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Guess We're Keepin' This Damn Canon Powershot S50 - UPDATE: No We Aren't!

O

Ornery

Lifer
Update: 01-21-04

Just ordered a SONY DSC-V1 from ClickForDigital, (3 Resellerratings). I'm waiting for their followup call to sell me more crap, but I expect to have the camera before too long. Fingers crossed...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Uber expensive toy is what it is. Canon touts this camera as a "High-End Digital Camera" on their web site. The tiny glass in these "pocketable" cameras doesn't let enough light in for dimly lit situations. The camera has a helluva time focusing indoors, if the ambient light is poor. Canon dropped the ball on their AF illuminator, which doesn't put out enough light at even a modest zoom level in a dim room. We had a Sony P72, that was MUCH better in this regard. Only work around is to turn on more lights, or pan back to a wider shot.

That's one reason we opted for the S50 over the P72. You need more megapixels to work with, if you have to pan back in situations as mentioned above, or because these tiny cameras only have 3X optical zoom. If your subject is too far away, you'll be cropping to make a decent composition. Gotta have some MPs to work with or the final image will look like crap.

I was wrong about the need for shutter and aperture overrides in a point & shoot camera, which is another reason the P72 got nixed. In dim light outdoors, it's the only way to select a useable shutter speed. The programmed modes are no help. I was unaware of that major weakness of these cute little cameras. My first and only other digicam has a VERY bright lens, so I've never been hampered by this restriction. The down side, is that camera has to be fairly large to accommodate the decent glass. This new camera was purchased as a more portable alternative. I don't expect photo art from it, but I hoped it could at least shoot birthday parties and what not, effortlessly. Guess I expect too much! 😕
 
i have a canon S50. it's an excellent camera IMO (besides the fact that it malfunctioned once and i had to send it back in). it's a compact camera, you're not gonna get very good optics anyway.

the AF function works really well compared to my sister's POS fujifilm a310.
 
Unfortunately, it isn't just Canon. ALL tiny lensed cameras suffer from this same limitation. That's the best bang for the buck compromise I could put together in that size package. God knows we're paying a premium for it anyway, in the initial cost, proprietary batteries, and different memory media than we're currently stocked up with. Took a while to come to a decision, but this is it.
 
Yeah, the small cameras have their advantages as well as their limitations. The size is great for convenience, but you do give up some things. I came to the conclusion that I need more than one camera. I bought a Canon S400 which is very small (pocket size), takes very good shots under the right conditions and is extremely convenient to carry around. I'm looking at camera # 2 which will be....not sure yet. It will be bigger, bigger lens and a hot shoe for external dedicated flash. Maybe Canon G5. Maybe Digital Rebel DSLR, maybe other.....still deciding.
 
Any reason you went with the s50 instead of the s400? Just b/c of 5 over the 4, or were you even considering the s400?

On an unrelated note, I got to play with the 828 today in a compusa. They wanted $1k for it and the thing was freakin' huge, but it made me drool.... 😉😛

edit: Doesn't sound like you're too happy keepin' the "damn" thing. 😀
 
Canon is known for bad low light focusing situations. I love my s30 but the low light stuff sucks hard. Good thing about it is I can learn about manually setting the shutter/arpeture and you can learn real quick what ssettings you need in what lighting situation.
 
Originally posted by: CheapArse
Any reason you went with the s50 instead of the s400? Just b/c of 5 over the 4, or were you even considering the s400?
Click to expand...

Between Phil's not so glowing review, and the fact that Canon doesn't list it under their High-End Cameras, I didn't give it too much thought. I wanted one with faster performance than the Sony P72, that we'd gotten quite a good deal on. Walmart's clearance price, coupled with a Sears 110% price match, some Sears gift cards, and my son's 10% discount, made the S50 the deal to beat.

We've already picked up the Circuit City $49.00 256MB CF w/ Free USB 2 reader, and I ordered two generic batteries for it.

On our way to run a quick errand yesterday, my son and I saw a hawk in a tree by the road. He said, boy, it sure would be nice to have a camera, which we didn't have at the time. When we returned the hawk was still there. Guess which camera I grabbed to shoot it?
 
i have an s50. yeah, it has trouble in low light situations sometimes. but its pretty compact and i love the daytime pics it takes. i had a sony dsc-p5 before and it doesn't give me the focus problems that one did. i like it way better.
 
S400 and S50 are very different. S50 is a smallish camera with lots of manual features, but alas, no hot shoe for indoor use. You need to go to the G series for that. The S400 is tiny shirt pocket size point and shoot.
 
My Canon D30 DSLR which I initially paid $1100 for has virtually non-existant dark focusing...Its the only thing I hate about it.
 
My Canon G2 is awesome in low light as well as with low to ZERO light focosing. Sorry to hear that the S50 isn't there!

Although ... reading this on Steves site:
...Focus was quick and accurate in average lighting and the focus assist illuminator works well out to about eight feet even in total darkness. Flash coverage was good but not excellent, mostly due to the lens aperture being a bit slow at anything other than full wide angle.

makes me wonder if yours has some technical issues?!
 
If you back out the zoom to wide angle, it can focus OK in a dim setting. It also depends what you're targeting on. Steve probably, literally uses a target or test pattern.

On Canon's forum at DPReview, there is one topic after another about low light focusing. One fellow mentioned that his replacement camera (Canon does seem to have some quality control issues) doesn't focus the illuminator in the center of his focus zone. I checked ours, but that seems OK.

Text
 
Are you familiar with Sony's infrared abilities? Text

I'd just like this new $$$$ Point & Shoot $$$$ toy to be able to effortlessly shoot birthday partys and what not.
 
easy workaround - use the custom location on the dial and set it to be manual focus and dial in the hyperfocal distance (or something close to it) and you will never need to worry about focus problems again.

and use your feet to zoom instead of the optical zoom indoors.
 
Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
I have an S40 and I love it!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I like my S45, too. Ornery is right about the camera taking crummy shots in low light, though. A lot of my low light indoor and night shots (on auto) turn out either either too dark or out of focus.
 
Originally posted by: Ornery
Uber expensive toy is what it is. Canon touts this camera as a "High-End Digital Camera" on their web site. The tiny glass in these "pocketable" cameras doesn't let enough light in for dimly lit situations. The camera has a helluva time focusing indoors, if the ambient light is poor. Canon dropped the ball on their AF illuminator, which doesn't put out enough light at even a modest zoom level in a dim room. We had a Sony P72, that was MUCH better in this regard. Only work around is to turn on more lights, or pan back to a wider shot.

That's one reason we opted for the S50 over the P72. You need more megapixels to work with, if you have to pan back in situations as mentioned above, or because these tiny cameras only have 3X optical zoom. If your subject is too far away, you'll be cropping to make a decent composition. Gotta have some MPs to work with or the final image will look like crap.

I was wrong about the need for shutter and aperture overrides in a point & shoot camera, which is another reason the P72 got nixed. In dim light outdoors, it's the only way to select a useable shutter speed. The programmed modes are no help. I was unaware of that major weakness of these cute little cameras. My first and only other digicam has a VERY bright lens, so I've never been hampered by this restriction. The down side, is that camera has to be fairly large to accommodate the decent glass. This new camera was purchased as a more portable alternative. I don't expect photo art from it, but I hoped it could at least shoot birthday parties and what not, effortlessly. Guess I expect too much! 😕
Click to expand...


The "tiny glass" of the Canon is not the problem. I believe (not sure) that the aperture size is determined by the ratio of the diameter of the inside opening to to the distance of the front of the lens... Either way it has a largest aperture of F2.8 which is no worse than any other camera save a few Olympus.

The AF Illum works well with my S30. I dont know if the change in the DIGIC processor also changed the focusing also so i cannot comment. all the canons ive had performed well in terms of focusing, tho

Most, if not all programmed modes suck. The Nikon coolpix series (3100, 2100, 2500, and 3500) have alot of situation-specific preprogrammed modes which kinda dumbs it down. One just needs to learn how to use the shutter/aperture/iso/exp comp to get good pics in low situation.

ultimatebob... its not a problem specific with the Canons. if you use another digital camera you will find the same problem. i dont think there are cameras out there smart enough to adjust for these situations. you just need a good command of the camera.

like most pros agree... a picture is 90% the photographer and 10% the equipment. its about learning what you use to use it well 🙂

 
Low light was the reason I skipped past the "S" line and went for the G2(and later replaced by a G3 after airport screening nuked the G2).
 
"...a picture is 90% the photographer and 10% the equipment..."

Most pros must have never had their hands on an F series Sony. It's got such a bright lens, and Hologram Focus Assist, for focusing even in the dark. It almost can't take a bad picture. I'll give the Canon to my wife, and the Sony to her mom, and I bet her mom ends up with 75% more keepers. Not much of a price difference between the two right now, but the size is another matter...
 
Originally posted by: Ornery
"...a picture is 90% the photographer and 10% the equipment..."

Most pros must have never had their hands on an F series Sony. It's got such a bright lens, and Hologram Focus Assist, for focusing even in the dark. It almost can't take a bad picture. I'll give the Canon to my wife, and the Sony to her mom, and I bet her mom ends up with 75% more keepers. Not much of a price difference between the two right now, but the size is another matter...
Click to expand...

You should take a look at the Sony DSC-V1. Similar features as the F series, though without the lense (good = much smaller, bad = poorer lense, not that I can tell the difference). Includes the Hologram Focus Assist, and infrared abilities (NightShot and NightFraming). My main annoyances are storage is expensive, batteries only last ~100 shots, and the location of flash.
 
When "the pros" are talking about 90% photographer, 10% equipment, they're talking about "Art" shots. All this topic is about, is being able to "point & shoot" with a piece of equipment that retails for $500.00. My monster sized Sony can actually do that, but it retailed for almost double the price. I expect some compromise for that price and size difference, but this camera has limitations I just didn't expect... not for that kind of money!

BTW, the V1 is nice, but costs WAY too much, and still won't easily fit in a pocket. I guess it's about as small as a camera can get, and still do the job right.
 
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