Canon PowerShot S1 IS Recomendations needed

[spyhunterk19]

I'm a highschool student and I'm intrested in starting photography as a hobby, mainly photographing people, candid shots not portraits, and sporting events such as night time football games.

The Powershot S1 IS seems like it would be a good choice for me, the rebel and other models are out of my price reach.

Is the Powershot my best option?

Thanks

[tim]

Night time football games would be hard to do well even with $5000 worth of equipment, the S1 might get it but not with professional results. I can't help with smaller cameras sorry, but good luck :)

[ScottE]

I had been considering getting this camera as a gift to my daughter for her trip to Africa. I have decided not to and will wait for the recently announced S2 IS. The S2 has 5 megapixels instead of the 3.2 in the S1 and a number of other improvements such as 12x zoom range.

I don't know how this camera would perform for sports. It certainly has a long enough telephoto lens, continuous auto-focus, shutter speed or aperture priority metering and a fast f/2.7-3.5 lens. At 2.5 frames per second you should be able to get a number of good shots in sequence. These are all "must have" features for sports.

My main concerns would be noise control at ISO 400 and whether the electronic viewfinder was fast enough for sports. We'll have to wait until someone does a few tests to find out.

Scott

[spyhunterk19]

Any speculation on the price of the s2 is? The Mega Pixels arn't as important to me.

Edit: I looked up the price, and it dosn't seem too me that the upgrades would be worth 200 dollars.

The difference will probably become even larger when the s1 drops in price because of the s2.

[J Rabin]

Spy.
Point & Shoot digicams are fun, but, I've never met a P&S that can satisfactorily do all you request. The S1 is a fun, outdoor, daylight family vacation camera. That's it.
Shutter lag and poor high ISO performance are no good for night sports. Shutter lag also interferes with candid street photography. The viewfinder is less than functional.
Get a used Canon film 35mm SLR body for $100, and a 50mm or 28-105 f/3.5-4.5 Canon lens. Buy good used lenses as you get money, then move digital. Keep the lenses. Teach youself photography. You'll be happier. Then lenses don't go obsolete every 18 months like digicams. Get a P&S as a fun knockabout toy.
The only digicam decent on auto focus is the Minolta A2, but at its price, you're better off with a used digital rebel. J.

[Salleke]

I'm a highschool student and I'm intrested in starting photography as a hobby, mainly photographing people, candid shots not portraits, and sporting events such as night time football games.

The Powershot S1 IS seems like it would be a good choice for me, the rebel and other models are out of my price reach.

Is the Powershot my best option?

Thanks

If you are planning to shoot sports with the Powershot S1 IS you"ll be very disappointed. It's simply wont work!!! It's way to slow. I have a Powershot S1 IS and it take nice candid shots pictures. But not more then one every 2 seconds or so. Inside with flash it takes 6 to 10 seconds for the flash to reload.
The Powershot S1 IS has a fine zoom and a very good movie mode. But forget it for use on moving subjects.
The Powershot S2 IS is announced to be faster but we have to wait and see. But i doubt it if it will be fast enough for action shoots.
The price is about to be 485 € and will be availeble end of june 2005.

[spyhunterk19]

I ended up purchasing an AE1 Program http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7512626882

Thankyou for the great advice, I wil definitly be hanging around these forums to learn about photography.

[J Rabin]

[QUOTE=spyhunterk19]I ended up purchasing an AE1 Program http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7512626882

Spy. I'm happy for you because this experience will teach you about exposure and composition. Most of the frustrating questions on these forums are from avid photographers who "went digital" but never learned photography, user errors.

Where ever you live, fine a really good photo processor that for $5 +/- a roll will scan and burn your images to a CD-ROM. You're in digital, even with a film camera, at better quality than any P&S! But, do not use crappy film or processing (like PhotoWorks) to save a few $. I think you find a good one if you ask around. Enjoy. J.

[lostdoggy]

It might sound cheaper to go 35mm. But inthe long run it actually cost you more. In digital format the initial outlay is high but film and processing is going to cost. Take for instance. If I go to an event and took say 216 pics in digital and came out with 10 pics that I like it would've cost me no more or less if I didn't have any pic I like. Where as if you took 216 PICs you would have gone thru 6 roll of film and processed 6 roll of film. Say that a roll of film cost $8 w/ processing that would've cost you around $50. do that for a 15 more event and it would all add up to a DREBEL. Mean while I would have just erase the pics I don't want out of my CF. Burn any PIcs I want to save on CDrs!!! G'Luck

[J Rabin]

All true. But, we're communicating with a young person wanting to LEARN photography. Blasting away lots of pictures and deleting doesn't do that. Making every shot count because you're paying, taking mental/written notes on settings, exposure/composition/focus/light all has value. Digital does not save time, nor save money initially. The point here was that an used film SLR was better to LEARN on than a digital P&S, if you can't afford dSLR. I think this young person will have a blast. It was not a digital vs. film question. J.

[DocFrankenstein]

Congrats on the wise decision. That camera can certainly do a lot.

Film costs, you may consider shooting black/white for a while and developing it in your bathroom or something.

All you need is a canister and the chemicals, then you can scan the negatives and invert them in the computer.

Voila - a click of the shutter now costs only 12 cents. (if you buy BW on sale for 2 bucks) That's 5000 pictures for 600 dollars... I think your shutter may die first. ;)

Also... invest in a STURDY tripod. It will serve you a long time.

Good luck

[spyhunterk19]

Film costs, you may consider shooting black/white for a while and developing it in your bathroom or something.

All you need is a canister and the chemicals, then you can scan the negatives and invert them in the computer.



Yah, i was considering using black and white at first, and as for the processing i didn't know that was even possible, or at least safe :) I'll have to look into it some more.

I'm really looking forward to this.

[DocFrankenstein]

It's an easy process...

You take out the film and insert it into a special can in the dark. Then you close the can and pour a chemical into it for 2-3 minutes. Pour out, wash and pour another chemical.

Then all you have to do is wash and dry the negatives

[Skip Souza]

DocFrankenstein's got it right. Meanwhile keep putting your spare change, birthday money, what have you, away and before you know it you will be able to go digital. All the while you will be learning how to really capture scenes. Don't get discouraged if you don't get the fantastic results that some of these guys get. Just have fun learning.
Keep the baby, Faith.