Hands-on: SD700IS vs F30

However I soon found the biggest drawback of SD700 is severely
under powered flash and RED eye.
I can't comment on the red eye issue -- no one I know wanted to volunteer as a model when they heard I'm putting the comparison shots on the web for the whole world to see. ;-)

However, I did compare the flash reach on these two cameras. Perhaps I'll have time to post the "Flash Reach" comparison tonight....

--
http://retroblader.smugmug.com/

If you like my photos, praise the camera. If you don't, blame me (but please tell me how I can improve my photos.)
 
...even I feel what is your preference (and noone can deny your right to have it), as a F30 owner, I have to congratulate you for such a fair and impartial jugment you are doing. Most of the drawbacks pointed out to the F30 I have basicallly accepted and realized in my own camera (the low light focus wandering, some blurring in certain mode, etc,etc), but the useless ISO 1600 opinion...I DO NOT. Period.

Again, thanks for take your time to enlight those who need a little mode information about these two cameras.

Go on!!
--
Miguel
 
Thank you Sinan, that's the answer I've been searching for.
I also purchased a F30 after reading many positive reviews, and I
am very glad I did. The indoor shots with ISO 400 are so nicely
done that I am perfectly willing to let go of IS.

However, for outdoor shots the PF is just a nightmare, no matter
what setting I have tried. I am hoping some knowledgeable users can
shade some lights here. I have also learned to tune down AE to -2/3
or -1 under extreme contrast condition to minimize PF. I think
F30's AE for the outdoors is basically a little bit on the
overexposure side.

Other than that, I think the result of contest here based on the
two test shots are clear. F30 is better at WB, the presentation of
details and color.
--

 
Although I will admit that scaled down about 40% it looks great on
screen.
Huh?...you didn't think viewing at 100% is what one would wind up within the end?? Normal viewing on computer and general prints are the equivilent to viewing 50% on screen. So what you have viewed is the usable image for most applications.
--
*****************************************
Packy

http://homepage.eircom.net/~vmax ; for my pic stuff
 
"Ooooh, water-colory."
That's an image at ISO 1600 ... from a point & shot camera. Did you expect a clean "ISO-100-like" pic at 100% monitor viewing from that little cam? Geez. I would say "Ooooh" if that "water-colory" shot were at ISO 400, or at 50% viewing.

As you said, it looks pretty darn good reduced on screen, especially for a P&S ... at ISO 1600! I bet it is perfectly printable in 4" x 6" and 5" x 7" sizes, or even a little bigger than that. That's quite amazing for a P&S ... and compact camera at that, not even a "prosumer" P&S.

; )
 
but the useless ISO 1600 opinion...I DO NOT. Period.
Hey, you are getting me in trouble! ;-)

I never said ISO1600 is useless.... It's a bit more noisy than I would like, but I think even more importantly, I think it started to lose detail due to noise reduction. Now, I don't have NN or NI (I will probably invest in one in the near future), but as been said many many times, software like NN or NI can improve noise, but if the detail is already lost in-camera, there's no way of salvaging that.

For what it's worth, I had to return BOTH cameras today -- one was due back, but the other broke! The store I bought the one I intended to keep didn't have any stock for exchange, so I went to another store and bought one.... (Have a trip coming up this weekend.)

But in my effort to maintain neutrality, I won't reveal which one I bought and which one went back. At least not until all the parts were posted.

--
http://retroblader.smugmug.com/

If you like my photos, praise the camera. If you don't, blame me (but please tell me how I can improve my photos.)
 
Ok keep us in suspense if you must... :)

But please tell us in the end which one you kept, and why.

And please tell us which camera broke! And what was wrong with it.

Thanks for all the effort.

Cheers.
 
dislike the optical viewfinder (nose
against lcd -issue and overall the idea of OVF in
ultracompacts/small compacts)
Something I only realized just now is that if you held these cameras vertically for portrait style photos you could use the OVF perfectly without your nose having to touch the LCD at all. Okay, so maybe many of you knew that... heh-heh!

I wear eyeglasses so I know the small OVF's aren't as easy to use-- the one on my G2 is small already-- but I do like it for when nothing is seen good enough on the LCD.
--

 
Well I think it's pretty clear that RetroBlader prefered the Canon and chose that one. How do I know this? In his comparisons he is clearly more excited about Canon than about Fuji and I also think his comparisons tend to be more about explaining why Canon is just as good as Fuji if not better. Also, he mentioned that the other one broke which must be Fuji because there have been a few posts in these forums where F30-owners have found their camera faulty.
 
Your point about there always being 2 models in each new range (a
top of the line model, and a lower one) is a good point. This time
it seems they are both the higher-end models.
Thanks for checking the thread! Yeah, they are both the top line, as evidenced by many things including the names like you said. I thought it was weird how Canon went out of its way to make the NON IS, NON wide version into the better camera, though. They want more money for it since it needs the 1/1.8" to handle the 10 MP? Heck, they might as well shove 10 MP on the 1/2.5" and 15 MP on the 1/1.8"! The rate they're going we'll see 12 by next summer.
I honestly have no idea which one is going to be better. To be
honest I don't hold much hope of either of them being great. I
expect them both to suffer from the same softness we saw in the
earlier SD models like SD500.
I agree, the sd500s and the sd700 IS were both disappointing. Pretty soon I'm going to have to bite the bullet, though. Still, if I could have any one camera only, it'd be the s400, and that's what I have. I'd really, REALLY like to see this sd900 be about 5 MP. THEN it'd be a darn good camera! I love the size, speed, and new features. Thinking about it, why DID the sd400 get a 1/1.8" CCD? They didn't have the technology back then? I'm sure they did cuz they had like 3 MP on the 1/2.7!
I'll stick with Canon for DSLR, but unless I see something
radically different I think I'm going to give the Fuji F30 a go.
Sharpness is the key for me.... we shall see.
I think you'd get more sharpness with the Fuji, but I think you saw the reasons I don't like it. I like the sensor, though. It's the same size as the s400 and doesn't look much cooler. I wouldn't feel happy carrying it around. I mean, I don't exactly feel like the s400 is so cool anymore sitting next to some of the new stuff they have out, but that's different: it's old! I give Fuji credit though and hope they sell a lot of cameras!
 
but the useless ISO 1600 opinion...I DO NOT. Period.
Hey, you are getting me in trouble! ;-)

I never said ISO1600 is useless.... It's a bit more noisy than I
would like, but I think even more importantly, I think it started
to lose detail due to noise reduction.
You said "(All taken at ISO800 -- I find ISO1600 and 3200 too noisy to be of use.)" Therefore if it's too noisy to be of use....then the opposite of being of use....is useless!!....even Miguel, who admittingly doesn't have great english, can interpret this, so it's you who are getting yourself into trouble, not Miguel!!

Also as a few posters including myself pointed out and posted some photos to show that the ISO1600 on the F30 is quite useable. I think as a tester it shouldn't have been your decision not to use ISO1600, I mean, you said that the test was for the whole forum to draw our conclusions and for future buyers to decide from the tests...so how can someone decide on the usability of ISO1600 feature of the F30 and decide for themselves, if you don't present any samples, good bad or indifferent, and just state YOUR OWN CONCLUSION on that subject with finality that they are not of use.
For what it's worth, I had to return BOTH cameras today -- one was
due back, but the other broke! The store I bought the one I
intended to keep didn't have any stock for exchange, so I went to
another store and bought one.... (Have a trip coming up this
weekend.)

But in my effort to maintain neutrality, I won't reveal which one I
bought and which one went back. At least not until all the parts
were posted.
Why the suspense??... Unless you back tracked or your original post is not true then your preference is quite clear. In your original post above, you said you bought the first camera and was not happy after a few days, so you got the other one. In this recent post below, which I was involved in the thread, you state quite clearly that the first camera you got was the SD700, which should be the one you are sending back...right?
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=19912851

**************************************************************
Packy

http://homepage.eircom.net/~vmax ; for my pic stuff
 
Hi JohnTiger,

If I remember correctly from reading the Forums, you've been in search of a camera for a while now, and you recently decided on the F30. Don't let my thread send you back to square one again! Buy a camera and start shooting -- not sure if trees change colours in Finland, but there are LOTS of photographic opportunities in the fall (or anytime of the year, for that matter). Personally, I'm going on a trip, and hopefully catch some whales this weekend....

I seem to remember you saying something about not needing the camera until November. If that's the case (and if you are really willing to miss out on all the photo opportunities for that long), you can wait until I finish posting all the parts.

There are at least another 2 or 3 parts to come: one on flash reach, one on high-dynamic-range situation, and possibly an additonal one just on how well the F30 performs at ISO1600 and ISO3200 -- maybe I did rule these out too early.

Stay tuned, or, go buy your camera already....

--
http://retroblader.smugmug.com/

If you like my photos, praise the camera. If you don't, blame me (but please tell me how I can improve my photos.)
 
Thats nice Retroblader, while youre doing flash, you might want to see how the Iflash of the F30 performs (throttling down of the flash to allow more nat. light and overexpose and blow a subject, etc.) (ie. shoot both with the SD700 and F30 at high ISO and see the difference). Keep up the good work either way.
Hi JohnTiger,

If I remember correctly from reading the Forums, you've been in
search of a camera for a while now, and you recently decided on the
F30. Don't let my thread send you back to square one again! Buy a
camera and start shooting -- not sure if trees change colours in
Finland, but there are LOTS of photographic opportunities in the
fall (or anytime of the year, for that matter). Personally, I'm
going on a trip, and hopefully catch some whales this weekend....

I seem to remember you saying something about not needing the
camera until November. If that's the case (and if you are really
willing to miss out on all the photo opportunities for that long),
you can wait until I finish posting all the parts.

There are at least another 2 or 3 parts to come: one on flash
reach, one on high-dynamic-range situation, and possibly an
additonal one just on how well the F30 performs at ISO1600 and
ISO3200 -- maybe I did rule these out too early.

Stay tuned, or, go buy your camera already....

--
http://retroblader.smugmug.com/
If you like my photos, praise the camera. If you don't, blame me
(but please tell me how I can improve my photos.)
--

 
How many parts do you intend to post?
Well, I did the flash reach comparison on Sept 18, so that can be Part 6 (even though the photos are really not very exciting, and I can probably sum up the comparison in a couple of lines of text)....

As luck would have it, an hour before I had to bring one of the cameras back, the sun came out shining (finally), so I was able to do the high-dynamic-range-daylight comparison at last. That can be Part 7.

I also have some cloudy-day photos from very early on, but at that time, I didn't know ISO info will be so hidden in the SD700IS files, so I wasn't sure if someone will complain about an ISO100-vs-Unknown-AutoISO (presumably still ISO80 or ISO100) comparison. That can be Part 8.

Finally, perhaps I gave up on ISO800 and 1600 too early. I do have some "extreme ISO" shots that I can look at more closely. Maybe that can be Part 9.

Anyway, they all have to wait, since I'm about to leave on a business trip to Atlantic Canada this weekend. If the whale-watching boat tours still run, I hope to bring back some whale photos with my FZ5. (I don't think the 140mm-equivalent on the SD700IS is long enough.)

--
http://retroblader.smugmug.com/

If you like my photos, praise the camera. If you don't, blame me (but please tell me how I can improve my photos.)
 

Keyboard shortcuts

Back
Top