My Canon went kaboom!
 

We went to Quebec City over the weekend for the 400th year celebration. Unfortunately, the flash in my camera did its best gunshot sound imitation followed by a tiny little smoke puff. Does anybody know what I'm looking at for repair bills vs the diminishing value of the camera? It's a Canon PowerShot S1 IS 3.2 megapixel with a 10x optical zoom. We're thinking about a new camera anyway and the girls could use this one without the flash.

Completed auctions on E-bay have that camera selling for between $80 and $120 bucks.

thought your gun exploded there for a minute. Was concerned!

The model that replaced it is in the $300 range. It probably isn't worth fixing considering the increased memory and better optics...

:) thanks

3.2 megapixels? srsly? get the powershot A720 IS. It's 8megapixels and kicks hinder for under$200.

seconded.

I have the Canon PowerShot A710IS. I **love** it.

A710IS duly noted, will investigate. We're leaning Canon anyway to reduce the learning curve. 3.2 was purdy good away back when, not so good now...

I've been EXTREMELY happy with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ4K. It's 8.1 Megapixel which is probably more than I'll ever need. It has all kinds of cool stuff, like you can program your kids b'day into the camera, and when you take photos of them in "baby" mode, it puts the number of years, months, and days they are into the file so you can see it later. It has a 10x optical zoom with a Leica lens and a 2.5" lcd screen. You can find it for under $200 now.

If you don't mind spending about $100 more, they have a 9 Megapixel version of this camera.... The DMC-TZ5K.

You probably already know about this, but if you do shop for a new digicam, make sure to check the reviews out on dpreview. With their multiple page reviews for each camera, and dozens of full resolution sample images for each camera, it's hard to find a better source of information.

hmmm... looks like no flip out view finder? ...and 6x not 10x. I think Pete was using dpreview but I'll mention it just in case.

A comparable Sony would have a Carl Zeiss lens.
Personally though, I'd save my pennies for awhile and go for the slr - makes a world of difference.

We're kicking that around as well. We just don't know when we'd change lenses. Pete has/had(?) a stash of now useless old glass from the art school days, so we're reluctant.

I don't change lenses often at all (until I get my new 75-300mm) because I the one I have on it now (18-200mm) has a range that I really like. It just gives you more options - between the lenses, flashes, and filters you can almost always get a good shot.

I have a Nikon D70 digital SLR, which I really like, but it's so big I don't usually have it with me unless I plan ahead. I recently got a Canon PowerShot SD950 IS, which is small enough to carry in a pocket. It also takes video and has 12.1 megapixels. But optical zoom is only 3.7:1 and the image quality is not as good at the D70.

Yeah, the size is a good point HLJ. I have a backpack for my camera and all its accoutrement (including a little Sony cybershot)... kind of a pain.

I bought mine because it's very portable and for the 10x optical zoom. Digital zoom sucks. I don't want to lug around big cameras or change lenses. You can keep it in your pocket. It's pretty sweet.

I've been working on my motorcycle carburetors this week and have been using the Canon to record each piece as I take it apart. The Nikon would be better for this job because it can be focused manually, but I'm concerned about getting it greasy or damaged. The smaller cameras seem more rugged.

For me, the only draw of an SLR over the SLR-like cameras like the PowerShot A720 IS is that the sensor's physical size is usually larger. A larger sensor will generally have less noise.

Griff, you probably never noticed the noise in your 3.2 megapixel camera, but as they are squeezing more pixels into CCDs without increasing the physical size of the chip, the noise has been going up dramatically. This is especially apparent in low light situations where high ISO settings are used. SLRs usually have physically larger chips, so all those pixels aren't squeezed together so tightly, and noise isn't so bad. Frankly, for a point and shoot, I don't see the point of having more than 5 megapixels. The noise trade off is too great. But manufacturers disagree with me.

Noise is a big deal these days in high megapixel cameras. I suggest looking very closely at examples of pictures taken in low light situations on the dpreview web site. I got a Panasonic DMC-FZ7 and love it except for all the noise. Check out this sample from the dpreview web site to see what I mean. Unfortunately, they didn't take any pictures with the PowerShot A720 IS at higher sensitivity, so you can't see the noise effect for that particular camera. You can go to flickr though, and see samples of pictures taken by various cameras.

Agreed, noise is bad.

There are cameras, that for nominally identical settings, one is noiser than the other. Some of this delta is due to the camera/sensor's sensitivity, and some of it is because there isn't a direct object conversion to digital, shared among manufacturers for the wet-film concept of ISO.

The answer, of course, is try it out for yourself.

I don't know how my camera compares to this one or that one wrt noise, but I do know how it compares to my standards for noise. And, I have found that lately I've become something of a noise snob. I don't like it. Since I have just the one camera, and I am otherwise pretty happy with it in toto, I have to take other steps to turn down the noise.

For me, that means shooting at the lowest possible "ISO" setting, and using my other options to compensate for the exposure. Finding a camera with a complete set of manual controls is necessary for this. I must say that I doubted (ever so briefly) HLJ's statement that his camera didn't have a manual focus mode (He was right, I was wrong, it does not). I would consider this kind of design choice unacceptable for my needs, and probably yours too.

While I'm on my high horse, I just want to say that 10x optical zoom is quite impressive and that "digital zoom" is no better than simply moving your head closer to the screen. Do not be mislead.

My Canon went Kaboom!
No! to Backyard Fireworks

pls redo.. link fubar.

Image stabilization. :thumb:

These photos were taken using the previous version of the camera that I have. This is the TZ3K.

http://www.flickr.com/cameras/panasonic/dmc-tz3

My TZ4K is the best portable point & shoot camera I've ever had. I can't speak highly enough about it.

I've got the A710 IS, but it has been replaced with the 720, more pixels.
here is a random shot, intentionally underexposed a half stop to preserve detail in the peaflower.

For a random shot, that's pretty nice.

My Canon went kaboom!
 

I'm telling you it's the camera. Awesome.

(thanks)

It's a modest worker that credits the tool.

3' is a good photographer. Here are some photos taken with my camera, but I didn't take 'em.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/...6651af1f87.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/...34e326350b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3143/...60157c66aa.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1025/...446128c878.jpg

Did you take those with your Panasonic, Radar? They look great!

If so, how much tweaking did you do the the brightness/contrast/ color saturation?

They were taken with my camera, but not by me. It works very well on its own, but if you want, you can play with those settings. In fact if you set it the way you want, you see the gamma, contrast, etc. in your view finder when you're taking the photo.

That San Francisco sky is so blue, it looks black.

I think they took the photo at sunset and they were facing East.

Extremely nice pics man.

Thanks for all the info guys. It was very helpful. I'll post the decision.

What are you talking about man? WE made the decision for you. look up there at the top in the address bar. See? It says c-e-l-l-a-r.
like you have a choice:headshake

Nope, all Griff's decisions are made by his in house trilateral commission.;)

Yep. The old matriarchy is alive and well in Grifftopia. :cool:

Local Gubermint

Oh, what a lucky man, you are. :D

It's good to have a three-branch system, for checks and balances.

Right now Crassus, Caesar, and Pompey seem to be working in concert but I should be able to play them. ;)

Beautiful family, Griff, beautiful.

Agreed, I'd probably just smile and say yes dears a lot.