Canon Powershot S70?

[Tom Vervaeke]

Anyone have any experience with the new 7.1 MP S70? DPReview gave it good marks. Locally it is $499 and B&H or $449. I am an avid Canon lover.

Link: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons70/

Current digicam stable is a S500 (wife's) and a A80. So, we have 5.0 and 4.0 MP now. I had a S50 for a while but sold it to another AdvRider who needed a good used unit. I liked the feel of the S50 and it feels solid laying in my pocket or a tankbag. The S500 is only nice for me if I really need to slip that thing in my pocket. Else, I prefer the features of the A80 better even though I'm stepping down in MP. I get better shots on the A80 as I can use the thumbwheel to enter more shooting modes.

Mostly I take snaps, landscapes, people, travel etc.. and then post process with PS Elements. Was thinking the extra mega-pixels would allow me more latitude for cropping or just printing big images on my canon home photo printer(s).

Any input would be nice. The world is pretty good when you can get a 7+MP camera for < $500 that you can take on travel, on the MC, or general use.

Thanks,

Tom

[Tom Vervaeke]

Hmmm, looks like I might want to consider the G6 as well. Any input on that would also be appreciated.

Thanks!

Tom

[Tom Vervaeke]

Wow, no advice at all in about 1 week? After doing a bunch more research, and then playing with both cameras over the weekend at a local store, I decided on the G6. It's a bit bigger than I had hoped for but all of the other features tilted me in it's direction. It has the same chip as the S70 but has the same lense as the G3, G5, etc.., i.e. it's a lot faster than the S70's glass. Also has a remote, etc..

I plan on checking out the intervalometer (sp?) right away as it sounds interesting. Local dealer met me 50% of the way between B&H's price and their normal price so I was happy.

Tom

[gubbs]

Sorry Tom,

I'm afraid I've no experience of the S70 and it seems like you've found dpreview. If your considering the bigger G6 have a look at the Oly 8080 too I was really impressed with the build and image quality of mine, and I think the prices are coming down too!

[pierce]

to resurrect an old thread, I just ordered a S70 to replace our old S300 that is nearing the end of its life... the doors are breaking, but its taken 10000s of pictures, and been kicked around all over the place, so I have no complaints.

I liked the S70 from both Steves-digicams and dpReviews, so I hope I made a good choice. They are under $400 now from folks like www.buydig.com.

anyone here used one? I briefly played with someone's S60 and liked the control layout, and the 28mm equivalent lens a lot.

[amc]

I have been using the S60 for a while. I am quite pleased with it, as I know you will be with your new S70. The wide angle lens is a useful feature.

A number of people have had issues with the lens door ramping up off the track when sliding it open. It even happened to me once. This is really a non-issue, as long as you avoid grabbing it by the edge that's closest to the flash. It should really be grabbed at the center, just to the right of the vertical "Canon" in the photo below. In fact, I found it very useful to slap a couple of "egrips" on the surface, and I've had no problems.

Enjoy your new toy!


to resurrect an old thread, I just ordered a S70 ..........

anyone here used one? I briefly played with someone's S60 and liked the control layout, and the 28mm equivalent lens a lot. http://amc.smugmug.com/photos/15364797-S.jpg

[Dianne]

to resurrect an old thread, I just ordered a S70 ........
I liked the S70 from both Steves-digicams and dpReviews, so I hope I made a good choice. They are under $400 now from folks like www.buydig.com (http://www.buydig.com/).........
anyone here used one? I briefly played with someone's S60 and liked the control layout, and the 28mm equivalent lens a lot.By now you've had your S70 for several weeks -- I hope you like it. I bought one late in December to take on a long trip as the pocket size, wide angle companion to my NIkon CP8800. The S70 performed very well. I ended up using it a lot because of the size and the 28mm lens. My only complaint is that the lens cover is a little futzy to open and close sometimes (there is no natural grip area on the camera) and the mode dial is easy to inadvertantly move -- so always glance at it before you shoot.

Overall, I was really pleased to have it along -- :thumb

[CroMag]

Thanks for the posts on this topic. I have an S50, which has been all over the U.S. and Canada on the motorcycle. Really like the size and features, although a wider angle lens would be nice. The thumbwheel decals have worn off, but functions every time.

Only problem is my girlfriend has glommed (sp?) onto it, so it's time for another one. Eventually will get a DSLR, but for carrying, possibly mounting onto the motorcycle, the S70 form factor is perfect.

Any experience with the waterproof cases on the Canons?

[patch29]

Any experience with the waterproof cases on the Canons?

I found this article (http://www.photo.net/equipment/ewa/) about the Ewa-Marine housings and below someone wrote a mini review of the Canon UW housing.

[Bob]

I have been using the S60 for a while. I am quite pleased with it, as I know you will be with your new S70. The wide angle lens is a useful feature.

A number of people have had issues with the lens door ramping up off the track when sliding it open. It even happened to me once. This is really a non-issue, as long as you avoid grabbing it by the edge that's closest to the flash. It should really be grabbed at the center, just to the right of the vertical "Canon" in the photo below. In fact, I found it very useful to slap a couple of "egrips" on the surface, and I've had no problems.

Enjoy your new toy!



Great tip about the "egrips". I purchased the S70 yesterday and found the egrips in black at Radio Shack today. They make a HUGE difference.

Thanks for that tip :-)

[wxwax]

Great tip about the "egrips". I purchased the S70 yesterday and found the egrips in black at Radio Shack today. They make a HUGE difference.

Thanks for that tip :-)
Hiya Bob, welcome aboard! :wave

[Bob]

Hiya Bob, welcome aboard! :wave

Thanks!

[Bob]

OK ... I took the egrips to the max ... I put them on the top, bottom, front and back of the camera ... whereever my hand touched the camera. By doing this, I found that I was able to hold the S70 with one hand and operate the zoom in & out and take the picture. I took this picture through the windshield with my right hand while driving with my left hand (75 mph in the HOV lane)

http://bobzworld.smugmug.com/photos/18916724-L.jpg

P.S. I don't recommend anyone else doing this (just in case there are any lawyers reading this ;-) )

[patch29]

O I took this picture through the windshield with my right hand while driving with my left hand (75 mph in the HOV lane)

Don't worry you will see a lot of users who shoot one handed at 75mph on their motorcycles, self portraits too, not that it is recommended. :):

I might end up getting an S70 and the underwater housing to use in my kayak. I need to get some under water photos while rolling. I wonder if it is worth $600. :deal Who is that over my shoulder, buy, buy, buy. :wxwax

[wxwax]

Hey! I recognize that skyline!

[patch29]

Hey! I recognize that skyline!

Can't be a recent photo, clearly not enough traffic, you can't do 75 anymore around here. :wxwax :D

[Neo]

Hello ,

just bought one , we had the S45 already which is also a great camera. We travel a lot with the bikes so a small one which fits in your pocket is better than the big slr ones. It is also very light compared to the stainles steel body from the S45. I like it .
The prefocus makes it able to shoot even some actionshots,

http://ontour.smugmug.com/photos/18807057-O-1.jpg

[wxwax]

Very nice shot, Neo! :thumb

[patch29]

I sold some gear that was not getting a lot of use today and was lucky enough to find an S70 and UW housing for sale in great condition FS at FM. So it should be here next week. I need to get in shape and see if I can get some uw photos while rolling my kayak. I wonder who can be my uw photog? :scratch :wxwax :D He is multi talented, sherpa and uw photog.

[patch29]

Here is one of the first underwater photos I have taken so far, tougher to do then a regular self portrait. No models were available that day, maybe next time I can find some.

http://Patch29.smugmug.com/photos/22503022-M.jpg

[wxwax]

A perfect likeness.

:evil

http://patch29.smugmug.com/photos/22503022-S.jpg

[vidiotscreative]

I bought the Canon Powershot s70 a few weeks ago and haven't yet gotten the results I have been looking for.

With all of the manual settings which are available, it is quite easy for the common user to screw things up I believe.

One of my biggest problems has been stabilizizing the camera well enough for it to take clear photos. I would say out of the box the camera shot 90% of the pictures quite blury, and I haven't really had the chance/time to play around with the settings yet to see if I may need to tweak some of them to make everything appear as clear as I would like them to.


:huh

[Fine Bottled Water]

I may be chiming in a bit late here, but I have the Powershot S60. I purchased it 6 months ago, after using the S30 for about three years. I love the camera. I can't vouch for the S70, but given how much I've enjoyed the Powershot series, I'm sure it'll be a great camera.

[Bob]

I bought the Canon Powershot s70 a few weeks ago and haven't yet gotten the results I have been looking for.

With all of the manual settings which are available, it is quite easy for the common user to screw things up I believe.

One of my biggest problems has been stabilizizing the camera well enough for it to take clear photos. I would say out of the box the camera shot 90% of the pictures quite blury, and I haven't really had the chance/time to play around with the settings yet to see if I may need to tweak some of them to make everything appear as clear as I would like them to.


:huh

vidiotscreative ... I have had time to play with the S70 and really like it. The one area that drives me batty however is relying on the automatic 9 point focus system ... it will invariably focus on some obscure object in a complex scene. I have learned to switch to the center single point focus. I will lock the focus on the point I want by holding the half shutter button down and then frame the shot. I hope that makes sense ... anyway, your blury pictures may have more to do with focus points than camera shake.

Bob

[patch29]

Try taking some on full Auto, the P mode and see how they compare.

If you post images it will allow users here to help figure out what is going wrong.

[vidiotscreative]

Try taking some on full Auto, the P mode and see how they compare.

If you post images it will allow users here to help figure out what is going wrong.
Here are a few examples.

I have also had problems with some photos overexposing (using auto mode)

Overexposed:
http://placidminds.com/dgrin/tracks.jpg

Photos of my girlfriend blurring:
http://placidminds.com/dgrin/elisa_move.jpg

http://placidminds.com/dgrin/elisa_move2.jpg

Photo at the T blurred (I wasn't moving and was making a HUGE effort to ensure no camera movement on this shot)

http://placidminds.com/dgrin/train_move.jpg

These photos compared to the shots in my Photo Gallery (http://photos.placidminds.com) on my site are VERY crappy quality, so I wanted to figure out what was going on considering these were shots taken out-of-the-box with the Canon in auto.

Any help or suggestions would be great!

Thanks
Sean

[robscomputer]

Just looking at your posted photos I would suspect the camera was set to the wrong shutter speed but you confirmed the camera was in Auto mode. Could there be a exposure setting within the Auto mode? I'm not really familar with the S70 but doesn't seem on par with other examples I have seen.

For example take a look at Dpreview's S70 gallery.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons70/page10.asp

Personally I am looking towards the S70 as a carry around camera. I really like the 28mm lens, my current G3 is only 35mm. As a bonus I can still use my current compact flash cards instead of buying SD cards.

Rob

[colourbox]

I have an s60 and haven't seen problems like that. Your photos are definitely showing motion blur, not focus blur, so the likely cause is an unusually slow shutter speed. On the last three, judging from the lighting, the flash went off, yet the photo is blurry. That implies that the camera is set for Slow Synchro in the menus. Slow Synchro is available in Program (P) mode, but not in Auto (A) mode. If Slow Synchro is on, can you turn it off and try again?

[vidiotscreative]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The results out of the box actually made me wonder if something was wrong with the camera.

I had even gone through and restored the camera to its default settings upon viewing the pictures above.

I will play around with it this weekend and see if I can get some better shots and post those results on Monday.

Thanks again.
Sean

[colourbox]

Another thing you can try is to look at the EXIF data for the bad shots and note what they are (aperture, shutter speed, flash, special modes, etc.)

The interesting thing about the last three is that they are properly exposed and in focus. The only issue is camera/subject movement due to very long exposure.

[msandman]

Another thing you can try is to look at the EXIF data for the bad shots and note what they are (aperture, shutter speed, flash, special modes, etc.)

The interesting thing about the last three is that they are properly exposed and in focus. The only issue is camera/subject movement due to very long exposure.Checking the EXIF data is a very good idea. I use an S70 as a carry-around camera and it's been quite satisfactory and a worthy successor to the Canon S60 perviously used. The overexposed shot of the Green Line trolley station is well focussed with no blur. I think the shot inside the T station is blurred because, well, there's not much light in a subway station and the camera probably chose to use a very slow speed. If you're shooting in the P (programmed) mode and you;ve set the ISO to 100 or 200, it will be hard to hand-hold a shot in that location. Also, check to make sure you haven't moved the mode selection switch to something like Tv shutter preferred) and set a slow speed, or that you're not in one of the pre-programmed modes further around the dial beyond Auto. Some of the pre-programmed modes would select a slow shutter speed.

So... don't give up just yet -- the camera is small but it has a large feature set, and if you re-read the manual and look at the EXIF data to see what the setting were for each shot as suggested in the previous post, you may find what's going wrong for you.

[Andy]

A perfect likeness.

:evil

http://patch29.smugmug.com/photos/22503022-S.jpg


patch is actually a 13-year old kid :scratch

[patch29]

patch is actually a 13-year old kid :scratch

I am only eight, sorry to disappoint. :huh

[colourbox]

The overexposed shot of the Green Line trolley station is well focussed with no blur.

I would even question whether the outdoor rail shot is overexposed. That scene contains a very wide range, from the direct sunlight areas to the darkness under the bridge, a much wider range than the few stops (5 or 6 they say) of a digital camera, particularly a point-and-shoot. The camera had to make a hard decision as to where to set exposure. If you squint, half the image looks midtone to dark and those areas look OK. To me, most of the overexposed area is the light dirt on the ground, and under this brightness range those areas would be considered overexposed if they were the primary subject. If the primary subject is the bridge, the camera did what it could. If the blown-out dirt was made darker, the bridge and much of the trees might become too dark. The trees, which make up quite a bit of the picture are properly exposed, so in a scene with a wide angle and a wide brightness range and a lot going on, I don't think it did too badly. It certainly isn't great, I'm just not sure auto exposure could figure out which area you really wanted.

In a situation like that, if I realize that highlights or shadow might clip, I might take a test shot and check the LCD and histogram for clipping. If necessary, I'll use the s60's exposure override features (spot meter mode or exposure lock), meter off my preferred area of the photo, preview it on the LCD and histogram, and adjust exposure if needed. The other photos don't have this problem because they are under a much narrower scene brightness range.

[vidiotscreative]

Thanks for all the great advice in here.

Once I get the time to, I plan on playing around with everything based on the data I pulled from those previous shots.

Also, how do you ensure you are shooting in RAW? The manual didn't appear to clearly describe how to...that or my ADHD is a bit worse than I once thought.

Thanks again everyone!

[msandman]

Thanks for all the great advice in here.

Once I get the time to, I plan on playing around with everything based on the data I pulled from those previous shots.

Also, how do you ensure you are shooting in RAW? The manual didn't appear to clearly describe how to...that or my ADHD is a bit worse than I once thought.

Thanks again everyone!Turn the camera on by opening the front cover.
Set the mode dial to P (or Tv or A -- but not Auto)
Press the "Func" button - it's the first button in the verrtical row to the left of the LCD
Use the 4-way controller to go all the way down to the S/L selector and you'll see L M1 M2 M3 S RAW
Jog right using the 4-way controller to select RAW and press the center button on the 4-way controller
Press the Func button again to exit
You'll see RAW down in the lower left corner of the LCD when you first turn on the camera, or when you press the Display button to show all the details of the settings.

If you have Adobe Photoshop CS or Elements 3, I suggest using one of those to convert your RAW shots, because in my opinion, their algorithms do a better job than Canon's software, and of couse you can still tweak the shot after the alogorithm has made its initial adjustment.

[vidiotscreative]

Turn the camera on by opening the front cover.
Set the mode dial to P (or Tv or A -- but not Auto)
Press the "Func" button - it's the first button in the verrtical row to the left of the LCD
Use the 4-way controller to go all the way down to the S/L selector and you'll see L M1 M2 M3 S RAW
Jog right using the 4-way controller to select RAW and press the center button on the 4-way controller
Press the Func button again to exit
You'll see RAW down in the lower left corner of the LCD when you first turn on the camera, or when you press the Display button to show all the details of the settings.

If you have Adobe Photoshop CS or Elements 3, I suggest using one of those to convert your RAW shots, because in my opinion, their algorithms do a better job than Canon's software, and of couse you can still tweak the shot after the alogorithm has made its initial adjustment.

Thanks a bunch!


:D

[dupsta]

Hey what is the max frames the s60 can take in interval mode. (TimeLapse) I think it says 100. Why only 100. Can I over ride or reset this so I can take more that 800 in HD resolution. If I have the power and memory why only 100? Also how many frames can fire off within a minute, can I do 4 or 5 frames every min?
Thanks, I want to buy this camera but I want to make sure the intervalometer will work for my needs.