S2 First Impression

[ghocking]

I bought this as in pocket, in car, carry round point & shoot when not on a photo shoot carrying all my SLR junk. It arrived this morning so I took it for a walk around town, channel side walk (water, boats, wild flowers), park (more flowers, and wild fowl), and a smal pond (insects, wild fowl).
Impessions: After using a SLR, I found it hard work remembering all the dials, menu settings etc, it was a sunny day (rare in the UK) and could not see the LCD screen at all, thats why I bought a point & shoot with eyepiece monitor.
Comments:
1. The supplied batteries ran out after about 1 hour.
2. Used in auto, P, TV and AV modes plus a few of the preset modes.
3. Left ISO and WB as auto. Left IS in shoot mode.
4. All shots except AV mode seemed to use f4 most of of the time and set shutter speed to suit.
5. AV only went up to f8 (not read manual yet)
6. Maco and super macro seemed very good.
7. Never used the movie mode (not what I bought it for)
8. When I got home put the shots (nearly 400) through CS2 and very surprised (impressed) with the results. The colours were a bit on the vivid (saturated) side.

Conclusion:
1. Not as easy to use as a SLR, trying to remember what everything did and where it was.
2. Menu button in bad position, I was always pressing it error.
3. Results straight out of the camera, very impressive, very sharp (very suprised).
I wanted a camera that had a large zoom range, to cover what I had with SLR, must have eyepiece monitor, decent MB size and easy to carry around.
This has fitted the bill and very impressive. Might change my mind when the light is not so good (99% of time in UK), but for first shoot, very happy.

[paulhillion]

I too used mine today for the first time & looking at the results this evening I was very impressed indeed with the picture quality. Very sharp & lovely colours, a wee bit over saturated but I kinda like my shots like that so no problems there. My only moan is that when using it in this afternoons sunshine both the viewfinder & lcd were really hard to see, I was practically guessing when composing the shot! The zoom is just fabulous!

Recommended!

[Voyager13b]

I hit the menu button by accident every now and then too. It becomes easy to find though after some time with the camera, and a second press brings you back to the working screen.

One thing that you will find very handy about the S2 in time is the button layout. You can execute many picture taking decisions with the press of one button on the S2. Even when a button press brings up a menu, it is easy to navigate, and easy to remember how you got there.

I grew up with the SLR, and own or have owned a ton of Canon SLR gear over the years. My current stable does not include a digital SLR (yet), but does include a T-90, an EOS 630, an F1, an F1n, an FTB, one or two APS Elphs, a G17 III, and a slew of lenses.

I have owned a number of pocket digicams (including the S-200, and S-400), and used several digital SLR's that are/were owned by friends. I had no doubt that digital would come of age, but until the new generation of ultra zooms like the S2 came out, I had no idea that they would offer so much for so little, and in such a comfortable package.

It's been less than a Month, but the S2 is simply an amazing camera. The S2, the accessory flash, the converter/lens hood, the tele converter, the tele macro converter, 12 rechargeable batteries, a battery charger, a Tamrac camera case, several 58mm Hoya filters, two 1 gig high speed SD cards and a reader cost far less than than the cheapest DSLR body, and even one IS lens (with limited focal range).

Sure, the SLR/DSLR can do almost anything that you ask of it, but not out of the box, and not on a limited budget. It would cost many thousands of Dollars to make a DSLR duplicate what the S2 can do as a light weight, fully featured system will all accessories for well under $1200. That estimate doesn't include the cost of a reasonably good digital video camera you would have to buy as a supplement to your SLR.

The camera class represented by the S2 offers more bang for the buck to more shooters than any other class of camera ever invented. I suspect that it will only get better in time, as manufacturers know who pays their bills, and will do their best to please them.

Voyager

[cjm]

Yeah I don't like the LCD monitor as a viewfinder although it does make you use it instead of the screen, if you wear glasses and its a sunny day it is virtually impossible to see anything through it. Other then that I hear the S2 is a far improvement over the S1.

[GyRob]

is it not an optical viewfinder ? i have a nikon 5700 and its a lcd type and i hate it.
Rob.

[cjm]

Nope it's a tiny LCD screen. I was using one out doors and if you wear glasses all bets are off because you can't see the screen unless your eye ball is touching the veiwfinder. Its the number #1 problem I had with it. It has a dioptic adjustment but too me that is useless as I am near sighted so if I use a dioptic I can't see what I am looking at to take a picture.

What would be great is if they could make the S3 an optical viewfinder that actually zooms with the lens, although for them to do that would probably be very expensive, so maybe Canon could just invent a LCD screen that doesn't fade in sunlight?

[JohnnyE]

The LCD screen does tilt, right. Why can't you just tilt it so that there's no glare from the sun???

[JTF]

Anyone know how the purple fringing is on the long end of the zoom as compared to the S1.

[ghocking]

JTF asked
Anyone know how the purple fringing is on the long end of the zoom as compared to the S1.


I have seen it on some large crops on a few of my shots.

With regards to the eyepice monitor, I wear glasses and push them on my head to use the eyepice and have no problems. Ok its not the view I get with my DSLR's and I totaly rely on autofocus, as with my eyes I could not trust manual.
But for the price this camera is outstanding.

[JTF]

Thats not bad, most if not all have some purple fringing on background highlights in bright light.