A630 or S3?

im debating whether to upgrade to either something like an A630 (or A530) or an S2 (or S3) .... i've nevered used an S2 or S3 so does anyone know the real differences between the A630 and S3 except for the insanely high zoom? cuz i dont really see it ....

Mostly the, as you put it, "insanely high zoom", image stabilization and the physical size.

Never used a a630 but have a A85 and an S3. As you rightly picked up the major difference is the 12x optical zoom on the S3. There appear to be a few extra features on the S3 one touch movie mode, stereo microphones, Larger physical size, 6 Mp instead of 8 Mp on the A630, Faster continuous mode, 2.5 fps i believe, Image stabilization (a major factor). Image quality I can't really say as I have no experience of the A630. A few sites say that the S3 is slightly better, but often this is in the eye of the beholder but the S3 is definitely better than the A85 across the range.

I think it depends on what you are wanting your camera for, the A630 looks like a great point and shoot camera with lots of extras if you want them (like the A85) whereas theS3 is a point and shoot camera but really needs one to use its various functions including M mode to bring out the best, possibly could be described as a slightly more technical camera. Hope this helps.

is it true the s3 doesnt allow more than 1gb cards?

I went through the same dilemma about 2 months ago ... landed on the A630 ... slightly better image sensor from what I understand...

http://shopping.yahoo.​com …4298640:page=us​er-reviews

GoodHearted wrote in post #2653974
is it true the s3 doesnt allow more than 1gb cards?

I've got a 2 gb in mine! I believe they will take 4gb. My daughter has been been using mine today and the results are stunning - Up to 200 iso (400 in some circumstances), the results are as good as my 400D & 17-85. Unless camera physical size is a factor, go for the S3. If the S3 went 28mm wide, my 400D & lenses would be on ebay!

I believe you may be confusing the 1 Gb video limit with to total usable limit which I believe is 4 Gb but there are reports that it will work with the new 8Gb cards??? The 1 gb video limit is usually ok as this means around 7.5-8 mins video at 640x480 30 fps, then its simply a case of pushing the video button again until the next 1 Gb limit and so on until the card is full. ( there is a 1 hour limit to video clips but this is never going to be reached as even at 320 x 240 15 fps the 1Gb limit would be reached at about 45-46 mins recording time )

thats what i read in a review someone wrote so who knows.... maybe they're confused

but anyways..... im leaning more towards the a640 or a630 ... im not really sure why i'll ever need 10mp so im thinking 8mp might be enough...... mostly its because of the censor size and size of the beast im going in A direction, although the 10x zoom is just insane, but i can do without that

i own the A620, love it... wish it had more than 4x zoom in some cases but for what I use it for mostly (car show pictures), its perfect.

GoodHearted wrote in post #2654424
thats what i read in a review someone wrote so who knows.... maybe they're confused

I did a ton of research before and read that statement somewhere on line - it's not true ... what is true is if you're shooting a movie you can record up to 1GB, no more Same for 630 and S3

ok so i got the A630.... bit of a problem that bothers me a whole lot (its me not the camera) i get sooooooo much damn noise ... how do you guys correct that and get crystal clear images that i see on here so often?

Good settings, good lighting.

high ISO causes noise.

You can also post-process with Neat Image or Noise Ninja, to name a couple of applications. With JPEG it's harder to manage safely, but a slight overexposure will give you less noise than underexposure.

What they said ... noise in low lighting is an issue with all cameras in this price bracket ... make sure youre ramping the ISO to 80/100 for other shots

ya it was the iso ..... 800 is such a waste to add on this camera... whoever thought that up needs to be kicked