The Official Head-Case Photography Thread.

[Jon L]

I'm leaning toward the S95 for the picture and size/portability, but don't like what I've read about the battery life or the aperture when using zoom.

I have S95, and honestly, THE reason for buying it is portability, ultra-portability even. Before S95, time and time again, I was always in situations where I wished I had a decent camera on me. Unlike some of you, I don't carry my DSLR everywhere.

The IQ is quite good for P&S in good light, but in darkish indoors, even at F/2, the noise and color isn't near what it could be with a big camera fitted with F1.4 L-series lens, for example.

I personally think I would go for XZ-1 or one of the cheaper Leica's if I had to do it today, but that's b/c I gave the S95 to my wifey..

[HeadphoneAddict]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will try to stop by a local camera shop and look at some in person. I was at a store recently looking at some DLSR cameras, but had decided to go for a PnS instead for that very reason that if you don't have it with you you can't take the photos. Plus a PnS could save me several hundred dollars. I don't want to put this on the credit cards that I finally paid off in full.

[Jon L]

Dang, found this sucker on my fence today and had only a couple of seconds so had to use the Sigma 70mm already on the camera. Scary red eyes and so calm. What the hell is that?

[Jon L]

yep, perfect Sharp-shinned profile. i knew that bird watching merit badge would finally come in handy!

Thanks for the I.D.

I'm sort of glad I missed the "action." We often forget how brutal nature really is. Found on my lawn:

[HeadphoneAddict]

I went to a local camera shop to look at some of these cameras. It's a local small dealer and he had a new Leica D Lux 5 but not the Panasonic LX5, but it was $799 new. That's well above my budget, which started out at $300 then got pushed to $400. They had a used Leica D Lux 4 in excellent condition, which is basically the same as the 5 but with less zoom, but that was still $499 and more than a new Panasonic. I did like it and it's bright lens, as well as all the manual adjustments one can make. I spent the most time playing with the D Lux 4. They also offer a standard 6 month warranty on the used cameras, or an optional Square Trade Warranty.

He suggested that if I really want the LX5 that "they sell 300 a day at Best Buy", but he felt the Leica is a little better build quality although performance is probably the same. So, if my budget was pushed to $500 he felt the used Leica D Lux 4 was a little better camera if I must have a PnS. But the LX5 is about $399 at Amazon last I checked. So for $100 less than the used Leica D Lux 4 I think a new LX5 makes more sense. He wouldn't budge on the Leica price. (and Best Buy doesn't sell the LX5 as far as i can tell).

He did have a Panasonic TZ5 which is a lesser model than LX5, and it was new open-box for $300, but I didn't have time to look at it more closely because I had somewhere else to go. I didn't ask for the price on their Canon G12 because I thought it was too large. They didn't have the S95 either (but I can get a new one for $370 on eBay). Nor did they have the Olympus XZ1.

Like some of you suggested, instead of a PnS the shop owner noted that he could find me a used Canon 20D DSLR with a 50mm 1.8 lens for $400-450, and he thought I should get that in addition to keeping my Nikon S6 or Canon A460 to use as my pocket camera. He says the 20D image sensor is pretty big, and the Canon is a generation ahead of a similar used Nikon DSLR, and will work better indoors without a flash than the PnS. He felt a used EOS Rebel would not be as good of a camera.

The other camera store I've been to before is usually more expensive, but I might go by there to see the S95 and Olympus.

[grawk]

You just got a serious hard sell. I'd never go back to that shop, honestly.

[Aimless1]

Agreed. Definitely pushing only his stock and not necessarily looking for the best fit for you.

[grawk]

I liked the sigma ex 24 I used to have

[Jon L]

What about the Tokina 11-16mm F2.8. That aperture really helps with indoors and sunset/dusk shots. Darn thing is super sharp even wide open at F2.8.

[HeadphoneAddict]

You just got a serious hard sell. I'd never go back to that shop, honestly.

yep.

Thanks, the only thing I'm going to buy from him is a used 50mm 2.0 lens for my Mamiya 35mm SLR camera, which will be in next week, since all I have is a 28-70 zoom with 3.5 aperture at the lowest zoom. Lenses for this old camera are hard to find, and the 50mm lens on our broken Canon AL-1 doesn't fit.

The other Camera shop I know of only carries Canon and Nikon, and they didn't have the S95 in stock (sold out). And Leicas are special order, so I skipped that shop today. I stopped at Best Buy to see the S95 and the battery was dead so I couldn't play with it. It was significantly smaller than the G12 for sure.

I'm stuck between the LX5 and S95 based on reviews I've read, and price. So, I'll stop bugging you all and keep reading up on these and try to find one to play with somewhere.

[Asr]

Dang, found this sucker on my fence today and had only a couple of seconds so had to use the Sigma 70mm already on the camera. Scary red eyes and so calm. What the hell is that?

img9512z.jpg

Whoa that pic is fascinating, creepy, & sad all at the same time, kudos! You know what sort of bird is the one that got killed?

I'm stuck between the LX5 and S95 based on reviews I've read, and price. So, I'll stop bugging you all and keep reading up on these and try to find one to play with somewhere.

The Lumix LX5 is a fair bit bigger than the S95, if that matters - can compare the dimensions on the mfgrs' respective Web sites. I had the S90 (same size as the S95) and one reason why I sold it was because it was too small - so if size is a primary factor, you should get the S95.

Edited March 2, 2011 by Asr

[HeadphoneAddict]

Whoa that pic is fascinating, creepy, & sad all at the same time, kudos! You know what sort of bird is the one that got killed?

The Lumix LX5 is a fair bit bigger than the S95, if that matters - can compare the dimensions on the mfgrs' respective Web sites. I had the S90 (same size as the S95) and one reason why I sold it was because it was too small - so if size is a primary factor, you should get the S95.

Thanks, I'm thinking that if I get the S95 I'll get the Richard Franiec hand grip recommended earlier in this thread to make it easier to hold one handed. I know you had the S90 and not S95, but I have a few questions if you will indulge me:

1) Did you feel the S90 worked fast enough for you, or did it make you wait too long for taking shots, focusing, or zooming?

2) How was the image quality with ambient indoor light and no flash?

3) Was the 200 shot battery life a problem for you?

4) If I don't want to use RAW and process the shots later, will the jpeg quality be good enough?

5) Were videos saved in .mov format?

I've been reading more and saw some complaints about lower jpeg quality in the LX5, and that the S95 jpeg IQ is a little better with in camera processing but still worse than RAW. The complaints were about yellow splotches in the images saved in jpeg mode of the LX5.

What I like about the LX5 is that you can use zoom in the video mode, and you can adjust shutter speed or aperture as well. But I import all the photos and videos from SD card to iPhoto, and I would have to convert all the Panasonic .mts videos into .mp4 and can't double click to watch them from within iPhoto (so I'm told). But a .mov file could be double clicked within iPhoto after an import, and Quicktime will open and play it right away without conversion. Maybe the stereo sound in S95 videos will make up for lack of zoom? We stopped using our panasonic digital video tape recorder a while back, and although importing videos via firewire wasn't too bad we liked using a digital camera for videos more.

Thanks!

[Asr]

1) Did you feel the S90 worked fast enough for you, or did it make you wait too long for taking shots, focusing, or zooming?

2) How was the image quality with ambient indoor light and no flash?

3) Was the 200 shot battery life a problem for you?

4) If I don't want to use RAW and process the shots later, will the jpeg quality be good enough?

5) Were videos saved in .mov format?

1) I'm used to handling my DSLRs so using any P&S camera is significantly slower in comparison. The inherent slow-down to a P&S is tolerable for me though - but Canon's software-based menu slowed me down more than the camera's focusing speed (as changing ISO, aperture, shutter speed, & focal length are actions that I typically do a lot of, and each requires menu access - which obviously can't be done nearly as quickly as on a DSLR).

2) Never used the S90 much and I'm not really a critic on image quality either, so can't really speak for that. Seemed ok to me when I used it for the occasional pics of audio gear.

3) Never took enough pics at a time to drain the battery, can't speak for that either.

4) All of the pics that I've ever posted on HC or HF have been from JPG (have never shot in RAW), so I guess you can judge for yourself from my pics. I know Peter/Iron_Dreamer shoots in RAW though. Also I don't see why anyone would actually bother to use RAW on a P&S - makes a lot more sense to use RAW on DSLRs.

5) Never used the S90 to record video. Converting video formats shouldn't be hard to do though - and I'd imagine that to be more easily done on the Mac platform anyway (as opposed to Windows, which I use).

Edited March 2, 2011 by Asr

[guzziguy]

Whoa that pic is fascinating, creepy, & sad all at the same time, kudos! You know what sort of bird is the one that got killed?

The prey bird looks to be a pigeon to me.

[guzziguy]

duplicate post

Edited March 2, 2011 by guzziguy

[morphsci]

The prey bird looks to be a pigeon to me.

The politically correct name is Rock Dove

[guzziguy]

I normally refer to them as "flying rats".

[morphsci]

An insult to rats everywhere.

[grawk]

Got a Minolta AF to Sony NEX adapter, so took a test snap of my new redoxx gator using my Minolta Maxxum 50/1.8.

Only drawback is I can't change the aperture.

[grawk]

Not on this lens, no. It's like the nikon G lenses.

[Jon L]

My dang Sigma 70mm F/2.8 Macro will not autofocus in live view on my Canon 550D. AF is fine on viewfinder.

Apparently, there are reported issues with live view autofocusing with certain third party lenses from Sigma, Tamron, etc with certan bodies. It's a damn shame because I like this lens for macro, and the 70mm focal length is great for me...

Anybody else having any live view AF problems with third party lenses?

[Salt Peanuts]

That sucks. Can Sigma "re-chip" it to fix the issue? I know they've been able to do that in the past when there were lens-body compatibility issues.

[Jon L]

That sucks. Can Sigma "re-chip" it to fix the issue? I know they've been able to do that in the past when there were lens-body compatibility issues.

I made the mistake of buying a "mint" used copy off Amazon, and the seller now won't accept the lens back. Here's hoping Sigma will be able to take care of this, but researching, people are saying they would want both the lens and the body sent to them, which would be a pain in the arse..

[grawk]

Took my "new" nikon 80-200 f4.5 lens for a walk, and found some turkeys

[Salt Peanuts]

I made the mistake of buying a "mint" used copy off Amazon, and the seller now won't accept the lens back. Here's hoping Sigma will be able to take care of this, but researching, people are saying they would want both the lens and the body sent to them, which would be a pain in the arse..

Good excuse to get a backup body.