Canon S1 IS - good camera or a polished turd?

[Fozzybear]

I can't search for Canon S1 (S1 is too short) so don't know if this has been asked before, but I've seen a few reviews for this and I'm interested but I haven't quite worked out if it's a good camera or not. Can someone who's used one give me an opinion - I'd especially like to know about purple fringing (is it a major problem with this camera) and low light performance - can you focus and view the LCD ok in low light and are the images noisy?

I currently have a Sony P72, which is 'ok' but I'd really like more control and to improve the quality of my photos, and I'd like a camera better suited to shooting in low light. The long zoom of the S1 seems an advantage as does the image stabiliser, but if the S1 isn't the best choice then can someone suggest an alternative? I'd prefer Canon but will consider other makes. I'll pay anything up to £300-350 if the image quality is good.

Any opinions welcome.

[Rich-brf]

I've got one. It is a very good camera make no mistake. the reviews at steves-digicams & dcresource do sum it up very well. The zoom is excellent and the IS really helps to reduce blur on images in low light and at high zoom. Also the video is outstanding for a digicam.

The S1 IS is a very popular camera and gets a lot of discusison on the dpreview forums. Including lots of great tips and workarounds for the minor failings.

Also I suggest reading this site, which is aimed at the Canon A80 but equally applies to any digicams.

http://albert.achtung.com/cameras/A80/index.html

[Rich-brf]

Oh and the purple fringing (chromatic abberation wotsits) only really occurs at high zoom and can be removed by increasing the Fstop value.

[Fozzybear]

Thanks a lot Rich. Lots of tips at the dpreview forum (found a compiled set of tips posted by drz which I've saved off to read later). I'll do a bit more reading up on the camera and re-read the reviews on steves digicams and so on before I decide. The big concern was the fringing, but I doubt I'll use the full 380mm much (I didn't use the full zoom to 300mm on my SLR that much), so hopefully that means it will be minimal. Only one thing: as this doesn't have a low-light illuminator does it struggle to focus in low light? If I try to focus my P72 in a room at night with just the ceiling light on the focusing has major problems and I can see hardly anything on the screen - is the S1 usable in these conditions, and can you see the view on the LCD or is it just a dark mess?

Amazon have this for £327, but I've sent them a "seen it cheaper" for £300, will see if they match it, but maybe Jessops will too (they might match amazon as they did when I bought my i865).

[Rich-brf]

Yeah I think it does have difficulties in low light. but there are lots of tips around to circumvent it which seem to make sense for general photography anyway. ALthough I haven't given them a go yet.

I've basically been using a digital ixus for years and a Canon SLR with a 300mm lens. So far I'm well chuffed with the S1.

You can get very cheap prices by clicking on the links for UK readers in the steves-digicams review. I saw it for £290 on pixmania.

However if you really don'y use the zoom much maybe you could consider a Canon A80 (or similar). I was going to get one of those before I decided I wanted a big zoom.

[Fozzybear]

The big zoom would be useful, and I do (well, did) use the 300mm on my SLR, but thinking about it I'd get more use out of a wider bottom end - 38mm isn't that wide and I suppose really I'd rather have something more like a 28mm. I have a dedicated 24mm on my SLR and I found that very useful.

Back to the drawing board. :(

[CLH]

How about the Canon S60 then? 28mm at the bottom and about 104mm (IIRC) at the top. Get a 2x tele lens convertor and you're NOT up there with the S1 but you get a better camera overall?

[Fozzybear]

I have spent waay too much time looking at reviews and re-evaluating my needs and I finally came down to the shortlist of:

Canon S1
Canon S60
Canon G5

I've been back and forth on all three (it's been extremely hard to pick one out as best) but ended up settling on the G5 as it seems to be a good fit to my needs and produces very high quality images. I like the layout of controls, the body looks nice and the functions are pretty comprehensive (like the IR remote too). It doesn't have the good quality video mode of the S1 but I don't use video a lot. Although the S60 has a 28mm lens (excellent!) I didn't really get a very good vibe about it, both from reviews and from looking at the camera. I have no idea exactly why I didn't like it but I just didn't see it as a contender. I'm sure a lot of people are perfectly happy with it, but I know that if I'd bought it I'd wonder if I'd missed out every time I used it. :shrug:

I'm still wondering if I've ordered the right one actually, but do I think that the S1 or the S60 wouldn't have been right for me.

I've ordered the G5 from AJ Purdy (I've seen them mentioned a few time on the forums and so far they seem very good) for £330, including a 256Mb card and card reader and should get it tomorrow. Could have got the card cheaper elsewhere but it's a bit late now. I'm off work at the moment (only reason I ordered it today) so won't be able to go out to try it but will do some snapping around the house and garden if I feel up to it tomorrow. Spent some time today putting an ad in the classifieds forum for my Sony P72 today and feel pretty tired after that. Hope I've got the energy to play with my G5 a little tomorrow.

[CLH]

256 may not be enough!!! About 100 or so on Large with superfine setting.

I loved my G5 for the short time I had it (wife hated size) but my S60 is as good a replacement as I could get and I can't really find much of a difference.

But I agree with what you say about feeling you've missed out otherwise.

[Fozzybear]

Got the G5 now. Can't go out and do much with it as I feel rough still but I've had a quick go with it in the house and it's pretty darn good! Lots of stuff to learn but the pics I've taken so far are very impressive and need very little manipulation in the pc. Here's a quickly grabbed close-up snap of a loaf of bread (only resized to 800x600 from 5MP, no other editing):

http://www.forsdick.dsl.pipex.com/FORUMS/LOAF.JPG


Might have a go over the weekend at taking a better shot for the mundane comp.

[Rich-brf]

good stuff. It's hard to go wrong with lots of canon cameras really. I've heard lots of good things about the canon a80. A full manual point n shoot.

Enjoy the camera! I've been taking about 80shots a day with my s1.
Although I'm gonna need a 1gb card..especially for the video.

[Fozzybear]

My brother and a mate have the A60 and A70 and are really happy with them - a big reason why I wanted to get a Canon camera. I didn't think much of the A200 I had to start with but it was a fixed focal length, which didn't help. I remember the menus being awkward to navigate but the menus in the A60 and G5 seem ok. It helps that a lot of common functions are available on buttons - something the A200 didn't have much of.

I doubt I'll need as much storage space, but I'll either buy another 256Mb card or a 512Mb one. At the moment I've got room for 100 top res shots, which is plenty of storage for now.

[mikegray]

I've got the A70 and very happy with it.