Opinion Re: Canon S1 IS

Persephone

New member. Great site!
Will be purchasing a new camera soon and have my eye on the Canon digitals. The S1 IS caught my eye because it seems to have good capabilities and it isn't ridiculously over-priced.
Pros and cons?
Thank you in advance for any input.
~Persephone

DJ-S1

Hi, welcome to dgrin!

I bought an S1 last summer and really enjoyed it. It does have limitations, though. Specifically low light focusing and noise at higher ISO settings. But the 10x optical IS zoom is really cool and allows you to get shots you might otherwise miss.

At 3 megapixels you can't crop heavily, but I have made 5x7 and even a few 8x10's from images so it's not too bad. You can check out my gallery of air show photos I took with it a week after I bought it here.

Coincidentally I am thinking of selling mine since I just bought a used dSLR to replace it. PM me if you decide the S1 is for you and want to discuss it.

Persephone

Good place to start.
What do you know about accessories available, such as lenses?
Why are you selling? Upgrading or S1 is not working out for you?

~Persephone

DJ-S1

Upgraded. As far as lenses, you can get a tele and a wide angle that are made for the S1, but that's pretty much it. It doesn't take Canon lenses like an SLR would. There's a few other accessories like an underwater housing, remote control, etc.

Persephone

DJ-S1 wrote:

Upgraded. As far as lenses, you can get a tele and a wide angle that are made for the S1, but that's pretty much it. It doesn't take Canon lenses like an SLR would. There's a few other accessories like an underwater housing, remote control, etc.

I appreciate your help and enjoyed looking at your gallery.
Seems like the majority of members here are Nikon people. I have always liked Canons. Looking forward to surfing around here and seeing everyone's work.
~Persephone

wxwax

Persephone wrote:

New member. Great site!
Will be purchasing a new camera soon and have my eye on the Canon digitals. The S1 IS caught my eye because it seems to have good capabilities and it isn't ridiculously over-priced.
Pros and cons?
Thank you in advance for any input.
~Persephone

Whether it's good or not really depends upon how you plan to use it.

If you're expecting to do a bunch of portraits inside a church using available light, it's not the best tool. In that regard, however, it's in the same league as all other prosumer cameras. High ISO noise etc. come with the category and are not endemic to this camera.

If you're looking for a light, portable camera with a big zoom, good image quality, and you'll mostly be shooting where the light is decent, it does a really nice job. Patch29 has one and is favorably impressed with it.

Persephone

Thank you for the information, Sid. I plan on using it for outdoor shots, landscape, architecture, and the such. I am fairly new to the world of digital photography, and am looking to get my feet wet. Very much enjoy this site you have here, I see you are an administrator. Nicely done. I hope Patch29 has a moment to jot down a thought or two.
~Persephone

wxwax

Persephone wrote:

Thank you for the information, Sid. I plan on using it for outdoor shots, landscape, architecture, and the such. I am fairly new to the world of digital photography, and am looking to get my feet wet. Very much enjoy this site you have here, I see you are an administrator. Nicely done. I hope Patch29 has a moment to jot down a thought or two.
~Persephone

He's usually drunk and often incoherent, so don't expect too much when he finally staggers to the keyboard.

The S1 IS is a perfect camera for you. The IS will really help when you use the zoom. Please post pics!

Persephone

I will take my chances, but heed your warning :
I appreciate your time and will see what I can do about getting some pics on here. From what I have seen, I have a lot of work to do and am very intimidated. Nothing like a good challenge!
~Persephone

DJ-S1

No need to be intimidated here. We have the full gamut here, from you and me all the way up to Andy and Waxy. This is the nicest place on the 'net for photos, post away!

Maybe DoctorIt will chime in here, he's got some S1 experience too. :poke

patch29

wxwax wrote:

He's usually drunk and often incoherent, so don't expect too much when he finally staggers to the keyboard.

The S1 IS is a perfect camera for you. The IS will really help when you use the zoom. Please post pics!

Some of us actually had to work last week and then helped a friend for the day trying to find the right bicycle.


I bought my S1 as a take everywhere, not worry about camera for the days when I do not want to haul around my 1DmkII. I like it, great zoom, ability to shoot some decent video, small, uses AA batteries and is easy to use. I think the quality is good, typically I am shooting in sunlight with this camera or flash (to post a quick photo of something) and it works very well. I did not high mpx with this camera, so that was not a factor, most of the shots I do not it get posted here or maybe a small print, both it handles very well.

That said, I miss my SLR features, but not lugging the weight when I am not working so there might be a 350D rebel in my future. It offers light weight, good features and is still small enough to hike around with.

Here are some test photos from the day I bought it. I have other photos, but they are scattered and mixed with other cameras.

I hope that helps and I think you will be happy with it.

davev

Persephone wrote:

New member. Great site!
Will be purchasing a new camera soon and have my eye on the Canon digitals. The S1 IS caught my eye because it seems to have good capabilities and it isn't ridiculously over-priced.
Pros and cons?
Thank you in advance for any input.
~Persephone

I have one. It's a good snapshot camera. I have the lens adapter and the
tele (1.6x) lens.

It's take's nice pics. The swivel LCD is nice also.

I have galleries here:

http://www.pbase.com/davev/zoo

http://www.pbase.com/davev/canon

http://www.pbase.com/davev/full_size (right from the camera)

dave.