Is Canon IXUS 850 IS good enough to take pictures like an DSLR?

Hi,

Just bought a Canon IXUS 850 IS and do some basic digital photography. However found that in manual mode there are not alot of setting to manipulate from. Wondering if this camera is able to shoot pictures which can be equal to those taken with a DSLR?

CK
Canon IXUS 850 IS

Within its limits, yes. Limits are the lens (shorter real lens focal length means greater DoF at any given aperture; don't have the range of focal lengths you can get on an SLR), ISO noise starts at lower ISO settings, and your flash options are more limited.

Sure it will. I have both a DLSR and a comact. The compact is perfectly capable of delivering pictures just as nice as the ones taken with my DSLR as long as I work within the parameters of the compact. Keep the light bright, and the ISO low and the subjects stationary or slow moving and the pictures are indistinguishable. But get outside that envelope like low light, fast action and such and the DSLR shows it's advantages.
The 850IS is a great camera and will produce some real good pics but it is not a replacement for a DSLR. What you gain in light weight, convenience, auto modes and cost you give up flexibility, and the ability to take pictures in difficult situations.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

Hi,

Thanks for the helpful information. I am honored to be a part of the canon digital photography forum.

I just taken a few pictures in the evening where light might not be intense enough to warrant a good picture. I tried auto, Hi ISO with flash but the picture came out dark. However without the flash, the picture taken was bright.

I thought flash is supposed to make the picture brighter?

Anyway is there no way to actually take a good picture of a fast moving subject using a compact?

Is it possible to capture a picture with a fast moving subject slowed down but the background is blurred to show motion using a compact?

Yap

The flash will add light to the scene; unfortunately, as light moves out from the flash it covers larger and larger areas, so it gets dimmmer and dimmer. When you aren't using flash, the camera leaves the shutter open longer, to collect available light, so if your subject's very far away the flash will light up the foreground, not your subject and the camera will meter the foreground (where the flash was stronger), giving a shorter exposure, and a darker main subject.

It's possible to photograph fast-moving objects - you need to anticipate the action and the shutter delay. This is harder with P&S than with a DSLR because the shutter lag tends to be longer. Panning, the technique you ask about in your last question, is also do-able with a P&S; it's easier than stopping a subject at the peak of action in fact. Just use a slowish shutter speed and follow the subject both before and after you trip the shutter.

cheekiang wrote in post #2529543
Hi,

Wondering if this camera is able to shoot pictures which can be equal to those taken with a DSLR?

CK
Canon IXUS 850 IS

There have been many answers here that say you can get pictures with your compact camera that are equal to a DSLR. But they all have a "if" or "within limits" etc attached. I used film SLRs for many years, and there really wasn't any film compact that could match them. Now I use nothing but compact digitals, and they work perfectly for my needs, but like film, I don't believe they match the DSLRs. So in my opinion, I think if you want the speed and all around quality photos of a DSLR, then you have to get, well, a DSLR.

If P&S produced images like a DLSR than they would also cost $3500.00.
That said, on a nice bright day a P&S will take an image at the same focal length as the lens mounted on the DSLR and look every bit as good at 4X6 or 5X7 as the DSLR. What you pay for in the DSLR is the ability to work in enviorments that would produce total noise in a P&S, plus the ability to throw the backgrounds out of focus (bokaw), change the FOV, the DOF, the focusing speed, the tracking ability of the AF, - plus,plus,plus, etc.
I also carry an SD800 on my belt, to complement my Canon 5D.

Hi,

It is so fortunate to receive so many professional tips from you guys. Yes, I really want to get a DSLR but because I am just into digital photography so I want to learn more tricks before getting one. Hopefully a compact will help me gain knowledge and skills.

Anoter question: When I switch to manual and take a photography, it comes out blur. But using auto and shooting the same subject it comes out clear. So in manual mode, the tendency of getting a blur photo is higher? I thought the difference in manual and auto is that manual we can manipulate the shutter speed, the aperture speed etc. But stabilisation is the same for both mode?

Thanks.

Yap

Learning in a compact is a great idea and the camera you chose is capable of quite a bit. I think you will see that many here started with a compact and many still use one. Stick with it and keep experimenting. You will find that experimenting is a great way of learning.

Use your auto for a while and keep track of the setting it uses. This gives you a starting point for learning manual. See what works and what doesent. There are good reasons for using manual but you should get a good book for a bookstore on photography techniques. In the mean time the auto fuctions of the SD800 are great.

If you shift to manual, you can set too slow a shutter speed. In Auto, when that's about to happen the camera will turn on the flash so it can use a faster shutter speed. The longer the shutter's open the more of your shakiness gets captured (and we're all shaky to some extent, whether we admit it or not!).