Canon S3IS Accessories? (1 Viewer)

[Dan Driscoll]

I'm about to pull the trigger on the S3, but wanted to check recommendations for SD card (what speed, suggested brands), filters, other suggestions. I already have a good camera bag, lens cleaning kit and a stock of 2600 mH rechargable AA batteries.

The main reason for getting this camera is that my old Pentax K1000 bit the dust and we were disappointed with the 4MP P&S digital that replaced it on our last trip to Hawai'i. The biggest issue was that the optical zoom was only 4x, anything more than 100 feet away was pretty much a waste of memory. It was fine for indoor shots and portraits, which is all we use it for now.

We're heading back to Maui in about 6 weeks and want something better this time, but without getting into DSLR territory. Usage will be mainly outdoors, including some night shots, along with some indoors shooting. We want to be able to get good shots of the surfers on the north shore, panaoramas from the top of Haleakala, and vistas from the fairways of the golf courses. TIA

 

[Scott Kimball]

Get yourself the lens adapter / hood set and a circular polarizer. The CPL is a must for landscapes and seascapes. The adapter is needed to mount the filter, and the Canon adapter comes with a hood, which should minimize flare.

-Scott

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Circular polarizers are great in certain situations, but make sure you understand how to use one. Here is a "how-to" article on using CPLs. Although it's written with SLR's in mind, the ideas will still apply to your S3.

If you want to protect the lens on your S3, you may want to consider buying a UV filter, too. If you plan to use it on the ocean or beach in Hawaii, protecting the lens from the elements is something to consider.


How wide (35mm equivalent) is the lens on the S3? If it's greater than 35mm, you may want to consider getting a wide angle adapter lens for those panorama shots. I know I couldn't get the entire Haleakala crater in the frame of my old Powershot G3. I bought an ultra-wide angle 10-22mm lens for my Canon dSLR, and am amazed at what this lens can do (it's a 16-35mm equivalent focal length on my Digital Rebel). I got some great wide angle photos on our recent trip to the Canadian Rockies -- shots that I never could have taken with the Powershot G3.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I agree w/ Scott though you probably don't need a circular polarizer, but a (cheaper) linear one should usually do for non-SLR cameras. Of course, it does seem like all the better quality polarizing filters are circular, so... Also, since it looks like the S3's lens adapter is 58mm, you might find extra, long term value in a good quality CPL that could eventually be used on some SLR lenses for if/when you decide to upgrade, so that's something to consider. FWIW, I did exactly that when I bought CPL for my old (now sold) Canon G3. The caveat w/ that though is that 58mm is too small for any of the higher quality 35mm SLR zooms, but would work on some (fixed focal length) primes and some consumer quality zooms, so don't give this factor too much weight.

Some other filters/lens add-ons to consider might be a close-up macro filter like the Canon 500D, if you like shooting macros, or a good wideangle converter. I liked using my 0.7x Canon wideangle converter on the G3 in the past (for ~24.5mm equiv FOV). I'd been itching to get a wider lens (similar to Scott's Canon 10-22mm) for my Nikon DSLR, but now, looks like I'll have to put that idea in the backburner indefinitely.

_Man_

 

[SethH]

Corsair memory cards offer a good price for very good speed and reliability. Check out Newegg, that's where I got mine.

 

[Terri Chu]

IIRC it's equivalent to 38mm. Also when you attach the add-on lens, don't forget to tell the camera (via the setup menu) that you're using the add-on lens and the camera will adapt to the lens. I've tried it on and off (the add-on-lens mode, I mean) and the pictures are better when it's toggled to "on" position when you have the add-on lens on.

 

[Dan Driscoll]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions so far. I've found the lens/hood adapter kit for the S2/S3 (LAH-CD20), a 1.5 tele-converter lens (TC-DC58B), wide angle converter lens (WC-DC58A) and a close-up lens (500D). I'm definitely getting the lens/hood adapter kit and the wide angle lens. I'm also considering the tele-photo converter, but I'll probably pass on the close-up lens, at least for now.

After reading the comments, I did some more research. Since a lot of my usage will be outdoors and near water, a good LP or better yet, a CP filter is probably a good idea. I would also like to get a decent UV filter. Any specific recommendations for filters that fit the S3?

Also, more recommendations for SD cards would be helpful. Is 133x fast enough, or can the S3 take advantage of 150x and faster SD cards?

 

[Terri Chu]

I'm in a rush so I'll just answer in point form.

1. any filter with 58mm diameter will do.
2. you can NOT add filter after you add the conversion lenses because the add-on lenses don't have threads.
3. S3 will NOT be able to take advantage of any card faster than 80x (approx) other than for downloading images (even then, it'll be faster if you use a card reader.)

hope it helps.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I've had good luck with Hoya filters. They seem to be a good balance between price and quality.Here is a link to several options for UV Hoya filters. If you can afford it, I would recommend multi-coated filters. Here are some Hoya CPL filter options.

The good news is that 58mm filters are more affordable than larger ones. The bad news is that not very many SLR lenses take that small of a filter, if you are planning on upgrading to such a camera in the future. I think my Canon 70-300mm IS lens is 58mm, but I only have a UV filter for it -- I have not found a need for a CPL filter on a telephoto lens. My other lenses are 72mm or 77mm filter sizes.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

BTW, you might also find this online dealer of interest.

http://www.lensmateonline.com/

A lot of Canon folks over on dpreview.com including myself when I still had the Canon G3, like what they offer. I bought 3 of their Lensmate adapters for my G3 along w/ a couple filters, wrist strap, etc -- that was a couple years ago. I liked their nicely machined, color matched, aluminum adapters much better than the plastic Canon ones for the G3 -- not sure if it's also plastic for the S3 IS. Yeah, their adapters are more expensive than the plastic Canon stuff, but they seem well worth it. BTW, I bought that many to have one for each lens converter and the CPL so that I could just use the adapter bayonet mechanism for fast and easy changeability -- fiddling w/ lens threads are a pain, IMHO, and could be especially problematic if you go w/ plastic. Anyway, Lensmate.com also offers some pretty good alternatives for tele and wide converters w/ pertinent info to help you choose, if interested.

_Man_

 

[Dan Driscoll]

Thanks for the Lensmate link, I was concerned about using plastic adapters. There are quite a few other nice accessories there, the Raynox DCR-720/730 wide angle looks really nice, especially for the price.

 

[Terri Chu]

make sure you get the one with the correct length (the adapter, I mean). The S3 is a super-tight-fit when the Canon add-on lens is added in front of the original lens. A lot of the tubes out there are about 1 to 2 mm too short. This will cause the actual camera lens hitting the add-on lens resulting in E18 error.

 

[Dan Driscoll]

Just a quick update, I ordered the S3 from Beach Camera on Friday. Several sites had it in the same price range, but many of them didn't have it in stock.

I also ordered a couple of 52mm S3 lens adapters from Lensmate, along with the Raynox DCR-730 wide angle, a couple of clip-in lens caps, hood, a Hoya HMC UV filter. I decided to wait on getting a tele-photo lens for now, I want to see how the S3 does at full zoom, first.

One problem, the DCR-730 does not have front threads. Does anyone make a slip-on CPL?

 

[Dan Driscoll]

If anyone is interested, I've put up a few of the photos I took with the S3 on Maui. You can view them here.