Any Canon Power Shot S1 IS Owners?

Just got back from talking to my friend's father for a couple hours. He agreed with me that a anti-shake would be a good idea, especially with the big zoom. That pretty much put me to the two I was originally looking at, S1 and Z3. The only thing I was worried about the Z3 was with image quality. So he gave me some good advice and told me to buy the camera at Costco and test it out. He said if I really wasn't that impressed, to just bring it back. He was telling me Costco was really good with returns and don't have restocking fees, so I think thats what I'm going to do. Probably shot 100-200 shots on the Z3 and determine if I want to keep it or not.
 
You went from a Z3 to the S1?? What didn't you like about the Z3 that you like with the S1?? Mind giving a quick summary, i'm having a hard time finding a person with a S1, let alone with both. On paper the Z3 seems superior than the S1.
 
That is why you just have to base your decision off quality reviews like from Steve's Digicams and dcresource.com. Closely look at the high resolution pictures and compare them to other cameras in the general price range (even compare them to $800 cameras, you will be surprised!). Good news, at least with dcresource.com, is that they keep the pictures consistent with the various cameras so they're easy to compare (many will be of the Golden Gate, San. Fran. skyline, same statue, etc.).
 
Quality was the main difference. I got so fed up with the Z3 that I just about threw it against the wall. I too purchased it from Costco, and the cheapness of the case (camera body) and such, along with the ugly LCD screen really sent me away from it. I like the S1 IS because of the flip screen, which protects it greatly.
 
Ok, one more final update on my camera situation. Took one more look at the DiMage Z3 at Costco and again wasn't exactly wowed, it seemed to have trouble focusing. Even though, I could have bought it and returned it if I wasn't thrilled, I really didn't want to waste my time. Anyway I compared the Z3 and S1's photos from steves-digicam's photo gallery and was seeing a decent amount of purple fringing and noise on both sets of pictures when blown up. It seemed the Panasonic DMC were superior than both. I really didn't want to spend a fortune so decided to just price the Panasonic DMC FZ15 for the heck of it. Low and behold, beach camera has it for $357. This was one of the first sites my friend's father recommended so I knew it was good store and its about an hour away from me. I think i'm going to go with the Panasonic DMC FZ15, it seems the best out of the class i'm looking for and has all the features I was looking for.

I think i'm going to go with the executive kit at $406.99 not to bad on the wallet, and the fact that it comes with a lithium rechargeable battery is always a plus :xyxthumbs

http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/Product.asp?ProdTypeList=&Sku=PNDMCFZ15K

Once again thanks for the helpful input and advice :wavey
 
I think you will be pleased. It is a great camera with plenty of bang for $400.



Off-topic but your post, for some reason, caused me to go to Wolf Camera's website. For $8,000 for just the body, you can buy a 16.7 MP Canon. :eek:
 
*update*

Well I was pretty set on going with the Panasonic FZ15, but have been way to busy with school to buy it. Anyway if you've seen my other thread I plan on buying a car next month and with the summer comming up, I'm sure i'd be spending a decent amount of money. That and the fact i'm only working 8 hours every 2 weeks kinda made me reconsider how badily I needed a good camera. I'm probably going to get more hours at the pharmacy but nothing like full time which is what I was doing last year. All things considered I started kicking myself for selling my camera to begin with. So I decided i'll try to find a camera with a better zoom and around 3-4MP without really spending a fortune. I took a look at Electronics-Expo ad and they had the DiMage Z10 (3.2MP, 8x optical, yada yada) for $197 with a 64MB SD card. After reading some reviews here and there decide this one would be good. I then go there and wasn't impressed with the focusing that much. The salesperson was also trying to convince me the DiMage Z2 (4MP 10x optical) is only $50 more and would probably a better bet. So AGAIN I leave in confusion. Regardless I check some prices on a couple other high zoom cameras and stumble upon the Fuji FinePix S5100. Beach Camera has it for $256 with a $50MIR from Fuji making it a couple bucks more then the DiMage Z10 that I was looking at. All reviews have been pretty good on it, 4MP, 10x optical zoom, AF Assist and relatively good photo quality. It was recommended by DPreview.com and made Steves-Digicam's "best" list under ultra zoom cameras. My real only gripe was it takes xD cards but found them priced pretty good on ecost.com. Anyway if all things go good, I plan on taking a ride to Beach Camera Friday morning and picking up the S5100. Hopefully next weekend I will go to PA and get some good wildlife pictures :wavey
 
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