I have a higher end Canon Rebel DSLR with some pretty good glass and used it this past week at Disney world. While you can't beat the quality of pictures from a DSLR in low light and on fast moving targets (not to mention all other times), it became a HUGE pain to carry around the park and to take on and off getting on rides.
So I read the reviews and found that the best carry-around camera was the Panasonic Lumix ZS3 (TZ7 in other parts of the world). Unfortunately, no one around here carries that camera, and online the prices are still in the $400+ range. So I decided to wade through the middle market and came across this camera, the Canon Powershot SD780 IS (IXUS 100 IS in other parts of the world).
The various Sony's looked good as well, I just hate the memory sticks they use. I always like keeping everything the same, and since my Canon Rebel uses SDHC, I decided to go with a cam that used that as well.
It takes amazing pictures when there is plenty of light, such as outside or indoors with ambient lighting. Clouds look beautiful and are not blown out. Color is very vivid, like all Canon shots. The video quality is definately HD 720p quality and looks nice at a steady 30 frames per second. However, the minimum f-stop even at full wide is 3.5 and creeps into the 6's with the zoom racked out. With that said, low light situations create such a grainy picture as to be unusable by my standards. The shadow areas are horrible and muddy. And the video exhibits this same nastiness.
I was able to figure out all camera features on my own without reading the manual at all, but if you want to, there is a VERY detailed manual that goes step by step with pictures of how to work the cam.
If you want to take over in full manual mode, they give you access to pretty much all the settings in one simple menu. Shoot in Program AE, change ISO, change white balance, change tone, self timers, continuous shooting, focus lock, exposure compensation, metering mode, AF frame mode and focal point, Servo AF, etc.
One of the best features of the camera (and I sugest you try all the cams out in the store to see what I mean) is how FAST it auto focuses and takes a picture. Right from power up, I can take a pic in under 2 seconds. On top of that, the shutter lag is about .02 seconds. You hit the button, the picture takes right then. AF on almost ALL other cameras I picked up had to hunt for the focus for several seconds, and some never gained focus at all, while others kept trying to refocus after acquiring a lock. This camera, even in up close macro mode, gained a solid focus lock in under a second and stayed there.
And macro mode is wonderful! You can be just over an inch from your subject and take some of the greatest, full focused images. Auto mode will sense how close you are and automatically change to macro mode.
You also have the ability to create folders on your memory card right from the camera. Very useful if you are hitting multiple camera ops in a day and would like to keep them all separate. All the menus are well laid out, but once you set up for your shoot, most of the buttons you will be using will be on the camera body. And again, as much as I like to set everything myself in full manual mode, I found that full auto is smarter than me most of the time. I guess the camera is calibrated to know what the best settings for its lens are. Reviewing images, zooming in on them to check details, deleting, tagging, watching videos, etc are all very easy. And videos are in the standard .MOV format making them easy to edit and stitch on a PC or a Mac.
I went ahead and picked up the Canon leather belt pouch as well for this cam as it keeps it on your side at the ready, looks professional, and is no bigger than a phone holster.
One additional note on why I picked this cam...it has cool accessories!
Just to name a few:
HDMI out to TV with standard Mini-HDMI to full HDMI.
Waterproof/dustproof case that you can take to 140ft underwater!
High power external remote flash.
All available on Amazon!
Another hint...you can find additional rechargeable lithium batteries for as little as $2 here on Amazon. The Canon brand goes for almost $50 and the others last just as long.
All in all, it was a good purchase and will be coming with me on all camera excursions and trips. It may very well be the camera that "gets the shot" that my big DSLR doesn't because of it always being at my hip and ready to shoot in a couple of seconds.Get more detail about Canon PowerShot SD780IS12.1 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Black).
No comments:
Post a Comment