Singapore on the way through. I have seen them advertised in NZ at a shop selling them for about $1600 NZ.

So far it has been beyond what i expected. The biggest suprise was that you can take 3 minutes of video at a time with sound which can come in pretty useful. The other is its processing speed. A 2 min video will take no longer than a couple of seconds (max) to save to the CF card. There is almost no time delay in saving pictures regarldess of size and quality. This is in big contrast to the 2500 which took about 10 secs to save a 15 sec clip with no sound!!!

It takes excellent detailed pics with the auto mode. Haven't had a chance to fully explore the endless manual features. Takes good photos under low light, even the movies come out not to bad.

I also noticed when donwloading pics to the computer via the usb was just as fast as a card reader i bought that was meant to be about 40 times faster than downloading via usb.

Battery life seems to be comparable with my Nikon . I took about 100 pics using flash and reviewd a slidehow a few time using the TV at which time the battery indcator started flashing.


Some people complain that it is to heavy but i think it has the perfect weight and so actually feels like your holding a camera of descent quality.

Only one downside so far and it is not with the camera but the software that comes with it. The zoombrowser requires more than a few steps to enable downloading, compared to the nikon software, and viewing is not as easy or intutive as i thought it would be.

I have also had trouble emailing pics after compressing with the inbuilt software as well as editing movies in adobe premier (dosen't recognise the file format?).

Overall a fantastic camera. Would definately reccomend a large CF card though.
ANy questions let me know, and i'll try to answer them.

[delphinus]

Hi Markl, it's great that you had decided to move to S45. I personally feel that Coolpix2500 is too limited in its feature, especially compared to Sxx's manual control.

Just wondering how it performs. Whether the auto focus performance delivers what it is supposed to be? and also the red eye reduction performance?

May I know which shop you bought the camera from? I am currently studying in Singapore and for the past 3 weeks I have been looking around Singapore to find it with no success (getting it for my friend).

Thanks,
Delphin
Canon Powershot S30

[MarkL]

I've had no problem with the autofocus. I've had a few out of focus shots but that was a result of me using the wrong focus setting for the shot.

The red eye reduction feature worked better than i expected, however u do still get a moderate amount of red eye, as with most cameras.

The shop was in the Peninsula Plaza of Coleman St near city Hall. A couple of shops had them (should go for a round 1000-1200 singapore dollars).

[delphinus]

Yoo, thanks markl. I'll check it out this weekend.

Seems that canon still need to improve their red eye reduction method. It is one of the most noticable flaw from their digicam product, but not that irritating anyway.

Delphin

[AaroNZ]

Hi Mark,

greetings from a fellow Kiwi.

I am looking around for the best place to purchase the S45 online - seems buying online from here that Hong Kong is quite good...lokked at Aus too.

I'd like to compare notes with you when I get my camera, or to hear some more of how you are going with yours and perhaps see some shots. Do you have accounts with the online galleries e.g.
www.pbase.com
www.photosig.com

(http://www3.photosig.com/photos.php?cameraId=385) that's a link for the S40 users galleries.

Cheers

Aaron

[UK_Terry]

Hi
i am just replacing a Kodak 210+ that i have had for a few years with the S45 (get it christmas)
so will be looking at this forum for tips etc.

i have a D30 as well.

[TonyD]

Hi Mark,
It seems that kiwis are 'early adopters'! I am in Melbourne and have just bought an S45 here (AUD1279) after considerable research into the SLR-type offerings including the G3.
However I am having real problems with Zoombrowser 4.0, presumably in connection with my (standard!) PC configuration (Thinkpad, Win2K Pro FP3). Install is OK but after camera is disconnected the registry seems to become corrupted and ZB cannot subsequently find the camera, which shows as 'unavailable' in the Device Manager.
I would be interested to know what PC config you are using and whether you have had any similar problem.

[ian h]

so....how does the s45 compare to the g2? will i lose a lot if i go for the s45????????????

[delphinus]

You'll basically lose G2's physical feature:
1. G2's fast lens (f2.0-f.2.5) compared to s45's lens (f2.8-f4.9)
2. Ability to attach additional lenses and filters (although www.ckcpower.com sells 3rd party filter adapter for s30,s40,s45)
3. Hotshoe adapter fro external flash

Imgae quality is more and less the same since I don't see what else can be improved over an already impressive image quality of s30/s40. Some even says that s45 produces sharper picture compared to g2 and g3, but I've yet to try g2 or g3 first.

Delphin
PS S30

[ddho]

I am interested in getting S45. But i am concerned about the quality of the night shots as i find night shots rather beautiful with those lighting effects.

IS the image clear if you take night shots with shutter speed is longer than 2 seconds without using a tripod? i dont intend to carry tripod around when i travel to various countries.

Pls advise. Thankyou

Dave

[delphinus]

That is an interesting requirement you need. Let me check with if you intend to take picture of a person with night scene background or entirely panoramic night scene? For the earlier one, you can use night shot setting where the camera will flash the subject and use slow shutter speed.

However for the latter I found it a bit difficult to do. I personally only able to hold the camera steady at lens speed at 1/20 sec and faster. Anything slower than that I can't handle it anymore in any lighting situation. Now, let me check with you again if you are sure you want to take foto of night scene with speed +/-2 sec without tripod? Somemore the ISO sensitivity must be tuned down to ISO50 to obtain a clear picture.

If your answer is yes, then I have to admit that my hand is not that steady. If not, you can probably find a mini tripod that can be easily put into your pocket.

Oh and all the best for your trip. :)

Delphinus
PS S30

[ddho]

i prefer taking night scene and not people. I dont know much about taking pictures with all those functions but i will learn from my uncle who is a professional photographer. If i dont use tripod, does that mean the noise of the picture will bad? i

what about the day pic? are they ok?

[delphinus]

There are a couple of way to take night photos. The first will be by using higher sensitivity (ISO400 : film equivalent of ASA) so take it can lessen the time required to capture an image. This way the shutter speed will be faster as compared to low sensitivity ISO. Faster shutter speed means you can tolerate more naturally occuring hand/ body shake. However by using higher ISO, the image quality will go down as it produces more grain.

Other way will be by using low sensitivity (ISO50) to produce clean image, but you'll require a steady hand to do the job. I'd recommend of using tripod to achieve maximum steadiness. If tripod is not used then you'll get a clean but blurred image.

So you see that there are 2 scenarios:
1. Use high ISO(ISO400), tripod not required, but bad image quality/ grainy
2. Use low ISO(ISO50), clean image, tripod is necessary if not blurred image.

I'm not sure about your uncle. Is he using a digital SLR camera? If that's the case then you should know that digital SLRs can capture image at very high ISO (ISO800 and above) and still maintain the cleanness of the image. With those I believe it is easier to capture image without tripod.

So I guess you should check with your uncle about it first. Make sure of which type digital camera you want, A high end professional class digital SLR or medium end consumer class digital camera.

Hope this helps.

Delphinus
PS S30

NB: Digital SLR can easily be 3 times more expensive than consumer digicam.