Canon S2 IS Lenses

I'm trying to decide what would be the best lens to purchase before my trip to Ireland next month. I don't want

ti to be too expensive or too heavy and was hoping for some suggestions. I just want to give myself an extra

edge while there with my camera than I do now.

 

Thanks!

I'm afraid your question is too general. What do you like to shoot? What equipment do you have now? What are your

photographic objectives for the trip? Do you intend photos for the web or for big prints? Rather than being equipment

directed, think about your photographic goals and this will narrow your choices considerably.

The Canon S2IS is a fixed lens camera, it doesn't use changeable lenses. You can buy telephoto, wide angle, and close up adapters but they will degrade your images.

I suggest that you get the Olympus TCON x1.7 with the required mounting tube to suit your camera. This will

increase the 'reach' of your gear from x12 to x20 and is still quite compact. To get the 'wide view' I suggest you

explore the concept of stitching two or more overlaping frames in editing .. this can be done with a stitch programme

or in a good editing programme. You will find the TCON maintains IQ quite well except for some softness around the

edges .. often this is not a problem becuase I find I'd like 'more reach' and am not bothered about the edges of the

shot. If you do want to get really close shots you could get yourself a close-up lens, say a 2 dioptre or 500mm focal

length lens. This permits you to use the zoom to get a tight framing from some distance away, typically about a foot

to fill the screen with something about 35mm across. The concept here is that you want a tight framing rather than

coming in close and most users of x12 [ 'long-zoom'] cameras work this way.

 

This site may be of use for the tube ...http://www.b-300.com/fz10ac.html else Canon makes one I think. The TCON

requires a 55mm thread and you use 'stepping rings' to get this if the tube is different.

I am a Panasonic user so mountings are different though work in a similar way.

 

You must not/cannot mount the TCON directly on your rather weak lens which goes to sleep in the camera body ...

why you need the tube which fixes to the camera body.

I guess I don't know enough about what I need or want to ask the proper questions. I don't know a lot of technical aspects of photography, I just shoot until I get what I like. While in Ireland I just want to have the ability to get better quality, probably most of scenic shots and to get more detail.

What Johnny said.

 

Work on your technique at shooting and post-processing. Shoot RAW with CDHK: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/

Main_Page

 

Since your lens isn't very wide for scenics, practise stitching. This will also help: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/

~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

I would gently point out that you do not get better quality by buying gear but by learning how to use what you have

got. Like for instance holding the camera steady and gently caressing the trigger so that you do not cause the

camera to move during the exposure ... some will suggest a tripod* but for touring this may not be feasible so an

alternative is to get a small but sturdy mini-tripod, I use the Slick 8555 but there are other equally good ones. Just

avoid the silly flimsy things they use to carry web-cams and cameras in display windows. You then sit the

minitripod on something solid or else hold it firmly against a post or tree etc. * Just any tripod isn't any good, it

needs to be a sturdy animal and likely weight more than, much more than, the camera it is supporting. A flimsy

tripod is worse than handholding. When the subject matter is relatively stationary you can also use the delay

release to help towards image quality [iQ]. You press the trigger and leave the camera untouched during the

countdown to avoid camera shake. It needs to be sitting on a firm wall etc or the minitripod sitting on something

really steady .... though I have taken steady shots using delay release when the minitripod was perched on a not

very sturdy cardboard box, maybe I was lucky :-)

 

Then assuming that you have a good editing programme giving the correct exposure will help ... avoid at all costs

burning out the sky. A quick and easy way is to take half trigger while including more sky in the framing, still holding

HT you re-frame for the shot you want. The picture will come out dark but this is easilly adjusted in editing. Once

something is burnt out there is virtually nothing you can do about things, but shadow detail can be lifted. An

alternative technique is to take two shots, one exposed for the sky and the other for good exposure of the darker

areas and merge them in editing ... though usually the first approach works well..

 

Forget too about RAW ... your camera cannot shoot RAW ...but to except for the most finicky you can achieve

excellent results shooting the Super-fine jpgs your camera is capable of. Buy extra storage and always shoot Super-

fine at maximum resolution.[2592x1944] Most of the things that the RAW user does can be done in editing with a

Super-fine file .... once the computer opens it it becomes a full sized file** and from then on you save it in a loss-less

system . ** apart from a small amount lost when working at Super-fine not worth worrying about. So don't go out and

buy a new camera just becuase the S2 IS doesn't shoot RAW.:-)

 

RAW opens a can of worms and not worth the bother it incurres with requiring you to work each shot up in editing.

This is heretical talk but based on considerable time spent working my files in editing.

Remenber that camera and editor are companion tools towards the final result and you should be aiming to get out of

the camera a file that can be worked up to the great result you want.

 

Depending on your editor lossless could be .tif. pspimage,, .psd, .bmp and others.

>Forget too about RAW ... your camera cannot shoot RAW ...

RAW opens a can of worms and not worth the bother it incurres with requiring you to work each shot up in editing.

 

JC, look up CDHK (as quoted in my last post) and "batch processing."

In this instance, I think RAW is a bit much too bite off for someone who doesn't understand that their camera

doesn't have interchangeable lenses. And, Robin, I _do_not_ mean any disrespect in that statement. I think

there's a need to get down some of the fundamentals before running headlong into the world of processing RAW

image files.

 

[[While in Ireland I just want to have the ability to get better quality, probably most of scenic shots and to

get more detail.]]

 

JC, statement here is worth repeating: "I would gently point out that you do not get better quality by buying

gear but by learning how to use what you have got."

 

One important aspect to getting good photographs is to really, really know your equipment. And one great way to

really get to know your equipment is through practice and experimentation. Lots and lots and lots of practice.

You have a digital camera, so the costs to you to practice are, essentially, only your time. I very much

understand your desire to capture images that are important to you on your trip and you can give yourself a leg

up if you practice and learn to anticipate how your camera will behave in various lighting conditions.

 

Additionally, if you want good photos and you're traveling with other people, don't allow them to rush you. (For

that matter, don't rush yourself.) When you visit an area, take your time and look around you before turning on

the camera. Explore the space before you start to photograph. You might come up with some very interesting

compositions that way.

 

Don't worry about extra lenses. Take a tripod if you can, or a mini-tripod of it's more practical. Take extra

memory cards, don't be satisfied with just one shot, and most of all: enjoy your travels.

 

Best of luck.

Fred C..... I think you need to tailor ones suggestions to the customer. For somebody who I suspect doesn't have a decent editing programme but just the simple one which came with the camera it is pointless to talk about RAW. RAW is not a magic or silver bullet and excellent results can come from jpg files. I have played with RAW and didn't think it gave me anything more than what I get from working up my jpg files in PSP or PS .. but I am more interested in what the photograph shows than technical excellence and extreme wide ranges of tonality. I must admit that since my camera settings are set to low I have to work up every shot I take so RAW probably wouldn't incurr much difference to me.

The whole concept of batch processing seems pointless to me, why not let the camera do these things if one isn't going to give individual attention to each file. But I do have adequate time to compliment my shooting with editing time and no commerical imperatives.

 

Robin ....That leads me to the advice I found when I started with my FZ20 and that was to set contrast, noise reduction to lowest settings, exposure [EV] to minus half to one stop ... results out of the camera are disapointing so that approach pre-supposes than one has an editing programme as mentioned and some experience in using it. Further suggestion is to never use anything but 100ISO and firmly support the camera to let it use a slow shutter speed when the light reduces. OIS is great but it is not a miracle worker so traditional methods of supporting the camera pays dividends.