The Canon Powershot S2 IS digital camera was announced a few days ago. I searched for a thread on it, but didn't find anything related, so...
It's supposed to be released in June, and retails for $499 (U.S. dollars). For the price, it looks like a pretty amazing camera. The basic feature set includes:
- 5 megapixels
- 12x optical zoom
- image stabilization
- DIGIC II processor (which means the camera is fast to start up, and takes images at a quick rate of 2.4fps)
- 640x480 movies at 30fps (a good feature, but I probably wouldn't use it much)
I'm currently debating between this, and a Canon Digital Rebel XT... which is quite a bit more expensive. Mostly I'll be taking pictures of my daughter (almost 9 months old now), and I like taking nature shots, including some macro stuff.
I could really use some advice from the more experienced photographers around here... the biggest problem I have with my photographs now (on an old Powershot S10), is that my daughter moves quickly, and unless I use the flash all the time, she's blurred out in the image from her moving.
I guess my old camera has a slow shutter speed, that is somehow corrected if I use the flash. This new Powershot S2 has shutter speeds as fast as 1/3200 sec... so, do you think it would be good for action shots?
Also, I've been following a couple of threads in the Picture Gallery forum and love how you can play with the depth of field with more expensive DSLR cameras/lenses. Going by the specifications of this new camera, do you think it would offer much control over that? (I see it has aperture settings that range from f/2.8 - f/8.0 ).
EDIT: I found this link... which talks some about the aperture values and using it to blur out the background of images. That site also has more sample images, and what appears to be an online version of the manual.
Thanks for any advice... I'm obviously fairly new to the world of photography aside from point and shoot cameras. I'm hoping I can get the pictures I want from a good $499 camera. My family is on one income right now (wife stays home with the baby), so I really shouldn't break the bank and buy a DSLR cam + lenses...
(and obviously, the best thing to do would be to try the camera out in a store before buying it... but since it hasn't been released yet, I can't...)
It's supposed to be released in June, and retails for $499 (U.S. dollars). For the price, it looks like a pretty amazing camera. The basic feature set includes:
- 5 megapixels
- 12x optical zoom
- image stabilization
- DIGIC II processor (which means the camera is fast to start up, and takes images at a quick rate of 2.4fps)
- 640x480 movies at 30fps (a good feature, but I probably wouldn't use it much)
I'm currently debating between this, and a Canon Digital Rebel XT... which is quite a bit more expensive. Mostly I'll be taking pictures of my daughter (almost 9 months old now), and I like taking nature shots, including some macro stuff.
I could really use some advice from the more experienced photographers around here... the biggest problem I have with my photographs now (on an old Powershot S10), is that my daughter moves quickly, and unless I use the flash all the time, she's blurred out in the image from her moving.
I guess my old camera has a slow shutter speed, that is somehow corrected if I use the flash. This new Powershot S2 has shutter speeds as fast as 1/3200 sec... so, do you think it would be good for action shots?
Also, I've been following a couple of threads in the Picture Gallery forum and love how you can play with the depth of field with more expensive DSLR cameras/lenses. Going by the specifications of this new camera, do you think it would offer much control over that? (I see it has aperture settings that range from f/2.8 - f/8.0 ).
EDIT: I found this link... which talks some about the aperture values and using it to blur out the background of images. That site also has more sample images, and what appears to be an online version of the manual.
Thanks for any advice... I'm obviously fairly new to the world of photography aside from point and shoot cameras. I'm hoping I can get the pictures I want from a good $499 camera. My family is on one income right now (wife stays home with the baby), so I really shouldn't break the bank and buy a DSLR cam + lenses...
(and obviously, the best thing to do would be to try the camera out in a store before buying it... but since it hasn't been released yet, I can't...)