Posted under Photography
I’m a bit more familiar with the Canon Powershot now than I was last night, so here are my latest thoughts.
The bad:
1. The RAW situation is still uber-irritating. The Canon software to manipulate RAW images isn’t as good as Photoshop, and I’m pissed that I have to use two separate programs to edit images instead of just one. Hopefully when the Photoshop update comes out that will have the Canon RAW files figured out, it will work on my version of Photoshop, since I’m not running the most current edition.
2. It takes AA batteries. I hate that. Just give me one awesome rechargeable battery like the Nikon has, please.
3. It doesn’t have a filter mount on the front of the lens. I really like having a UV filter or something on a camera to protect the lens. Fortunately, I can buy an aftermarket filter adapter for it.
4. There are a set of three buttons on the back of the camera that I keep accidentally hitting when I hold the camera. That changes settings, and then I have no idea what the hell just happened. Those buttons really need to live somewhere else.
5. The dial on the back of the camera that changes the SCN settings (like, from Portrait to Sunset to Snow) is really sluggish. It moves quickly, but doesn’t seem to update the selection right away.
6. It looks like the longest long exposure shutter speed available is 15 seconds. So much for long exposure night sky shots.
7. The camera has two aspect ratios that it will shoot still photos in. Unfortunately, you can’t shoot RAW photos in the wider aspect ratio.
8. The camera has a lot of settings you can’t use if you set the camera to Auto, for example, continuous shooting. That kind of bugs.
There are some other things that I’m having problems with, ut I’m not sure if they’re user error or camera flaws. This morning, all of the pics I took were coming out grainy.
However, in the afternoon, I tried setting the camera’s ISO to 80, and I think that may have helped. I kind of don’t have any idea what I’m doing in regards to the whole ISO thing. (I just checked the exif data on my pics from this morning, and it seems that the ISO had been set at 800, for whatever reason. That may have been the problem after all.)
Also, my pics seem to be coming out really contrasty.
If I could easily edit the RAW data of these images, it wouldn’t be a big deal, because I could fix (or, at least, lessen) the problem in about 2 seconds. However, the whole RAW debacle just makes me want to record images in all JPG for the time being. Which brings me to another thing… right now I seem to be getting a max resolution of 180 dpi… surely my max resolution should be more than that? I’m not sure if shooting in both RAW and JPG is weirding up my settings. Maybe my resolution will go up when I switch to just shooting JPG.
Now, for The Good:
1. The zoom lens is pretty awesome. Even though my pics from this morning were grainy, I still managed to get some nice zoomage.
I was very far away when I took that picture, and could have zoomed in more.
2. The LCD viewscreen is very bright, and it also moves around like a transformer.
That will be very handy for me, since I like to take pics with the camera setting on the ground.
3. Unlike the Nikon, this camera will auto bracket exposures. That means it can take 3 different exposures of the same subject for use in turning into an HDR.
4. The macro seems to be pretty powerful, although I’m having to crop a lot to get the picture I like.
5. The white balance actually seems to be better than the Nikon’s, although I didn’t test it extensively.
6. I can shoot video (both regular and HD) with this. That’s pretty awesome.
7. Also, I can zoom in and out while recording a video.
8. Also (again), I can shoot pictures while recording a video, although that function is a little wonky, and it would probably just be better to edit out still images from a video after it was done recording.
9. The camera hooks right up to the TV so that you can view pictures and video with no additional parts (although if you have an HDTV, I think you need to buy an extra cable or something).
All in all, I’m pretty positive about this camera. It has some design flaws, and the RAW thing is just mind bogglingly stupid, but besides that, it’s a pretty nifty piece o’ work. Once I get the ISO thing smoothed out, and figure out what a few of the buttons mean, I should be good to go.
























































































