CANON S3 IS a good choice?

The S3 IS is a good choice for an advanced P&S camera with super-zoom.
You can shoot with full automation or full manual control, unlike many
other P&S cameras. With 6MP, true OIS and the higher ISO capability,
you can get shots most other cameras won't. It's also not too big or
heavy. While all that's true and good, I can easily outperform it with
my DSLR, a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-L1. So, it's up to you. If you can
afford a decent DSLR, don't mind the size and weight, then get one.
Otherwise, the S3 IS is a very good camera.

Bye.

On Jan 30, 9:17 am, glenz... DeleteThis @nothere.xmission.com (GMAN) wrote:
> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a DSLR
> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

"GMAN" <glenzabr.RemoveThis@nothere.xmission.com> wrote in message
news:epnujt$dcs$1@news.xmission.com...
> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a
> DSLR
> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?

I was you (I think) back in 2004, when I bought the S1. It led directly to
the Canon Rebel XT not much after that.

The S1 has a live preview, so you pretty much know what you're going to get.
The DSLR doesn't. For that reason alone, I'd say go ahead and buy the S3 -
its manual functions do well to prepare you for the next step, if you're not
prepared to leapfrog to the DSLR...

dwight
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

Just a side note on the Panasonic DMC-L1 . . . It has live preview, as
does some of its cousins made by Olympus. My now ancient Olympus E-10
DSLR also had it.

Bye.

On Jan 30, 10:50 am, "dwight" <tfro... RemoveThis @gEEmail.com> wrote:
> "GMAN" <glenz... RemoveThis @nothere.xmission.com> wrote in message
[.......]
>
> The S1 has a live preview, so you pretty much know what you're going to get.
> The DSLR doesn't. For that reason alone, I'd say go ahead and buy the S3 -
> its manual functions do well to prepare you for the next step, if you're not
> prepared to leapfrog to the DSLR...
>
> dwight
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

CrunchyDoodle RemoveThis @gmail.com (Crunchy Doodle) wrote in
news:1170182850.575156.79210@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

> While all that's true and good, I can easily outperform it with
> my DSLR, a Panasonic LUMIX DMC-L1.

Of course, the L1 costs about 4 times as much as the S3.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert RemoveThis @iphouse.com
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:17:46 +0000, GMAN wrote:

> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a DSLR
> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?

I suppose it's all right. IMHO - I like the Kodak P series better for one
reason - the Kodak EVF is higher resolution. I look through the viewfinder
on the Canon, I see it is very pixelated - bothers me to no end; evidently
bothers other folks much less. The Kodak P850 I recently bought (refurb
from the Kodak online store) has a 237k pixel EVF and looks MUCH cleaner.
The Kodak P series also feature IS and save as raw, tif, jpg. BTW - got
the camera and a printer dock (totally optional accessory, but kind of
cool) for $300.
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

In article <1aidnZoUzffPDiLYnZ2dnUVZ_rWnnZ2d DeleteThis @comcast.com>, "dwight" <tfrog93 DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>"GMAN" <glenzabr DeleteThis @nothere.xmission.com> wrote in message
>news:epnujt$dcs$1@news.xmission.com...
>> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a
>> DSLR
>> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?
>
>I was you (I think) back in 2004, when I bought the S1. It led directly to
>the Canon Rebel XT not much after that.
>
>The S1 has a live preview, so you pretty much know what you're going to get.
>The DSLR doesn't. For that reason alone, I'd say go ahead and buy the S3 -
>its manual functions do well to prepare you for the next step, if you're not
>prepared to leapfrog to the DSLR...
>
>dwight
>
>
>
>
Thanks Guys!!! A DSLR is still too bulky and more than i need right now. The
S3 IS feels good and solid, and I do not want a pocket sized either, too
limited IMHO.
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

In article <epnujt$dcs$1@news.xmission.com>, GMAN
<glenzabr.RemoveThis@nothere.xmission.com> wrote:

> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a DSLR
> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?

My girlfriend has an S2 IS and I've been quite impressed with it. The
IS is great and the movies are pretty impressive. I can do without
EVFs, but that's just me.
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

"GMAN" <glenzabr DeleteThis @nothere.xmission.com> wrote in message
news:epo7l5$pmm$1@news.xmission.com...
> In article <1aidnZoUzffPDiLYnZ2dnUVZ_rWnnZ2d DeleteThis @comcast.com>, "dwight"
> <tfrog93 DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>>"GMAN" <glenzabr DeleteThis @nothere.xmission.com> wrote in message
>>news:epnujt$dcs$1@news.xmission.com...
>>> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a
>>> DSLR
>>> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?
>>
>>I was you (I think) back in 2004, when I bought the S1. It led directly to
>>the Canon Rebel XT not much after that.
>>
>>The S1 has a live preview, so you pretty much know what you're going to
>>get.
>>The DSLR doesn't. For that reason alone, I'd say go ahead and buy the S3 -
>>its manual functions do well to prepare you for the next step, if you're
>>not
>>prepared to leapfrog to the DSLR...
>>
>>dwight
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Thanks Guys!!! A DSLR is still too bulky and more than i need right now.
> The
> S3 IS feels good and solid, and I do not want a pocket sized either, too
> limited IMHO.

http://tfrog93.googlepages.com/sample2 (Don't forget the optional lens
hood.)

dwight
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:11:53 -0800, Randall Ainsworth wrote:

>> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone
>> not yet ready for a DSLR and yet more advanced than
>> the average joe 6pack user?
>
> My girlfriend has an S2 IS and I've been quite impressed with it.
> The IS is great and the movies are pretty impressive. I can do
> without EVFs, but that's just me.

Actually, no. Many others here also can do without EVFs. I, on
the other hand prefer a good EVF, but that's just, uh . . . me and
a good number of others. <g>
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

GMAN wrote:
> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a DSLR
> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?

i have used a variety of previous canon powershot's, and been very happy
with the results from these nice and small cameras. i purchased an S3IS
as it seemed to have a good selection of useful features, and
considering the length of the lens it is a very manageable size and
weight. while it's true that the EVF isn't perfect, it is certainly
isn't going to cause too many problems.

overall, the various reviews of the camera that you'll easily find on
the web are accurate...they'll point out all of the good points of the
camera (and there are a lot) and the minor faults it has. in addition to
those comments, i'll just add my main gripe with this camera...the whole
purpose of the camera is to take quality pictures, and frankly, this is
where i was a little disappointed.

in general, the colours seem a bit bland. i'm not just comparing the
results to the typically overprocessed results from a P&S...in my
opinion, they look too un-naturally colourless and with too much
contrast. even for very vivid scenes, the results i get just seem a bit
lifeless. trying to "pretty them up" with a little bit of tweaking in
photoshop doesn't completely help either...it's almost as if there's not
enough dynamic range.

a secondary comment (and i guess that this is likely to appear in any of
the cameras with a large zoom) is that the focus towards the corners is
not particularly sharp.

i certainly don't want to sound like i'm not happy with the camera. but
you asked for feedback on the camera, and that's the main comments that
i would have.
all things considered, it is a good compromise between size & weight and
features & specifications. the fact is, no camera is perfect and given
my time again i would probably buy the camera again, but it's not quite
as good as i was expecting.
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

>> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet
>> ready for a DSLR and yet more advanced than the average joe
>> 6pack user?
>
> My girlfriend has an S2 IS and I've been quite impressed with
> it. The IS is great and the movies are pretty impressive. I
> can do without EVFs, but that's just me.

I think if Canon came out with an S4, which was almost exactly
the same as the S3 but with 8 or maybe 10 megapixels, they'd own
the market for that type of product.

I don't like EVF's either, but I guess I'm going to have to learn
to live with it, since I don't think any of these superzooms com
with optical viewfinders.
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

In article <nzUvh.514$mb1.83517@news.optus.net.au>, Pete <pete DeleteThis @dont.spam.me> wrote:
>GMAN wrote:
>> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a DSLR
>
>> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?
>
>i have used a variety of previous canon powershot's, and been very happy
>with the results from these nice and small cameras. i purchased an S3IS
>as it seemed to have a good selection of useful features, and
>considering the length of the lens it is a very manageable size and
>weight. while it's true that the EVF isn't perfect, it is certainly
>isn't going to cause too many problems.
>
>overall, the various reviews of the camera that you'll easily find on
>the web are accurate...they'll point out all of the good points of the
>camera (and there are a lot) and the minor faults it has. in addition to
>those comments, i'll just add my main gripe with this camera...the whole
>purpose of the camera is to take quality pictures, and frankly, this is
>where i was a little disappointed.
>
>in general, the colours seem a bit bland. i'm not just comparing the
>results to the typically overprocessed results from a P&S...in my
>opinion, they look too un-naturally colourless and with too much
>contrast. even for very vivid scenes, the results i get just seem a bit
>lifeless. trying to "pretty them up" with a little bit of tweaking in
>photoshop doesn't completely help either...it's almost as if there's not
>enough dynamic range.
>
>a secondary comment (and i guess that this is likely to appear in any of
>the cameras with a large zoom) is that the focus towards the corners is
>not particularly sharp.
>
>i certainly don't want to sound like i'm not happy with the camera. but
>you asked for feedback on the camera, and that's the main comments that
>i would have.
>all things considered, it is a good compromise between size & weight and
>features & specifications. the fact is, no camera is perfect and given
>my time again i would probably buy the camera again, but it's not quite
>as good as i was expecting.
Thanks, Its still got to be a decent stepup from my now broken Olympus C2000
2 megapixel camera.
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice? 

"dwight" <tfrog93 DeleteThis @gEEmail.com> wrote in message
news:1aidnZoUzffPDiLYnZ2dnUVZ_rWnnZ2d@comcast.com...
> "GMAN" <glenzabr DeleteThis @nothere.xmission.com> wrote in message
> news:epnujt$dcs$1@news.xmission.com...
>> Is the Canon S3 IS still a decent choice for someone not yet ready for a
>> DSLR
>> and yet more advanced than the average joe 6pack user?
>
> I was you (I think) back in 2004, when I bought the S1. It led directly to
> the Canon Rebel XT not much after that.
>
> The S1 has a live preview, so you pretty much know what you're going to
> get. The DSLR doesn't. For that reason alone, I'd say go ahead and buy the
> S3 - its manual functions do well to prepare you for the next step, if
> you're not prepared to leapfrog to the DSLR...
>
> dwight

Live preview is absolutely *not* a good reason to get a point & shoot over a
DSLR. The S3 is a good full-featured p&s, but the LCD is difficult to see
in broad daylight, and the electronic viewfinder sucks. Give me the OVF on
a DSLR any day.

Mark
 >> Stay informed about: CANON S3 IS a good choice?