Canon SX-100is 0-Day Impressions

Well, they had them at Sam's Club today for $300... I bought one!

Its a tiny 10x zoom 8MP image stabilized camera with full manual controls. I
require a camera that rides in a belt pouch and this seems to be the best
one yet.

After a few of hours of playing around, I'm impressed, especially with the
in-camera firmware and the general way it operates. It has an amazing little
wheel thingy on the back that can be used to continuously adjust the focus,
aperture, or shutter speed... cool..

This camera competes directly with my Panasonic TZ1 which has few manual
controls. The other main difference that sold me on the SX100 is the macro
FOV. The TZ1 has a 3 inch FOV whereas the SX100 has a 1 inch FOV. So far
with my tests the SX100's macro capability is way beyond that of the TZ1.

The SX100 is only slightly bigger than the TZ1. The view screens are the
same size but the SX100 seems more visible in sunlight.

In tests so far the SX100 seems far superior at the 40x digital zoom range
(1400 mm equiv.) to the TZ1. Pixelization on the TZ1 at 40x zoom is very
annoying.

I'll let you know what more I figure out about it later.

NM

"~~NoMad~~" <understanding.engine@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:fdmk56$g4d$1@registered.motzarella.org...
> Well, they had them at Sam's Club today for $300... I bought one!
>
> Its a tiny 10x zoom 8MP image stabilized camera with full manual controls.
> I require a camera that rides in a belt pouch and this seems to be the
> best one yet.
>
> After a few of hours of playing around, I'm impressed, especially with the
> in-camera firmware and the general way it operates. It has an amazing
> little wheel thingy on the back that can be used to continuously adjust
> the focus, aperture, or shutter speed... cool..
>
> This camera competes directly with my Panasonic TZ1 which has few manual
> controls. The other main difference that sold me on the SX100 is the macro
> FOV. The TZ1 has a 3 inch FOV whereas the SX100 has a 1 inch FOV. So far
> with my tests the SX100's macro capability is way beyond that of the TZ1.
>
> The SX100 is only slightly bigger than the TZ1. The view screens are the
> same size but the SX100 seems more visible in sunlight.
>
> In tests so far the SX100 seems far superior at the 40x digital zoom range
> (1400 mm equiv.) to the TZ1. Pixelization on the TZ1 at 40x zoom is very
> annoying.
>
> I'll let you know what more I figure out about it later.
>
> NM
>
>
>

After 5 days working with the SX100is my opinion is now mixed up a bit.
There is no doubt this is a state-of-the-art camera but with its multitude
of features it takes a bit of getting used to. Nothing is perfect and you
need to learn how to work around its limitations. Most annoying to me is
that the sensor seems much more noisy than what I am used to with the
Panasonic TZ1. I messed up a days shooting by accidentally leaving it in the
High ISO mode, not a disastrous mistake but all my pictures were noticeably
grainy. Like most small sensor digital cameras its best to avoid dark scenes
where a high ISO is needed.

Macro mode has some fantastic capability but here too it takes some getting
used to. When operating the zoom function in macro mode the focusing
distance changes radically. I'm not sure what to make of this or how to best
use it. If you leave the zoom in wide position you can focus down to 1cm
distance but this is too close for most subjects and a shadow from the lens
barrel can be a problem. At this close 1cm macro there is considerable
barrel distortion. Kicking the zoom out a bit cures the distortion but pulls
your focus way back and increases the FOV.

My next project is to see if the flash can be used effectively in macro
mode. Flash power can be adjusted manually to this might work.

There is a lot to like about the SX100is but like any new camera it takes
some getting used to.

NM