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Replacing 400D with S90

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St33n

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After having years of fun with my 400d I plan on selling it and replacing with an S90.

The S90 has been on the market for a while. What are your thoughts on a successor being released in the near future.

I really like the fact that it has good manual controls without going in a maze of menu's. I also looked at the Panasonic LX3, but since I would like a always-with-me-cam the S90 seems the bet compromise in quality, features and size.

I have been reading different opinions about the lens. Some say it doesn't do well in a loe light area, and some say it does. How would this compare to a 400d kit lens ?

The s90 goes for about 329 euro's here (The Netherlands) which seems like a decent price.

Thanks in advance !
 
The S90 is a great camera - by far the best of the tiny cameras IMHO, but replacement for a dslr it is not. I love mine

As long as you know that and are aware it's hopeless for anything that moves much, that needs fast focus, an external flash or a reasonable frames-per-second then go for it.

If it were me I'd be supplementing rather than replacing

Dave
 
Tnx for the input. I don,t use it for high speed photography, but i do want high image quality. I see myself leaving the camera at home, because I have to bring a bag to carry it.
 
It just depends on the individual. The guy above said it's not a replacement for a DSLR. Well, not for him, but it was for me.

For me, the S90 replaced my Nikon D700 and 50/1.4 lens. Is the D700 faster to focus and shoot? Yes. Will D700 give better IQ in low light? Yes. Will the D700 allow you to knock out distracting backgrounds w/ amazingly shallow DOF? Yes again.

But I gave that up because I tired of toting it around all the time. I wanted something really small and available all the time. Even close to home, with my one and only 50mm lens, the D700 got in the way of good times.

Do you make a living off your photography? Do you print really big? If the answer is "no," then I don't see why an S90 could not take the place of your DSLR. It's got a lot of advantages and you will make some really fine images with it. I've made excellent 8x10 pics from the S90 at ISO 800 in low light. That's good enough for me.

Finally, I can take a thousand pictures or more each month with the S90. That's more than enough pictures to keep me busy behind the computer and more than enough pictures to create 50 or more REALLY good images to print for a photo album. Looking back on my photo albums past...at images made with a Canon 5d and Nikon D700...makes me wish I'd had an S90 then. I would have enjoyed my time more and I'd still have awesome pictures for posterity.

Think about it.

On the other hand...unless you really need the cash to fund the S90 purchase, I'd just hold on to the 400d. Can't imagine you'd get much dough for it today. Just put it in storage and enjoy the S90.
St33n said:
Tnx for the input. I don,t use it for high speed photography, but i do want high image quality. I see myself leaving the camera at home, because I have to bring a bag to carry it.
Click to expand...
 
So, by your own words, the S90 is not a replacement for a dslr, it does it's job very well, but is far more limited.

It might be worth considering a G10 if you can find one - using RAW and low ISO that will give almost dslr quality in a much smaller package
wudyi said:
It just depends on the individual. The guy above said it's not a replacement for a DSLR. Well, not for him, but it was for me.

For me, the S90 replaced my Nikon D700 and 50/1.4 lens. Is the D700 faster to focus and shoot? Yes. Will D700 give better IQ in low light? Yes. Will the D700 allow you to knock out distracting backgrounds w/ amazingly shallow DOF? Yes again.

But I gave that up because I tired of toting it around all the time. I wanted something really small and available all the time. Even close to home, with my one and only 50mm lens, the D700 got in the way of good times.

Do you make a living off your photography? Do you print really big? If the answer is "no," then I don't see why an S90 could not take the place of your DSLR. It's got a lot of advantages and you will make some really fine images with it. I've made excellent 8x10 pics from the S90 at ISO 800 in low light. That's good enough for me.

Finally, I can take a thousand pictures or more each month with the S90. That's more than enough pictures to keep me busy behind the computer and more than enough pictures to create 50 or more REALLY good images to print for a photo album. Looking back on my photo albums past...at images made with a Canon 5d and Nikon D700...makes me wish I'd had an S90 then. I would have enjoyed my time more and I'd still have awesome pictures for posterity.

Think about it.

On the other hand...unless you really need the cash to fund the S90 purchase, I'd just hold on to the 400d. Can't imagine you'd get much dough for it today. Just put it in storage and enjoy the S90.
St33n said:
Tnx for the input. I don,t use it for high speed photography, but i do want high image quality. I see myself leaving the camera at home, because I have to bring a bag to carry it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I have a 40D, I have an S90 (and others!).
The styles have their different places/uses.

The DSLR's are as you know, much more versital, faster, etc.
The S90/G11 are MUCH more portable.

As for the low light....I took my S90 to the larger part of the Air and Space Museum (Dulles, Air Port) last weekend. While the walls are off white, the lighting is sparce and or a little difficult to work around.

I took about 125 shots...all but 2 are very nice...and those two were just a malfunction on the humans part...! This was all after a little experimentation as far as the lighting was concerned.
Just turned the ISO up to 400, no flash (tried...they were washed out).
Very happy with the little thing.

Mike
 
St33n - I would honesty want to see samples of the kinds of photos you want to achieve before I could say whether YOU can use a good compact (like the S90 or G11) to replace a DSLR.

For architecture and landscape photography, I am pretty happy with just a G9 (this was a business trip, so taking a DSLR along for fun wasn't really in the cards):





But for people and other things where there needs to be a foreground and a background, there is no replacement for a big sensor:



 
Good, but thats you

a compact cannot do a vast number of the things a dslr can, that's just a fact.

They are not replacements for a dslr, just very useful little cameras with limitations
wudyi said:
Overall, the S90 does a BETTER job for me.
Click to expand...
 
I am considering a Canon S-90, but as an add-on to my kit. That way I will have an option as to what camera I want to carry. I don't see it as a replacement to my DSLR.

Sarah Joyce
 
bigdaddave said:
Good, but thats you
Click to expand...
i stated that from the beginning. you're the one that wanted to distort my words and argue.
bigdaddave said:
a compact cannot do a vast number of the things a dslr can, that's just a fact.
Click to expand...
and there are things a compact can do that a dslr can not. that's a fact.
bigdaddave said:
They are not replacements for a dslr, just very useful little cameras with limitations
Click to expand...
there are no replacements for my S90 or my rolliflex 2.8 tlr or my lomo lc-a or someone else's and on and on. we could play your STUPID game all day long.

you don't honestly think that any whimpy dslr you might have can hold a candle to my better light Super 10K-HS, do you?
 
I am currently using s90 and been very happy with it. I don't know any low light problem with the camera. As long as there is a tripod, the camera will do the job. Actually I took lots of night scene when I was in Montreal two weeks ago. You can take a look at here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31411957@N04/
 
And if you are the one who is afraid to bring extra bag for a camera, S90 is the one. That's one of main reasons I bought s90. Its small size can fit a jean pocket easily.
 
Thanks for all the great replies. I currently mostly use the slr for street art photography (graffiti etc.) Its not really high speed stuff, but I do like the fact that the 400d is fast. I create a lot of panorama's made out of sometimes 50+ raw files. Also I like to fool around with some bracketing/HDR stuff.

The best thing I liked about an slr is that you can just look threw the lens, and change everything without looking at the lcd. But the S90 I can do in the pocket of a jacket, and have with me all the time, so its gonna give me a lot more images.

the S90 has an optional diving case from Canon, which goes for under €200. As I currently shoot with an analog cam during my dive trips, this will be a great addition.

I think your night shots look very nice Robert. I especially like the ones in the church. And it's just easy to be able to carry a camera in your pocket. I could look at a G10, but I think that would give the same problem. Or is is it such a more powerful cam ? The reviews say the IQ is about the same.

Again thanks for the feedback.
 
I know g11 is another choice. sorry, don't know much about g10 but they're supposed to be pretty similar. But g11 is a 'compact' camera which looks like SLR. If you already have a SLR, maybe you can go try out g11 first before deciding. G11 won't easily fit to a jean pocket. And S90 and G11 are supposed to have similar IQ according to a general consensus.
 
I am impressed with the S90. It gives Lumix LX3 a tough fight somehow.

Right now I own a Canon 7D. I bought it with the intent of selling my two-year-old 400D. However, I decided against unloading my 400D to the after market for the simple reason that it continues to perform well and makes a very good back up to my 7D. None of my point-and-shoot cameras can come close to the 400D's image quality, plain and simple. Here's the fun part - when I removed the battery grip of my 400D, it actually feels SMALL in my hands, almost the size of the current mirrorless offerings from Lumix and Samsung!
--
Noogy
'Photography is my therapy.'
Canon EOS 7D, Canon EOS 400D, Canon D10, Lumix TZ5, Kodak V1253
 
You should read the Canon 1000D, etc. DP-R forum. There are plenty of people with focus problems with their DSLRs. However, on Canon Talk point-and-shoot (DP-R) I rarely see this problem. Perhaps this is the reason Canon placed micro-focus adjust in their better cameras like the 7D.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/cameras/1ds3_af_micoadjustment.html

My guess for the focus problem is that the DSLRs use interchangeable lenses while the point and shoot cameras do not, so variability in lens-camera body is greater for the DSLR than the point and shoots (S90, etc.). Also, the DSLR has less depth of field so focus is more critical.

I have a Canon G9 and 1000D and prefer using the G9. Years back when I was doing film based astrophotography, I had the film plane to lens mount distance measured on three of my Nikon F cameras (professional SLR at the time) and they were all different. I have had several point and shoot cameras and never had a focus problem. I can't say the same for my DSLRs.
--
Mike
http://mstecker.com
 
Are you serious? Did you try to focus your point-and-shoot in a scene when there is hardly any light - will it even focus? I have a Canon D10, Lumix TZ5, Kodak V1253, they all are point-and-shoot cameras and they focus very well but none of them focus as sharply and as exactly as my 400D and my 7D for that matter.

--
Noogy
'Photography is my therapy.'
Canon EOS 7D, Canon EOS 400D, Canon D10, Lumix TZ5, Kodak V1253
 
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