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Is the Pro 90is still a good camera to buy?

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PC,

Thanks for the comment on my gallery. No, the American Indian photos were a completely easy photo to take. I actually had not had the camera very long at all at that point, so you can even chalk up how easy it was with how well many of those photos came out (meaning not being accustomed to the idiosyncracies yet). I was pleasantly surprised. The reason for the broad DOF in them, BTW, was due to the sun going down.

Speaking to a couple of other things, I wholeheartedly agree with what Tom is saying. Plus, the ease of having an all-in-one camera vs. carrying a small suitcase for the lenses is a huge advantage. I am a bird watcher (if you did not guess yet by looking at the photos) and I carry my binoculars, my scope w/tripod, my tripod for the camera, and my birdbook on my outings (and I do mean carry them). Obviously, while I am crazy enough to try this with a dslr and one long zoom attached, it would be even more difficult than it already is.

Now just so you are really making an informed decision, I won't lie to you. I have missed some opportunities due to the slow start up time and the shutter lag, but more so do to the shutter lag. But as with most things, I have learned to live with it and as such the opportunities that have been missed are few and far between (and you know, with birds, that is saying something). You will also have to correct for CA in many photos (particularly outside), but with this camera it is easily corrected. I just don't want to steer you into something you were not expecting. Now this year I may very well upgrade depending on the offerings, but even so, I will not sell my Pro90, even if I get another all-in-one. It is just that good for what it is.

If you haven't had a chance yet, I would encourage you to look on that http://www.prodigi.info site. Everyone there either owns or has owned a Pro90, so a vast amount of knowledge with this one specific camera. It is just a small group of people who regularly post, not at all like dpreview (meaning it does not take a lot of time).

All the best,

Brian
PC Long said:
Thanks for sharing, Brian, both your comments and galleries helped.
I am going to negotiate with the seller based on the prices you
have mentioned.

BTW, nice photos you have in your gallery, was it difficult to take
the american indians photos with the Pro90IS ?
Click to expand...
 
Andreas,

Unfortunately, you may be right. We Pro90 owners think/hope there will be an upgrade every year, I think. However, when the Pro90 came out, it was ahead of its time. Many people simply did not appreciate the all-in-one camera, plus, for the time, it was expensive (retailed at about $1,199 or $1,299 US). More time has passed and I think Canon can come out with a true upgrade for the same price. But will they? Perception/Perspective is everything. If they are going to come out with one, then I do hope it is announced at the PMA vs. the Photokina so I can make my decision about what I am going to do.

Regards,

Brian
Andreas Roeschies said:
Andreas Roeschies said:
Reading the post on this forum, many believe that the Canon Pro 90
is going to be replace this year.
Click to expand...
I don't think so. If the Pro 90 IS was a big seller, Canon had
replaced
it a long time ago. Remind that the G1 series cams were replaced
by an successor every year (betwenn G3 and G5 only 9 months).

OTOH, I'd liike to see a fast and big range zoom cam with
an image stabilizer. The Minolta A1 looks nice, despite of
the picture quality.

PMA will bring more than one device by canon.

Andreas
Click to expand...
--
bcurrie
http://www.pbase.com/bcurrie
 
Hi Tom,
Tom Caldwell said:
Way ahead of its time the market was not ready for it.
Click to expand...
It was more expensive as the G1 and had less resolution. (We know
that resolution alone is not very important, but many people
don't). Also, it was bulky.

Actually I was thinking if I would buy a G1 or a Pro90; the price
and resolution was not important, but as I need to operate the
camera with one hand (I shoot many pics while bicycle riding)
I opted for the G1. Also, when I remember correctly, the Pro90
has no optical viewfinder, which can be useful when you need
to save battery life.

Regards, Andreas
 
Understanding the limitations of this camera...sport action shots are possible....so are catching birds in flight



 
Andreas Roeschies said:
I opted for the G1. Also, when I remember correctly, the Pro90
has no optical viewfinder, which can be useful when you need
to save battery life.
Click to expand...
It had an EVF and not a bad one either (the only time one was fitted to a Canon) , those BP511s last so damn long that even with an EVF and IS, they'd last seemedly forever - even the Oly C2100UZ lasted for ages with puny 1600ma AAs and that had an EVF and the same lens!.

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

 
Andreas Roeschies said:
Andreas Roeschies said:
Way ahead of its time the market was not ready for it.
Click to expand...
It was more expensive as the G1 and had less resolution. (We know
that resolution alone is not very important, but many people
don't). Also, it was bulky.

Actually I was thinking if I would buy a G1 or a Pro90; the price
and resolution was not important, but as I need to operate the
camera with one hand (I shoot many pics while bicycle riding)
I opted for the G1. Also, when I remember correctly, the Pro90
has no optical viewfinder, which can be useful when you need
to save battery life.

Regards, Andreas
Click to expand...
Andreas

I think that people should always buy the camera that suits their purpose best. There is such a wide range of very good cameras that it would be hard to be disappointed. I, and quite a few others, like the Pro90 because of its Image Stabilising, big 10X Zoom and the flip screen. I like the pro90 viewfinder and I find that the handgrip is a very firm grip in one hand if you are so inclined (but you need the other hand to work the zoom).

Horses for courses. I had a G5 at one stage but didn't like it. Not because it was not a good camera but because it did not have a big enough optical zoom for my liking, it was not image stabilised, I took a great dislike to the almost unusable (my personal opinion) optical viewfinder and I also found the body plastic a bit slippery and harder to hold.

Obviously the number of "G" series sold shows that the price/perfomance curve suited more people.

Those that know and love the Pro90 understand it can produce the goods in good captures way ahead of its now technically tiny 2.6mp masked sensor.

Must be something to do with the fact that they are big pixels on a physically larger sensor and image stabilising helps when the conditions would wimp out a lesser camera.

I think it was a test by Canon, they would have spent a lot on research and it would have been an expensive camera to produce. It didn't sell well because the market was not ready to pay a premium for such an advanced camera at the time. I hope that Canon realise the market is getting more sophisticated and try again.

In the meantime I will never part with mine.

I recent trip with both the Pro90 and the 10D reminded me yet again that the Pro90 is still competitive in the areas to which it is best suited.

Regards
Tom

--
Tom Caldwell
 
Adam-T said:
Adam-T said:
I opted for the G1. Also, when I remember correctly, the Pro90
has no optical viewfinder, which can be useful when you need
to save battery life.
Click to expand...
It had an EVF and not a bad one either (the only time one was
fitted to a Canon) , those BP511s last so damn long that even with
an EVF and IS, they'd last seemedly forever - even the Oly C2100UZ
lasted for ages with puny 1600ma AAs and that had an EVF and the
same lens!.

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

Click to expand...
... and even if the batteries start to seem to go "off" try cleaning/replacing the backup battery. If the camera has not been used for a while it must get weak or get some corrosion on its surface. Cleaning the backup battery seems to put new life into the BP-511's.

:)

--
Tom Caldwell
 
Andreas Roeschies said:
Andreas Roeschies said:
those BP511s last so damn long that even with an EVF and IS
Click to expand...
Not when the batteries are under low temperatures for several
hours.

Andreas
Click to expand...
Problem I haven't experienced here in a sub-tropical part of Australia Sorry I haven't had experience with cold batteries

Andreas, try my tip with the backup battery - I was getting low battery warnings after about 5 minutes use and cycling throuhg 3 or 4 batteries at a sitting with the same problem. I was ready to buy some more until I cleaned the backup battery with a handkerchief and suddently found all my "dead" BP-511's had charge again and were lasting much the same as before!

--
Tom Caldwell
 
Thanks Tom for sharing your experience with the Pro90. It's reassuring to hear that it holds up well despite you having the 10D.
Tom Caldwell said:
Andreas Roeschies said:
Tom Caldwell said:
Way ahead of its time the market was not ready for it.
Click to expand...
It was more expensive as the G1 and had less resolution. (We know
that resolution alone is not very important, but many people
don't). Also, it was bulky.

Actually I was thinking if I would buy a G1 or a Pro90; the price
and resolution was not important, but as I need to operate the
camera with one hand (I shoot many pics while bicycle riding)
I opted for the G1. Also, when I remember correctly, the Pro90
has no optical viewfinder, which can be useful when you need
to save battery life.

Regards, Andreas
Click to expand...
Andreas

I think that people should always buy the camera that suits their
purpose best. There is such a wide range of very good cameras that
it would be hard to be disappointed. I, and quite a few others,
like the Pro90 because of its Image Stabilising, big 10X Zoom and
the flip screen. I like the pro90 viewfinder and I find that the
handgrip is a very firm grip in one hand if you are so inclined
(but you need the other hand to work the zoom).

Horses for courses. I had a G5 at one stage but didn't like it.
Not because it was not a good camera but because it did not have a
big enough optical zoom for my liking, it was not image stabilised,
I took a great dislike to the almost unusable (my personal opinion)
optical viewfinder and I also found the body plastic a bit slippery
and harder to hold.

Obviously the number of "G" series sold shows that the
price/perfomance curve suited more people.

Those that know and love the Pro90 understand it can produce the
goods in good captures way ahead of its now technically tiny 2.6mp
masked sensor.

Must be something to do with the fact that they are big pixels on a
physically larger sensor and image stabilising helps when the
conditions would wimp out a lesser camera.

I think it was a test by Canon, they would have spent a lot on
research and it would have been an expensive camera to produce. It
didn't sell well because the market was not ready to pay a premium
for such an advanced camera at the time. I hope that Canon realise
the market is getting more sophisticated and try again.

In the meantime I will never part with mine.

I recent trip with both the Pro90 and the 10D reminded me yet again
that the Pro90 is still competitive in the areas to which it is
best suited.

Regards
Tom

--
Tom Caldwell
Click to expand...
--
--PC Long
'I can't remember since when but I now have photographic memory.'
 
Tom thanks for the comments on my gallery.....add the Olympus B 300 teleconverter to this camera you now have a 640 mm lens handheld to around 1/20 -1/30 sec.

 
Isn't Canon announcing a new IS prosumer? I thought I saw a post on it. Could it be a Pro90IS replacement?

Incidentally, would be interested in hearing what you guys think of the Pana FZ10 in comparison with the Pro90IS.
Gary W. said:
TKLee.. looks good.....such a versatile camera. Hope Canon puts
out something like this again soon

My photo site
http://www.pbase.com/woody/galleries
Click to expand...
--
--PC Long
'I can't remember since when but I now have photographic memory.'
 
PC Long said:
Incidentally, would be interested in hearing what you guys think of
the Pana FZ10 in comparison with the Pro90IS.
Click to expand...
I don't know, I've seen plenty of images and they look "Fake" to me (particularily in the out of focus and shadow areas) , too much compression and noise reduction I guess, also there are too many complaints about the EVF and handling for my tastes, I still get the feeling that the old Slo-90 will beat it for image quality, for "realism" anyway. Pana had to use a very small CCD in that camera to get a 12X F2.8 lens in that size and I guess that is where the Noise reduction comes in .

--
Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

 
PC Long said:
Incidentally, would be interested in hearing what you guys think of
the Pana FZ10 in comparison with the Pro90IS.
Gary W. said:
TKLee.. looks good.....such a versatile camera. Hope Canon puts
out something like this again soon

My photo site
http://www.pbase.com/woody/galleries
Click to expand...
--
--PC Long
'I can't remember since when but I now have photographic memory.'
Click to expand...
I have a FZ1 - nice camera and I really like it but the Pro90 is a better camera. I heard that the FZ10 sensor is physically smaller than that of the Pro90 - just smaller pixels - I cannot comment further as I haven't even seen one but I suspect that the Pro90 still has the edge on the FZ10. I still think that the Pro90 holds its own because of the "big" pixels and probably a smarter processor as well.
--
Tom Caldwell
 
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