I've been camera shopping recently and weighing my options.

I don't want cheap point and shoot. I want IS, a good zoom, and options, but I can't afford SLR. So I was looking very hard at the Canon S3 IS. I'm assuming it's a rather good one with bells and whistles yet easy enough for an amatuer to figure out.

Any thoughts?

BTW, I don't really care about compactness, I rather have something a little more sizeable in my hands anyways.

 

Very nice choice, it is a great camera...that's all I have to say.

 

I was shopping with the same criteria as you (but a lower pricepoint), and ended up with a used Canon S2 IS and absolutely LOVE it. The pics I took on my trip to the Dominican Republic last week are stunning in comparison to the Canon Digital Elph S230 I used last time.

There are enough manual-modes on the S2/S3 cameras that you can get a good variety of shots without having to go DSLR. But my wife can also use it easily by setting it to Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Night, or Movie... and just pointing-and-shooting.

 

See my comments here: https://acurazine.com/forums/cameras-photography-44/actual-canon-s3-photos-359194/

 

To read 159 reviews, check out amazon.com page for the camera. A lot of good, also some talk about the quriks of the camera.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSho.../dp/B000EMWBV0

also, not many people have anything bad to say about this one.

http://www.epinions.com/Canon_PowerS...splay_~reviews

 

I have a Canon S2 IS and love it. I can imagine the S3 IS being much better. Here are a couple of shots I took with my S2 IS, with a little photo shop help...






I'd say the S3 IS would be a really good choice. If I were shopping for a point and shoot, the S3 would be the one I would get.

-Joe

 

thanks to everyone. I think I'm going to be a happy man.

 

I've had my new S3 for just about a week now. I absolutely love it. Two things I would recommend: a) a bigger SD card, obviously... the one it comes with holds approximatley 8 - 9 photos, and b) batteries... the ones that came in it lasted just about long enough to fill the card with the 8 - 9 photos.

 

In my S2, I have two sets of batteries (one set of 1950 maH, one set of 2500 maH), and the 2500's last at least 150-200 pics w/o flash. The 1950's about 100-150 as they're older and have less capacity.

You might want to look into a good charger and battery set, as it appears whatever Canon-provided ones you have are garbage. Or, they might take a few cycles to get full capacity.

My old Canon S230 DigiElph was HORRIBLE for batteries. We had 2 of the Canon-brand battery packs and even both of those combined wouldn't even last a day-trip of shooting (say 50 pics).

The S2IS I have with the 2 sets of batteries lasted an entire week trip in the Dominican Republic w/o having to use the charger out of necessity.

 

Heres some pic i took!... i got that same exact camera. i just wish that it could have a longer exposure time than 15 secs

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/market-going-hell-187252/

 

I narrowed my choices down to the S3 and the Panasonic Lumix FZ7. I ended up going with the Panasonic and am happy with it. The Canon was very nice, but I couldn't get over the small screen. The Canon does zoom faster than the Panny though, but they both seem to take good pics. They are roughly the same price also. I also looked at the Sony DSC H5, but didn't really like it.

 

the thing i like about the canon is the fact that the screen flips around the other way so u dont have to plant ur face on the ground to see what ur takin a pic of

 

wow - nice pics. I just bought the Canon S2...what setting did you use for these pics - Fine, Superfine etc? Thanks.

Anyone else - what setting do you keep it at - Superfine all the time or is a setting lower good too?

 

well, finally got the additional funds ( payed off march's bills ahead of time first, then I get the toy ), should be here on the 20th