Powershot S3 IS (1 Viewer)

Hi,

Following on from a recently deceased Minolta Z1, a little research has come to the conclusion that the Powershot S3 appears to be a reasonably priced but quality camera.

Is anyone using this camera? What do you think of it? All opinions welcome!

I've searched the forums and gallery for a hint of this model, but haven't found anything - so this might be a futile request!

Thanks,

There is 44 lots of owner feedback here;

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_s3is.asp

hope this helps.

Rob.

turkish van said:

Hi,
Is anyone using this camera? What do you think of it? All opinions welcome!
Thanks,

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Hi Laura,
I have used for quite a long time the "older" Poweshot S1 IS (10x; 3.2MP) and I've always been satisfied with its results (I still use it for tourism ... see attached pic):
PROS: it's a light-weight long-zoom compact camera, with a good zoom (I think equivalent to 380mm), easy-to-use and with excellent colour rendition and exposition, decent brilliance and sharpness; IS works well indeed: all of my shots are hand-held; AA batteries are very useful; flip and twist LCD is really good for weird/unusual angle shots.
CONS: AF tends to hunt a bit in low light (frustrating), as well as in macro mode; there's no display magnification, no RAW format; plastics are low quality; silver paint can be easily scratched; ISO speed WAS poor.

I've read that many new features have been implemented in this new and more powerful camera, I believe it's a good compact at a reasonable price; have a look at some pro reviews (there should be many more out there ...):

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_s3-review/
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/s3is.html
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/camera/review/90/page_1.html

In any case, better learning more from those who own and use it, good luck in your search

Max

Thanks to both for the links - very useful.

I'm a bit worried about some negative comments regarding the macro mode - trouble focussing etc. This might be an issue, since I'm starting to get into macro photography a bit more. Any thoughts?

Any others on a similar level you might suggest taking a look at?

My son has used the S2 for almost a year now - with excellent results and amazing Macro capabilities . So i assume the S3 is even better .
Here are a few examples:

Wow - those are some nice shots!

I guess if it's predecessor can produce those the S3 can't be so bad!

You've pretty much convinced me with those - I kept coming back to this camera but the macro thing was holding me back, but as that doesn't seem to be a problem.....I'll be looking around for somewhere we can try it out now.

Thanks a lot,

Hi, I've had the Canon s2 for about eight months and it is a good camera with lots of slr type functions although it is not an slr and the image quality is not so good. It's worst features are that it doesn't perform too well in low light and it is noisy above 200 iso. The things that I really like about it are obviously the 12X zoom and it's portability. It is small and light weight, fits into a large pocket, but is solid enough to feel like a real camera. Its size and weight were major factors in my choice because I used to use a film slr and I didn't want to carry around the weight of lenses so when the time came for me to go digital I chose the s2. Also I wasn't very quick at changing lenses and so often the photo opportunity had passed before I got organized. I don't have this problem now.

The differences between the s2 and the s3 are not great. There is a higher iso setting but the reviews for this have not been good. It is a better colour, black, not silver and there are a few other minor things but basically it is the same camera. If you type s2 into the BFs gallery search you will see lots of examples of pictures with this camera.

I see Rob has already recommended the dpreview site and it is very good. If you research s2 on that you will get a good idea of the s3 because these two cameras are so similar. good luck in your decision.

Hi Turkish,

I've had an S2 for about 5 months now, great camera, got some stunning results with it.
Over time though as I've missed more and more shots I keep thinking that the Panasonic FZ30 would have been a better bet, it has a proper manual focus ring on the lens rather than the fiddly hold down a button and use the 4 way direction button as found on the S2. Flying birds I find really hard and it has focus issues if the bird is not a large image (it will focus repeatedly on the background). Also the paint rubs of as it brushes your clothing (I don't give a rats about this pesonally but it may put some off).

All in all I'm pleased with the S2 but with the extra cost of the S3 the Panasonic is probably cheaper now rather than £250 more when I was looking to buy.

Hope this is useful
G

I've had the S1 for about 2 years. Most of the photos I've posted have been with this. Pros - very handy to use, lots of functions seen with dslr's. I like the zoom lens and have a 1.6x tele-extender that I can mount on it. The video camcorder mode works very well - I have been VERY happy with the film clips it takes, even when transferred to a DVD and played on a TV set.
Con: manual focus is clumsy and hard to use. When I use this I use the focus bracket mode and usually get a sharp image out of the three. Auto focus has a hard time selecting a bird in a distracting background, such as a cattail patch. I don't like the viewfinder much, but that may be because of my nearsightedness and need to wear glasses.
This has been a great camera for the price. It is 3.3 megapixels. The S3 is definitely an upgrade.

Thanks again for the replies - all very helpful.

Garry, the Panasonic FZ30 was the most likely other option, but the guy with half the money was put off by the fact that the company also makes batteries, among many other things, and so aren't good enough at cameras!

Hi Turkish,
Was on holiday recently with a mate who has an FZ30 and the extra pixels and manual focus really seemed an advantage. He got some stunning pics, so did I with the S2 but overall I would have probably got more with his camera. Also I would personally not take any notice of the many complaints of noise with the panasonic to my eye it wasn't an issue, although I very rarely use the camera above the lowest couple of ISO settings prefering instead to get closer and use less zoom to get faster speeds.

Good luck with deciding and let me know what you end up with, and think of it after experimenting.
Garry

turkish van said:

Thanks again for the replies - all very helpful.

Garry, the Panasonic FZ30 was the most likely other option, but the guy with half the money was put off by the fact that the company also makes batteries, among many other things, and so aren't good enough at cameras!

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