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Postby wendy » Mar 28, 2007 10:28 pm

NZcaver wrote:
wendy wrote:Well I've waited long enough and the A630 is $50 cheaper now than when this thread started, I figure I'll wait 2 more weeks and I'll get it.

Is everyone that has it still happy with this camera?

Wendy,

Not sure if this is even cheaper for you, but Beach Camera (an online store) currently has the A630 for $212 with free shipping to the lower 48 states.

http://www.beachcamera.com/shop/product ... u=CNPSA630

Normally I wouldn't do a company's advertising for them, but in this case I've bought 2 other cameras from them so far without a hitch. This is more than can be said for a lot of online stores, so I've heard.



Thanks, B&H has them for $214 right now
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Postby BrianC » Apr 10, 2007 10:27 am

Wendy! I am still thrilled with my A-630, It is so simple to use and with a 1 gig card it gets lots of picture storage. It is a sandisk 1 gig. I have been able to get over 100 pics on fresh duracell batteries. 15sec man exposure works fine for anything I would need. I have an Otter box with extra bubble rap that I Hang off my pack for quick access! It has endured many knocks and been dragged through water, droped down holes ,no problems! Some external flashes and sherpas would be nice accessories though!
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Postby wendy » Apr 10, 2007 1:15 pm

BrianC wrote:Wendy! I am still thrilled with my A-630, It is so simple to use and with a 1 gig card it gets lots of picture storage. It is a sandisk 1 gig. I have been able to get over 100 pics on fresh duracell batteries. 15sec man exposure works fine for anything I would need. I have an Otter box with extra bubble rap that I Hang off my pack for quick access! It has endured many knocks and been dragged through water, droped down holes ,no problems! Some external flashes and sherpas would be nice accessories though!


Ya I think I may order it soon. Its down to $211 on line
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Postby wendy » Apr 28, 2007 5:35 pm

ok my old camera is stil lbeing tempermental and i don't want any issues on my upcoming trip, plus the camera is only $200 now
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Postby BrianC » Apr 28, 2007 9:18 pm

Can't wait to see what you can do with it!
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Postby BrianC » Apr 29, 2007 8:32 pm

I took this picture today at Howards Waterfall!
Image
Not sure if this is art,graffiti,vandalism, or what, it is there and I took the pic!
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Postby MoonshineR DavE » Apr 30, 2007 10:11 am

Looks closer to vandalism that art to me but thats just my opinion, and we all know what opinions are like.
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A630 and problems taking pictures of roosting bats

Postby Mark Ostrander » May 30, 2007 2:54 pm

Hi All,

I haven't chimed in on this topic in a while. I am still loving my A630 and getting more familiar with it, but I find that taking pictures of bats roosting on the cave walls just seems to elude me. They always (with maybe two exceptions) come out blurry. I try using regular mode. I try using macro mode. Maybe I'm too close for the former and too far away for the latter.

A while back, I found that I have more control over the focus location in Program mode, as opposed to the Auto mode, so I usually take "point and shoot" type pictures in Program, but I'm not sure that it is buying me anything.

Is there something about about 'dark bat on light wall' scenes that would confuse a camera?

Just wondering.

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Postby wendy » May 31, 2007 1:42 am

Image

I took this with my A630 on my recent trip
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Postby BrianC » May 31, 2007 7:22 am

great picture Wendy! I really like my A630!
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Postby Teresa » Jun 1, 2007 12:51 am

I'm about to hijack this thread a little bit (it's still about finding a digital camera.)

How about something with these specs?

Dream Camera
7+ MP
Manual or autofocus options
decent manual or autoset macro focus
white balance adjustment
Tiff or jpeg format (can have RAW, but not RAW default.)
35-90mm+ zoom equivalent picture cropping
On camera flash plus hot shoe
crisp, low noise pictures ISO 400 or less (don't need extreme high speed/low light)
Manual shutter/aperture and Automatic exposure options

consumer battery option. If proprietary battery, it needs to have a 'on the go' recharger (connect to car battery or such--I camp, don't motel it often)

xD or SD storage cards (or both)
Able to use polarizer or ND filter, or settings to mimic polarizer (Shoot a lot of water.)

No dSLR: Price range needs to be $600 or less.
NOT all right handed. Features balanced, or at least something for the left hand to do.
2.5 inch LCD.

Image does not halo easily.

Moderately sized. Like the old compact film rangefinders, not as big as SLRs.

Ok--go for it!

PS. I still like my FE-180-- but I'm shooting more and getting paid for it, and those folks want higher quality photos--something I cannot get with no manual settings.
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Jun 1, 2007 1:35 am

Teresa wrote:I'm about to hijack this thread a little bit (it's still about finding a digital camera.)

How about something with these specs?

Dream Camera
7+ MP
Manual or autofocus options
decent manual or autoset macro focus
white balance adjustment
Tiff or jpeg format (can have RAW, but not RAW default.)
35-90mm+ zoom equivalent picture cropping
On camera flash plus hot shoe
crisp, low noise pictures ISO 400 or less (don't need extreme high speed/low light)
Manual shutter/aperture and Automatic exposure options

consumer battery option. If proprietary battery, it needs to have a 'on the go' recharger (connect to car battery or such--I camp, don't motel it often)

xD or SD storage cards (or both)
Able to use polarizer or ND filter, or settings to mimic polarizer (Shoot a lot of water.)

No dSLR: Price range needs to be $600 or less.
NOT all right handed. Features balanced, or at least something for the left hand to do.
2.5 inch LCD.

Image does not halo easily.

Moderately sized. Like the old compact film rangefinders, not as big as SLRs.

Ok--go for it!

PS. I still like my FE-180-- but I'm shooting more and getting paid for it, and those folks want higher quality photos--something I cannot get with no manual settings.


Um I like my Canon S3 IS and it satisfies most of those criteria and comes in at AUS$ 600 when I bought it.

There is not hotshoe
it is 6 MP not 7.
You can get lens tubes for it to mount polarisers and further tele or wide angle lenses. Uses 4AAs.
I think the S3 is 2" not 2.5" but look at the resolution of the screen as well as size.

I have just looked on dpreview and there is the next model out (S5 IS) it's 8 MP and has a hotshoe.

My only comment would be to perhaps see if they handle sensor noise properly at 8 MP because when I bought mine more than 6 MP meant you lost alot of the picture quality gained by having more MP in noise because they had to cram more sensors in the same space.

On mine noise is not really an issue at ISO 400 and below, Canon also seems to take a softly softly aproach to noise reduction doing little noise reduction in the camera so you can do it on your computer (this is a good thing as it preserves as much detail as possible), size is good, a lot smaller than a DSLR.

Canon S5 IS Looks very cool


Canon S3 IS Still a good camera in my opinion although about a year or more old now.

Others to look at were the Sony H2 and H5 although they have a H9 and H7 out now.

I'm not up to date on these so it has all moved on since I looked.
http://www.dpreview.com has very good reviews if you wait till thier full reviews come up they give very detailed comparisons :kewl:

I didn't like Panasonic as thier noise reduction is very heavy as thier sensors were noisy. Sony and Canon were the pick of the bunch when I looked IMO (this possibly has changed but probably not that much).
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Postby Teresa » Jun 2, 2007 9:18 pm

Anyone here know anything the Canon PowerShot G7?

I'm looking really seriously at one now. Not all the specs I posted previously, but I saw one today and I was impressed.

Thanks Fuzzy-h-m for your input. I can be swayed by some of the features I listed, but no hot shoe isn't one of them. Those light lozenges which most p&s cameras have just don't cut it.
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Postby wendy » Jun 2, 2007 9:23 pm

Teresa wrote:Anyone here know anything the Canon PowerShot G7?

I'm looking really seriously at one now. Not all the specs I posted previously, but I saw one today and I was impressed.

Thanks Fuzzy-h-m for your input. I can be swayed by some of the features I listed, but no hot shoe isn't one of them. Those light lozenges which most p&s cameras have just don't cut it.


Here is a list of reviews for it http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4 ... o_itemInfo just click the green part that says customer reviews
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Postby fuzzy-hair-man » Jun 2, 2007 9:34 pm

Teresa wrote:Anyone here know anything the Canon PowerShot G7?

I'm looking really seriously at one now. Not all the specs I posted previously, but I saw one today and I was impressed.

Thanks Fuzzy-h-m for your input. I can be swayed by some of the features I listed, but no hot shoe isn't one of them. Those light lozenges which most p&s cameras have just don't cut it.


I hear you about the flash the S3's is reasonable but for caves I'm limited in range(not too severely) before the ISO needs to be increased.

Did you check out the Canon S5 IS? it has a hotshoe but the dpreview full review isn't out yet. I think it satisfies all of your feature list. :kewl: I'd wait until they put up a full review and see what the noise levels are like though.

I know a couple of people who get around the no hotshoe by just using a slave mounted on top or beside the camera, it causes no real hassle but not as good a solution.
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