Luca Bravi
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I had this camera for about 1 month. This, together with a Minolta Dimage X bought just 3-4 days after, are the first cameras I ever bought.
While I am very happy with the Minolta (althought, yes, due to its "wearable" size and weight I am keen to forgive it many things), I am upset with the Canon. Read below for an advice:
Cons:
- The lens are crappy. About 7 shots out of 10 have blurred edges, unless you want to use aperture F7 or so, but then your photo get blurred because if you want to keep the noise low, you have to set ISO 50, so you get long shutter times. On top of that, the way the camera blurs is horrible. Maybe it is my particular camera only, to have defective lenses, I don't know. Anyway I recently read a well quoted review reportingthe same problem... Or maybe it is a common problem of subcompact cameras (I never owned another), but it is quite annoying, really.
- The noise is high and the color dithering is not very smoot, resulting in bad shots at dark, uniform subjects (but you can notice it also on the sky, if it is pretty blue.
- The aperture range is poor, I can't see much difference (field depth) on the pictures between F2.8 and F8 as I would have expected. Much of the effectiveness of the built-in shooting "programs" is seriously affected due to this limitation.
- The machine does not regulate the power of the flash well enough: subjects shot at night look much overexposed and the background looks too dark (the flash output should be smaller and the shutter time longer). Didn't test it much, but I believe the "night portrait" mode to be too drastic on the opposite way (you need a tripod not to blur the photo).
- The camera is not recognised as a removable HD by the PC (I have tried it with Windows 98). This is bad for me since I would have appreciated much being able to use the CF als for string and transporting computer files.
- It is a bit heavy, but you can feel it at the store, so you know what you buy and you can't complain much on that, in this respect. It's the above surprises, that bother much.
- On the set button and the lens cover it has been said so much, altought to me these look only like minor problems.
- There is no "Audio only" shoot mode. I find this option very useful on the Minolta, to use the camera as a portable dictaphone (also considered that the minolta size IS comparable to that of a IC memory dictaphone).
Now, on to some pros (for sake of balance):
- The display is very good quality, and the whole machine, apart the above mentioned lenses, give me a real feel of good quality indeed (but maybe also for its quite heavy!).
Anyway, let me say that I had same or better impressions handling the Sony PC9 (better impression for sure), or the Fuji of my friends.
- The color balance and level of saturation is great (but unfortunately not the noise, dithering, etc... (see above))
- The frmware and bundled software have a very good user interface and look bug-free (rare thing these days). Anyway, I would have retouched the parameters of the automatic exposure algorithms, expecially with the use of the flash.
I have not been able to test the mage quality against that of other subcompact digital cameras, but I am afraid that other cameras have better image quality. In a few words, I am afraid that this camera has been over-evaluated by many people. It is a good camera but not a magnificient, great camera as many say.
Problems:
None for the moment (crossing fingers).
While I am very happy with the Minolta (althought, yes, due to its "wearable" size and weight I am keen to forgive it many things), I am upset with the Canon. Read below for an advice:
Cons:
- The lens are crappy. About 7 shots out of 10 have blurred edges, unless you want to use aperture F7 or so, but then your photo get blurred because if you want to keep the noise low, you have to set ISO 50, so you get long shutter times. On top of that, the way the camera blurs is horrible. Maybe it is my particular camera only, to have defective lenses, I don't know. Anyway I recently read a well quoted review reportingthe same problem... Or maybe it is a common problem of subcompact cameras (I never owned another), but it is quite annoying, really.
- The noise is high and the color dithering is not very smoot, resulting in bad shots at dark, uniform subjects (but you can notice it also on the sky, if it is pretty blue.
- The aperture range is poor, I can't see much difference (field depth) on the pictures between F2.8 and F8 as I would have expected. Much of the effectiveness of the built-in shooting "programs" is seriously affected due to this limitation.
- The machine does not regulate the power of the flash well enough: subjects shot at night look much overexposed and the background looks too dark (the flash output should be smaller and the shutter time longer). Didn't test it much, but I believe the "night portrait" mode to be too drastic on the opposite way (you need a tripod not to blur the photo).
- The camera is not recognised as a removable HD by the PC (I have tried it with Windows 98). This is bad for me since I would have appreciated much being able to use the CF als for string and transporting computer files.
- It is a bit heavy, but you can feel it at the store, so you know what you buy and you can't complain much on that, in this respect. It's the above surprises, that bother much.
- On the set button and the lens cover it has been said so much, altought to me these look only like minor problems.
- There is no "Audio only" shoot mode. I find this option very useful on the Minolta, to use the camera as a portable dictaphone (also considered that the minolta size IS comparable to that of a IC memory dictaphone).
Now, on to some pros (for sake of balance):
- The display is very good quality, and the whole machine, apart the above mentioned lenses, give me a real feel of good quality indeed (but maybe also for its quite heavy!).
Anyway, let me say that I had same or better impressions handling the Sony PC9 (better impression for sure), or the Fuji of my friends.
- The color balance and level of saturation is great (but unfortunately not the noise, dithering, etc... (see above))
- The frmware and bundled software have a very good user interface and look bug-free (rare thing these days). Anyway, I would have retouched the parameters of the automatic exposure algorithms, expecially with the use of the flash.
I have not been able to test the mage quality against that of other subcompact digital cameras, but I am afraid that other cameras have better image quality. In a few words, I am afraid that this camera has been over-evaluated by many people. It is a good camera but not a magnificient, great camera as many say.
Problems:
None for the moment (crossing fingers).