R.A. Martin
New member
I'm a photojournalist who uses a big Nikon, though seldom
anymore. (For a national business magazine, not National
Geographic.) Digitally, I graduated to the SD100 from a
1.2MP Olympus that has given great service for years. I
knew the SD100 still wouldn't give me a hot shoe for
external flash or aperture/shutter priorities, but otherwise it
had just the combination of features I was seeking (mostly
as an easy-to-pack camera I could use for work and
pleasure).
The S400 offers a slight image quality edge, but its file
sizes (at 4MP vs. 3.2MP) are mostly overkill for my uses. And
the smaller SD100's 640x480 videos are higher-res and
outstanding. I use the video more often than I expected. My
Sony Digital8 camcorder now will be
mostly mothballed, except for special occasions.
The much-hyped purple-fringing issue is a nonissue, in my
view. If you're looking for perfect optics and total absence of
chromatic aberration in all light/contrast conditions, don't
buy a pocket camera. Get something with aperture control
for longer depth of focus. If you're looking for incredible
portability and surprisingly sharp, accurate renderings,
considering the form factor, the SD100 is quite fine.
Battery life has been outstanding. I bought a spare, as
should everyone. I also bought two 256MB cards, so
shooting at largest file size and superfine (least
compression) modes, and 640 video, are my defaults, as
they should be for most everyone. Memory media are
relatively cheap, after all, compared with the cost of the
camera.
After using AiAF for a while in manual mode, I switched it off
in favor of center-focus predictability and control (though I
imagine there'd be quick-snapshooting times when I'd
reactivate autofocus). Artificial-intelligence autofocus is
default in auto mode.
Flash is better than I expected, and is especially OK in
slow-sync mode for nightime, underlit settings, but pack a
small tripod for such uses.
Pocketability, great range of features and solid build make
this a totally cool camera! I confess, however, to some
nostalgia still for the first Canon I bought back in 1967, the
revolutionary (yet now obsolete) pellicle-mirror Pellix SLR.
I should have fixed it and kept it, even if just as a keepsake.
Time marches on.
Problems:
None.
anymore. (For a national business magazine, not National
Geographic.) Digitally, I graduated to the SD100 from a
1.2MP Olympus that has given great service for years. I
knew the SD100 still wouldn't give me a hot shoe for
external flash or aperture/shutter priorities, but otherwise it
had just the combination of features I was seeking (mostly
as an easy-to-pack camera I could use for work and
pleasure).
The S400 offers a slight image quality edge, but its file
sizes (at 4MP vs. 3.2MP) are mostly overkill for my uses. And
the smaller SD100's 640x480 videos are higher-res and
outstanding. I use the video more often than I expected. My
Sony Digital8 camcorder now will be
mostly mothballed, except for special occasions.
The much-hyped purple-fringing issue is a nonissue, in my
view. If you're looking for perfect optics and total absence of
chromatic aberration in all light/contrast conditions, don't
buy a pocket camera. Get something with aperture control
for longer depth of focus. If you're looking for incredible
portability and surprisingly sharp, accurate renderings,
considering the form factor, the SD100 is quite fine.
Battery life has been outstanding. I bought a spare, as
should everyone. I also bought two 256MB cards, so
shooting at largest file size and superfine (least
compression) modes, and 640 video, are my defaults, as
they should be for most everyone. Memory media are
relatively cheap, after all, compared with the cost of the
camera.
After using AiAF for a while in manual mode, I switched it off
in favor of center-focus predictability and control (though I
imagine there'd be quick-snapshooting times when I'd
reactivate autofocus). Artificial-intelligence autofocus is
default in auto mode.
Flash is better than I expected, and is especially OK in
slow-sync mode for nightime, underlit settings, but pack a
small tripod for such uses.
Pocketability, great range of features and solid build make
this a totally cool camera! I confess, however, to some
nostalgia still for the first Canon I bought back in 1967, the
revolutionary (yet now obsolete) pellicle-mirror Pellix SLR.
I should have fixed it and kept it, even if just as a keepsake.
Time marches on.
Problems:
None.