Canon S1 IS Digital Camera

Scott Dautel · 07-10-2004, 12:09 PM

Hey all ... remember this thread.

Well, after lots of discussion, I think Mark, Andrew & I all decided to pull the trigger on the Canon S1 IS 3.2 MP digital camera. Funny thing is I was the last to bite ... just got mine a week ago. (BestBuy $355.- open box special - I'm VERY happy with the deal).

Anyway ... HTF threads disappear quickly and I wanted to resurrect this discussion since us pathetic HTF gadget freaks are always looking for the latest & greatest.

I have to say that the Canon S1 IS is my 4th digital camera, but the 1st that I'm 100% THRILLED with. I've had 2 Kodaks (with moderate satisfaction, but too many fuzzy shots). Well ... I guess I diddn't know what I was missing. The new Canon S1 IS is really superior to anything I've ever had before. Also, I can now really agree that MP stats are overated. The Canon optics are the real winner here. Also, Canon's "stitch mode" (uses optional software + shooting in stitch mode) allows you to "stitch together" 2,3,4 shots to make up to a 12 MP shot if you want ... so forget the MP stats. The 10x Optical zoom with optical image stabilization is the ticket. I'll try to post a few demo shots, but you can find them on the web.

Anyway ... for those of you shopping this summer, here's a thorough review I'm still referring to (better than the Canon manual).

Scott

Michael Toguchi · 07-10-2004, 02:57 PM

Thanks for the update, Scott. I am looking at that exact camera and am kind of hesitant because of the low MP rating. But if you say the optics are as good as they are, I may have to take the plunge! I have an older Canon S10 that takes decent shots, and have been itching to upgrade. But of course, the financially stable person in my life will need to approve first, which may be hard to come by considering I recently picked up a new DV camera.

Chris PC · 07-29-2004, 11:37 PM

I have been deciding between the Canon S1 IS and the Panasonic DMC FZ10 because they both have Image Stabilization. I'd love to see some pics that you post for the camera. Love the movie mode but purple fringing and 3.2 MP do kinda make me sway away from the Canon. I bet its a good unit though. Have fun and do post those pics. Also, being the HTF, don't forget to make lots of 640 x 480 movie clips at 30 FPS

BobV · 07-30-2004, 01:05 PM

This album of mine is all shot with the Canon S1 IS.

07-30-2004, 10:45 PM

For the most part I've been pretty happy with my S1. What I really like is the extra long zoom with the stablizer, the built in flash, its movie mode and the fact it uses CF cards that I already owned. Where its not so strong is it eats batteries so use rechargeables (not uncommon in digicams), its low light abilities isn't as good as the A60 I had before and it lacks a true macro mode. Its also not that fast at locking in focus...but that's somewhat understandable given the long zoom on the lens but it can be a little annoying when you're trying to capture something moving quickly like a small child (mines 15 months old!). That said there's ways around that issue since I now just lock focus before (press shutter half way down to lock focus) I need to take the shot that way its virtually instant and it just becomes habit.

Really from what I've seen with my S1 vs the other camera's I've owned the S1 isn't without its faults but its very good at what it does well and that's being able to capture images that would not normally be available to most digital cameras with its long zoom lens and capture quality video when you need to.

My next camera will likely be a dSLR to move up in the image quality and get the different lens etc but I'll still keep the S1 for your more typical day to day shooting since you can't always lug around a dSLR

Here's some photo's from my S1 at a scaled down resolution.

http://www.mts.net/~glendap/misc/lgtree.jpg
http://www.mts.net/~glendap/misc/lghairbell.jpg
http://www.mts.net/~glendap/misc/lgrock.jpg
http://www.mts.net/~glendap/misc/baseball.JPG
http://www.mts.net/~glendap/misc/step.JPG

Here's two good links for you.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1010

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/v...ort_by=&page=1

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JasonMC · 07-31-2004, 07:17 PM

I am extremely interested in this camera. I'm just concerned about the focus difficulty. This would be my second digital camera, my first being a Kodak version that I bought 2 yrs ago. I'm going to the store to check it out in the next two days. Is the focus problem a show stopper in your opinion?

08-01-2004, 12:07 PM

No not at all its just a little different then your typical short zoom camera...and likely an issue with all the long zoom models. It can be annoying but its typically not really an issue for 95 percent of the shots I've taken.

Scott Dautel · 08-04-2004, 08:46 AM

Hey Guys ... deal Alert!!!

Onecall has the Canon S1 IS on sale for $337.64 w/ free FedEx 3-day delivery.
This is by far the best deal I've ever seen on this camera.

Scott

Patrick Sun · 08-04-2004, 03:21 PM

Anyone tried taking photos with the S1 in large convention room settings with so-so lighting?

I'm also just a little concern with the lack of a manual-assist lamp for the auto-focusing. But otherwise, it sounds like a neat little camera.

Man-Fai Wong · 08-04-2004, 04:30 PM

Never tried the S1, but my Canon G3 has AF-assist lamp, and I (and many others) never found it to be all that useful anyway. Afterall, there is a problem w/ parallax that makes the AF-assist lamp target shift off axis from the actual AF target as you zoom in and out. Also, typical AF-assist lamps are too weak to help beyond maybe 6-7ft anyway.

Your best bet might be to master the (albeit very weak) manual focus capabilities of these cameras w/ a little understanding of DoF principles instead. That's what I did mostly w/ my G3 in low light. For example, you can probably get everything in focus from ~2.5ft to near infinity w/ a setting like f/5.6, focus distance ~5ft, full wideangle (ie. ~35mm). Since the sensor and lens on the S1 are smaller than the G3, I'd think f/5 would be small enough to do the same. Another example: if you're shooting 1/2 height adults horizontally, f/3.2, focus distance ~15ft at most focal lengths upto ~140mm (35mm equiv) would probably work -- I actually have this dialed into one of the custom modes on my G3.

You can find out more about DoF and figure out some workable settings over here (or just getting more familiar so you can make good guesstimates on-the-fl