Canon S? IS Series

The Canon S1 was known to have bad purple fringing. I think that is
called chromatic abberation but not sure. Does anyone know if that was
completely corrected in the Canon S2?

Does anyone know how much faster the FZ5 focusing and other performance
characteristics are over the Canon S2?

Has anyone seen many results of both the FZ5 and the Canon S2. I have a
few more months before I need to make a decision.

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 01:33:31 GMT, measekite wrote:
The Canon S1 was known to have bad purple fringing. I think that is
called chromatic abberation but not sure. Does anyone know if that was
completely corrected in the Canon S2?

Per http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page5.asp , it's better
than the S1, but not completely gone.


Does anyone know how much faster the FZ5 focusing and other performance
characteristics are over the Canon S2?

Again using the dpreview pages, we have:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page4.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5/page4.asp

FZ5 S2IS
Autofocus 0.2-0.3 0.5-0.7
Shot to shot 0.9 1.6
Shot to shot (flash) 1.2 1.6
Wide to tele zoom 2.3 1.0
Burst rate 2.3 fps 2.3 fps

FZ5 autofocus is in high-speed mode, S2 zoom traversal is high speed,
burst rate is for high-resolution continuous bursts; if you use the
FZ5's high-speed burst mode, you can get 3.3 fps, but only 4 frames.

Basically, for single shots, the FZ5 is noticeably faster than the S2IS,
largely due to the faster autofocus (though flash recharge can limit the
FZ5). The advantage goes away in burst mode, since the cameras don't
refocus in between frames.

Has anyone seen many results of both the FZ5 and the Canon S2. I have a
few more months before I need to make a decision.

I'm happy with my FZ5, but they're both good cameras.

-dms

measekite wrote:
[]
Has anyone seen many results of both the FZ5 and the Canon S2. I
have a few more months before I need to make a decision.

Daniel has answered your other questions. I see the choice as being
between the slightly better image quality of the Panasonic FZ5 and the
better movies and swivel LCD of the Canon S2 IS. If you have a few more
months, it's possible that yet more cameras will be available in this
class to confuse your choice even further!

Cheers,
David

Daniel Silevitch wrote:

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 01:33:31 GMT, measekite wrote:


The Canon S1 was known to have bad purple fringing. I think that is
called chromatic abberation but not sure. Does anyone know if that was
completely corrected in the Canon S2?



Per http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page5.asp , it's better
than the S1, but not completely gone.



Does anyone know how much faster the FZ5 focusing and other performance
characteristics are over the Canon S2?



Again using the dpreview pages, we have:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page4.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5/page4.asp

FZ5 S2IS
Autofocus 0.2-0.3 0.5-0.7
Shot to shot 0.9 1.6
Shot to shot (flash) 1.2 1.6
Wide to tele zoom 2.3 1.0
Burst rate 2.3 fps 2.3 fps



Would you call these significant and meaningful..

FZ5 autofocus is in high-speed mode, S2 zoom traversal is high speed,
burst rate is for high-resolution continuous bursts; if you use the
FZ5's high-speed burst mode, you can get 3.3 fps, but only 4 frames.

Basically, for single shots, the FZ5 is noticeably faster than the S2IS,
largely due to the faster autofocus (though flash recharge can limit the
FZ5). The advantage goes away in burst mode, since the cameras don't
refocus in between frames.



Has anyone seen many results of both the FZ5 and the Canon S2. I have a
few more months before I need to make a decision.



I'm happy with my FZ5, but they're both good cameras.

-dms

David J Taylor wrote:

measekite wrote:
[]


Has anyone seen many results of both the FZ5 and the Canon S2. I
have a few more months before I need to make a decision.



Daniel has answered your other questions. I see the choice as being
between the slightly better image quality of the Panasonic FZ5 and the
better movies and swivel LCD of the Canon S2 IS.


Where do you see the image quality of the FZ5 better?

Also, I would like to know if both the FZ5 and Canon S2 can do the
following:

You point the camera at an object and hold down the shutter button half
way and you can lock in the exposure. Now what do you press to refocus
on a subject in another direction and then shoot (lets say) in still
another direction. Let me explain it using an actual scene. The scene
is composed of the following letters:


A B C D

E F G H

I J K L

Let say you need to lock in the exposure on H

You want to lock in the focus on A

And you want to frame the photo so F and G are in the center. You need
one thing to lock in the exposure and something else to lock in the
focus while you actually take the picture.

I would like to know if the both the S2 and the FZ5 can do this. I am
hoping that all digital cameras can do this.

If you have a few more
months, it's possible that yet more cameras will be available in this
class to confuse your choice even further!

Cheers,
David

measekite wrote:
[]
Where do you see the image quality of the FZ5 better?

That's too subjective to quantify - you could look at the tests in DP
Review and make you own judgement.

Also, I would like to know if both the FZ5 and Canon S2 can do the
following:

You point the camera at an object and hold down the shutter button
half way and you can lock in the exposure. Now what do you press to
refocus on a subject in another direction and then shoot (lets say)
in still another direction. Let me explain it using an actual scene.
The scene is composed of the following letters:


A B C D

E F G H

I J K L

Let say you need to lock in the exposure on H

You want to lock in the focus on A

And you want to frame the photo so F and G are in the center. You
need one thing to lock in the exposure and something else to lock in
the focus while you actually take the picture.

I would like to know if the both the S2 and the FZ5 can do this. I am
hoping that all digital cameras can do this.

Yes, the FZ5 has a separate "Focus now on the central subject and then
leave the focus unchanged" button. So you centre A in the field of view,
press the focus button, then recentre and expose. I've never used this
function, though.

Cheers,
David

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:46:15 GMT, measekite wrote:


Daniel Silevitch wrote:

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 01:33:31 GMT, measekite wrote:

Does anyone know how much faster the FZ5 focusing and other performance
characteristics are over the Canon S2?

Again using the dpreview pages, we have:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page4.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz5/page4.asp

FZ5 S2IS
Autofocus 0.2-0.3 0.5-0.7
Shot to shot 0.9 1.6
Shot to shot (flash) 1.2 1.6
Wide to tele zoom 2.3 1.0
Burst rate 2.3 fps 2.3 fps

Would you call these significant and meaningful..

I would call the autofocus and shot-to-shot delay meaningful; the fast
AF on the FZ5 means that you can point the camera at something, jam down
the trigger, and it will take a picture _now_, not 1 second from now.
For shooting moving objects, that matters. If you're into landscapes or
posed portraits, less important.

The time required to move the zoom from full wide to full long is less
of an issue, since you usually know roughly what area of the zoom range
you want to be in.

-dms

Where do you see the image quality of the FZ5 better?

It might have a little less incidence of chromatic aberration in the
images.

Also, I would like to know if both the FZ5 and Canon S2 can do the
following:

You point the camera at an object and hold down the shutter button
half way and you can lock in the exposure. Now what do you press to
refocus on a subject in another direction and then shoot (lets say)
in still another direction. Let me explain it using an actual scene.
The scene is composed of the following letters:


A B C D

E F G H

I J K L

Let say you need to lock in the exposure on H

You want to lock in the focus on A

And you want to frame the photo so F and G are in the center. You
need one thing to lock in the exposure and something else to lock in
the focus while you actually take the picture.

That's easy on both the S2 and FZ5. Simply switch to manual exposure
mode, and meter from H, and set the exposure. Then focus on A and
half-press the shutter to lock in the focus. Then recompose the shot to
get F and G in the centre of the picture.

As your metering requirements seem quite specific in this example, you
may wish to use spot metering mode when locking the exposure on H so
that other elements in the scene do not affect the choice of exposure.
Both the S2 and FZ5 support this mode.

--
Witold