Canon A710 IS - Some pix (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Three recent pictures taken with my 6 weeks old Canon A710 IS. Love the thing, perfect for my current needs, served me very well so far.

The second picture might seem gimmicky, but it was an entirely spur of the moment type deal: I want to take the picture while she was in front of me, but could find the camera in time so I just snaped it thought the mirror and ended up liking the result.

The third one was equally thoughless (random kid walking on the street, or so I thought then, there is a story behind it, too long to tell now), it just looked like a good opportunity so I took it (telephoto end IIRC). After the fact, I just love the contrast between the upper and lower background (eh... I am allowed to pat my self on the back).









Feel free to let me know why they suck.

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H

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Nice pictures, Holadem. I like the third one best, and the 2nd has a unique perspective using the rear view mirror.

The composition of the first photo possibly could have been improved by shooting landscape instead of portrait and including less sky. A wide angle may have worked well there (without knowing what was outside the frame, though, I'm only guessing).

 

[Mike Frezon]

Holadem: I just stumbled on this thread.

I agree with everything Scott said. I like #3 best. Verrrrrry nice. Colors, background contrast, subject, even the poster all work together to make it an excellent photo. And, on #1, the people and buildings are incredibly fascinating. That's why I agree with Scott about going landscape vs. portrait. While the effect of the sky glow is cool, its the nature of the market that's intriguing me. Less sky would have allowed you to open up the iris just a bit and capture more detail. Just scrolling the picture up the screen of my monitor and using the top of my screen to "crop" the photo just above the church steeple shows how the sky, steeple and palm still impact the photo in a nice way leaving you more room for the foreground.

But hindsight is 20-20. Those are three nice photos. (Come to think of it...I guess #2 really is "hind sight"! )

 

[Holadem]

Thanks guys. You're probably right about the first picture. For some strange reason, I tend to prefer shooting "portrait", don't really know why. Ultimately, the orientation should suit the subject of course. As to what is to the sides of the picture (#1), more of the same I guess, I honestly didn't think anyone would give a damn, I was far more interested in the church against the sky .

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H

 

[anthony_b]

Is this in Haiti ?...

 

[Mary M S]

Envy you that zoom to 210
Vs the 108 I have with the fuji.

The Third photo just pops. The kind you line your walls with when transitioning pics of recent trips/events in your life. The ‘got milk’ type poster in the background is a serendipitous touch adding interest when you’re studying the frame of such an appealing shot.

[1st] I would have wanted that sky/steeple also when composing that shot, -finding the street more interesting with the church at anchor top dead center. Then crop with just enough sky.

That type of shot is the kind I hope to learn how to best deal with on a limited featured P&S. How to get enough light into the street, and a little less underexposure there, when the camera is metering bright glow above the horizon.

For me, the 3rd shot is definitely the standout. Color/subject/framing. Beautiful!

It appears on specs you have a manual focus option on that Cannon?

 

[Chris PC]

Nice pics. I have an S2 IS and just helped my father pick out an A710 IS. Nice upgrade for him from his Fuji 2400 zoom!

Does anybody know what the best telephoto converter lens there is for this camera? The adapters are only $30 CDN.

thanx,

 

[Holadem]

Sorry I just caught this, yes, there is a manual focus option. I rarely use it.

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H

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

In my experience, manual focus on these small lens/sensor digicams aren't all that useful, except for the purpose of locking focus and/or presetting focus w/ a large DOF for the purpose of waiting for a moment to occur.

BTW, enjoyed seeing these.

_Man_

 

[Chris PC]

Since my personal S2 IS is dead right now, I have used my fathers A710 IS for a few pics. I noticed that indoors its not great and the pictures take forever to take. It seems much slower than my S2 IS and the photo's end up being blurry without the flash. With the S2 the IS works so you don't need flash unless it's really low light. What's up? I think I tried both IS modes, shoot only and continuous and they both seem the same. Kinda disappointed with the low light IS performance.

 

[Holadem]

Well, not having any other IS to compare it to, I am extremely happy with mine. I like the S2/3 series, but needed something that could fit in my pocket. The 710A is a bit big, but then again so am I, it fits fine in my jacket and jeans pockets.

But of course, it's not perfect, after 3 months, here are the negatives:

1- Charge time for flash is like 4-5 secs. So I always have to tell people after the first picture to stay in place for subsequent ones. It's a minor annoyance.

2- The LCD is large, but relatively low rez: I've had pictures which looked tack sharp on the LCD turn out pretty blurry on the computer. I got burned a few times like that, but now I know. When it's a critical shot, I zoom in the way on playback just to make sure I don't need to take another one.

3- Pictures always turn out a good deal darker than they look on the LCD. The problem is that I often forget this until I am in front of the PC... nothing dialing up the Gamma cannot fix (although I don't do it), but I need to find a way to turn the LCD brightness down (can I even do that? I took a quick look at the menus the other day without success) to better match the actual exposure. I could also just systematically offset every shot, but would rather not have to do that.

Learning to use the histogram might obviously work as well, but I am a week away from another trip so that'll have to wait.

Overall, I am continuously amazed by the quality of this things output, and so are all my friends. Colors just pop so well, purist might say the camera dials up the saturation a bit, which is very possible. I don't mind at all.

--
H

 

[Chris PC]

- the EV setting?

 

[Holadem]

It's a solution, but it doesn't solve the problem, i.e., the difference between LCD and actual picture remains.

--
H

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Just learn to use the histogram -- and maybe the flashing highlights indicators (I assume it has on playback). It's easy enough to use, especially for your more critical shots.

Alternatively, you might also try finding a good viewing angle for a more accurate playback on the LCD. How bright the picture looks probably depends a lot on viewing angle, especially on the lower end (or older) models. That's what I used to do w/ my Canon G3 when I don't have time to check histogram.

Nowadays, some of the better digicams also come w/ live/preview histogram for shooting.

_Man_

 

[Holadem]

I may have overstated the matter a bit on item 2 in the above list, things were fine on this last round of heavy use, I took several duplicate pix with with eV dialed up a notch or two and almost invariably prefer the original setting.

The low rez LCD issue is non-existent at this point as well, since I've acquired the habit of zooming in on playback to make sure.

#1 remains a relative pain.

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H