magnus_nystedt

Do you want to know if those cameras are any good or if the store/business is any good? I

cannot find any ratings of the store, and I would not advice anyone to buy any of those

cameras. They may be good, but they are mostly unknown brands in digital cameras and

they are strangely cheap. THe only brand I recognize is Umax (and they are not well known

for digital cameras), but come on, 6.6Mp for $189! Either it's a scam or it's a really crappy

camera, or a combination. Actually if you check the details it's really only 3.3Mp and it

fakes the rest of the pixels.

 

//Magnus

We cannot answer that question for you, only you can. We don't know what you shoot, how

you shoot, etc. etc. Is the S500 a good camera? I have experience from many Digital Elphs

and it's all been positive. I have not myself used an S500 (other than for a few minutes in a

store) but from what I can tell online and from friends, it's an excellent camera (and I wish

I could afford one :-)

 

If you're guilty about spending the money - we can't help you. If you want to know more

about the camera once you get it - I am sure there's many here who would want to help :-)

 

//Magnus

If I understand it right, when you shoot BW mode the camera only records BW info, which

means you cannot get the color "back" so to speak. If you shoot color you can always go to

to BW in PS (and you have more control over it as well). There's something to be said about

shooting in BW though I think, since it may "force" you to think in BW.

 

//Magnus

Maybe I don't understand the question, or just don't know the answer... But isn't a zoom

always a zoom, attached to the camera body or not? And the same for fixed lenses.

 

//Magnus

You won't find credit card sized 4mp cameras for $150-200, but you can find good used cameras for that price, but you're looking at 3mp at the most. Cameras like the Canon S110/200 (2Mp) sell for that regularly on eBay and you can afford some extra batteries too.

Full rez? 8Mp JPEG? RAW? Depends not only on rez but format as well. I have an A2 with a couple of 1Gb cards and I get, if I remember right, 122 or 125 highest-quality JPEGs at 8mp on a card, and I get I think it is 83 or thereabouts of RAW shots.

 

//Magnus

Comparing 5700 and A1: I think the same things apply as I said above. 5700 has the zoom where you flip the switch on the back - A1 you turn the lens. 5700 has the fold out swivel/tilt LCD that the A1 doesn't. A1 has AS, the 5700 doesn't. You can fit filters directly on the A1 lens, that's not the case with the 5700. There are battery grips for both - the A1's take two batteries or six AAs. Picture quality difference? I'm not sure there really is any significant difference. I've seen pictures from both, and also used both, and I would say that they are even when it comes to picture quality. For me the handling, the AS, and the manual zoom would decide in favor of the A1.

Wouldn't it make more sense to compare 8700 and A2? They both take CF cards. I personally did not like the zooming on the 8700 and it didn't feel as good in my hands as the A2. The A2 also has better controls in my view. The manual zoom on the lens with the A2 and the fact that it has a 49mm filter thread are other pluses. Antishake is another one. Something I wish the A2 had that the 5700/8700 has is the flip out, swivel/turn display. With the BP400 battery grip, the A2 takes two rechargeable batteries and that will last you (almost) forever, and you can run it off regular AAs as well. I did the comparison some months ago and picked the A2 and so far I am very happy with it.

I haven't got my S110 yet, got it on eBay some days ago. I read somewher e that the highest quality shot from that camera is around 1Mb, which would put something like 1,000 shots on the 1Gb card. Even though I have a 1Gb card I could use I think I may end up buying a 256Mb or something to use in the S110. I have two 1Gb cards that I use with my A2, and I figured that I could use one for the S110, but perhaps not :-) I will try it though when I get the camera!

 

Thanks everyone!

Thanks Rob. I checked the S100 manual and it doesn't say that there would be an upper limit. I will get my S110 in a few days so I can try for myself :-)

 

//Magnus

I am thinking about getting a decent used (small!) digital camera that I can just throw in a

pocket and keep with me all the time, and I've picked the Canon S100 (seems to have good

picture quality and it takes CF cards, and I used to have a film-Elph once and it is so

small). Now I have a 1Gb CF card I could use with it but I wanted to know if y'all know if

that will work in the S100 or is there an upper limit? I've searched for this without any

results.

 

Thanks,

Magnus

I picked the KM A2 some months ago and it's my main camera now. As with any camera it

takes some getting used to but it is capable of absolutely stunning shots. I've printed

20x30 shots from it that are simply stunning IMHO :-) Yes there is noise but I shoot

typically RAW at ISO64 and then there is hardly any noise at all. Recenlty I shot at ISO800

in a church at a wedding and with AS I did get useable shots. Sure there is a lot of noise

but I got the shots :-) And they cleaned up pretty well with NeatImage.

I have the cheaper one :-) They were $219 each at Dell if I remember right when I bought

them some months ago. They are the standard speed, nothing fancy, but so far they are

plenty fast for me. Then most of what I shoot is landscape type stuff with camera on a

tripod so writing speed is not a priority for me.

I don't think you'll find a definite answer to your question about what size cards. Some

people argue you should go with more and smaller cards so if one fails it's not so bad.

Then some just want to keep shooting without switching cards. I have two 1Gb Kingston

CF cards and I get 83 RAW shots on each (KM A2) which has been plenty for me so far (125

JPEGs at highest quality setting). If you haven't already, check out the Storage and Media

forum at DPReview: <a href="http://

forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1023">http://forums.dpreview.com/

forums/forum.asp?forum=1023</a>.

I don't think there's much question that in most situations the DSLRs will give you better

quality, and you also have the option of getting the top-of-the-line lenses, like the Canon

"L" series for them (ok the Canon 8mp supposedly has an "L" lens, I know :-). That said,

you can get amazing results out of the 8mp prosumers. I'm an A2 user myself and I've

seen A2 shots at 20x30 which are just georgeous. Michael Reichmann has many good

thoughts on the subjects (others have linked to his pieces).

I wouldn't worry too much. I have an Konica Minolta DiMAGE A2 (8Mp) and I've printed very

good 30x20 prints from it, more than good enough for what I consider a wedding portrait

should be like quality-wise.

 

//Magnus

Why not consider the Konica Minolta A2? I use it most of the time with the battery pack

BP400 in which I can fit two batteries which last me forever, but when I need lighter/

smaller I just carry the A2 in a real small bag. It's probably right what some

have pointed out that you won't

get as good picture quality out of the A2 compared to the 10D but I also know that the A2

is wonderful to handle and can produce some awesome shots. I've seen 20x30 prints from

the A2 that are out of this world. Check out the A2 shots by Michael Reichmann at <a

href="http://

www.luminous-landscape.com/">http://www.luminous-landscape.com/</a>.

I have a noname CF card reader (around $10 on eBay) that works just fine in Panther.

"Enough" for what? 6Mp can be a lot, or not enough, depending on what you're going to

do with the shots.

Yes there have been people experiencing problems with noise banding and AF issues

especially on the A2 and after some exchanges or repairs they've now got working A2s.

This is unfortunate and hopefully something KM is working on fixing. However, it should

also be pointed out that most A2 users seem very happy with their cameras. As long as

you buy from somewhere with a good return/exchange policy then you should be ok.

Costco is a place that I've often seen cited as having very good such policies.

It's true that smaller sensors mean compromises and I would certainly prefer a larger

sensor, but doesn't that come at the expense of higher price? I've seen very good 20x30

prints from the A2 and that's at least more than good enough for me, smaller sensor or

not :-)

I won't argue why you shouldn't get it. I have an A2 and I love it. I picked among all the

current crop of 8mps and the A2 was the winner in my book. Some users report issues

with problems in AF in some A2s but once they've exchanged them or got them repaired

they are fine. I must have got a good one - it's been great out of the box. It does have

definite noise over ISO100 but so does the other ones, so that's no reason to go for one or

the other I think. The BP400 grip is excellent and makes the camera, which is already nice

to hold, even nicer. It also means you can use regular AA batteries if you need, something

that all other cameras cannot do. Manual zoom is a must in my book, and you can also

focus manually if you need to. The Sony 828 has a nice lens and manual zoom but I did

not like the camera's style and it's heavier than the A2. The Canon Pro 1 also has kind of

manual zoom but I did not like it's "zoom-by-wire". The EVF is the best of the bunch, and

AS can really save the bacon so to speak in low light situations. I wish it had a LCD that

could fold out like on the Nikons but that is for me a minor point. That it goes to 28mm

was also a must for me since I like wide angle shots :-) It is very nice to handle and you

can control it pretty much solely from buttons and dials on the outside while you shoot

and don't have to fiddle around with the LCD menus all the time like on some cameras. AF

seems fast and accurate to me, and the same for WB and exposure. Did I forget

something? Propably... please ask.

It could be a defect A2. At the Minolta forums at DPReview (http://forums.dpreview.com/

forums/forum.asp?forum=1024) you can find many users with focusing issues with their

A2s and many have returned their A2 for replacement or repair and got them fixed. It

should also be noted that most users don't seem to have this problem. My A2 was ok out

of the box. Another thing is that you should know is that the A2 focuses much better if

you use the flex-point (press the center button of the navigation button and you should

get the little cross in the middle of the screen). Then you can leave the flex point in the

middle or move it to what you want in focus, Much more precise than the regular AF. Then

I seem to remember someone said that turning off full-time AF in the setup will help.

 

Hope that helps,

Magnus

I'm unsure why you would want to do this. The only application I can really think of is

shooting in a studio. Anyway... Minolta sells the DiMAGE Capture software that will allow

you to do this with the A1 and A2.<br>

<a href="http://camera.minolta.ca/Minolta/MinoltaC.nsf/0/

c6b862fe16e07e5985256d7c001337d8?OpenDocument">http://camera.minolta.ca/

Minolta/MinoltaC.nsf/0/

c6b862fe16e07e5985256d7c001337d8?OpenDocument</a>.<br>

 

A search at BH reveals two versions, one for A1 and one for A2 and I am unsure what the

difference is.

<a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home;jsessionid=AIQbgBcBmG!

391648115?

ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=dima

ge+capture&image.x=7&image.y=7">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/

home;jsessionid=AIQbgBcBmG!

391648115?

ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=dima

ge+capture&image.x=7&image.y=7</a>.

I have the A2 and a major reason for picking it over others (like the Nikon 8700 for

example) was that it has manual zoom and focus on the lens. The manual zoom is

excellent. The manual focus works, but you do have to turn the focus ring a lot of times to

get stuff in focus. It's in my view good to have as an option at least. I hope that helps.

 

//Magnus