On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 11:32 AM, Biju Chacko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > Perhaps a more useful question to the photo geeks is: What are the > criteria that you would use if you were buying a point and shoot?
I own an S1 IS, the very first avatar of the series. It's a great camera, but I get the feeling that Canon limited some of the higher end features rather deliberately so that it wouldn't become a competitor to the DSLR range. I don't know if this has changed in the S5 IS. While I found it possible to do some amazing things [1] rather easily on the camera, using the pano assist mode for example, it did disappoint me a few times when it fell short of being a real DSLR. Overall I was very satisfied with the camera until the CCD sensor malfunctioned. It's a known defect, and Canon issued a recall which I didn't notice until after the fact. Now it's totally useless. I also have a more typical point and shoot, a Canon SD1000 - the smallest in the Canon line. It's a great camera too, but I found myself taking very different pictures from what I used to take on the S1 IS. Compare [2a] to [2b] The SD 1000 is a great street camera, I don't expend a lot of energy setting up the shot, and I don't really know if it would be worth it anyway. On the other hand it can start up in less than 2 seconds, so it's perfect to whip out and snap when you see something interesting. It's also not bad for vacation pictures, so you can hand the camera to anyone who's around and get them to take a picture of you. If you are looking to build photographic skill you will find the Sn IS series perfect, but you might very soon out grow its feature set. Cheeni [1] http://cheeni.net/mypix/Chakrata/target11.html Took less than 5 minutes to take all of the shots [2a] http://cheeni.net/mypix/Orissa/ http://cheeni.net/mypix/Gharwal%20and%20Himalayas/ http://cheeni.net/mypix/Pictures%20from%20Sikkim%20-%20Set%201/ [2b] http://picasaweb.google.com/cheeni/SerangoonRoadLittleIndiaSingapore#
