S90 thoughts

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Archive 2009 · S90 thoughts

wtlloyd
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p.2 #1 · S90 thoughts

Ah, sorry, so you did, and I missed it.....

jotdeh wrote:
wtlloyd wrote:
The above mentioned review at Luminous Landscape:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/s90.shtml

I had that link in my post, too, sorry if it wasn't obvious.

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:21 PM

amalgam
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p.2 #2 · S90 thoughts

does anyone have the minimum f stop values at each focal length: 28 / 35 / 50 / 85 / 105? obviously f/2 at 28 and f/4.9 at 105, but what about the intermediates?

Nov 02, 2009 at 10:22 PM

Pixel Perfect
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p.2 #3 · S90 thoughts

Barry Pehlman wrote:

I think all the tricky little features are spoiling everybody.... and this is a $429 P&S camera. Better to ask Leica why the X1 only has half the screen brightness, 1/3rd the S90 features, no IS, and a slower, single FL lens for $2K.

Be careful Barry, that sort of talk if read on the Alternate Gear forum, could see you visited my masked assassin's when you least expect it.

Nov 02, 2009 at 10:56 PM

jerrykur
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p.2 #4 · S90 thoughts

Daan B wrote:
jerrykur wrote:
I am not unhappy that Amazon botched my pre-order and I did not take them up on their offer to sell me the camera at a discount.

I smell a little profit here (depending on the size of the discount of course)

Daan,

For holding you hostage while they diddled around for a month and then canceled the pre-order Amazon provides a whopping 5% discount (approx $20 USD).

Until Canon cameras can match the m4/3rd's I think I am done with Canon compacts for a while.

Nov 02, 2009 at 11:08 PM

Bobster2
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p.2 #5 · S90 thoughts

The histogram doesn't show the color channels. So I had a few shots with one or two blown channels even though the histogram looked fine. The jpegs were ruined but the RAWs were fixable. That's one reason why this a such a great little camera.

So you have to bracket to get perfect exposure. You can't rely on the metering or the histogram for complex scenes. However, I have a memory card that can hold 1,000 RAW files. So I can bracket my brains out and not worry about filling the card.

I also consider it to be an SLR. It has a viewfinder that shows you what the sensor sees. Isn't what what an SLR does? It has the same controls as an SLR. So what if it does that without a mirror and prism? It's still the same result.

The only drawback that I see to the small sensor size is purple fringing. Tree branches in the distance tend to be purple. So it takes an Photoshop step to eliminate the purple. Big deal.

Nov 03, 2009 at 01:45 AM

borderlight
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p.2 #6 · S90 thoughts

I also consider it to be an SLR. It has a viewfinder that shows you what the sensor sees. Isn't that what an SLR does? It has the same controls as an SLR. So what if it does that without a mirror and prism? It's still the same result.

Not really, unless a rangefinder camera can also be called an SLR because it makes a picture too.

The only drawback that I see to the small sensor size is purple fringing.

That, and the small sensor size.

I own a S90. As I recently said on the Alternative Gear forum, it's a nice little P&S camera, that's about it.

Nov 03, 2009 at 02:46 AM

Jeff
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p.2 #7 · S90 thoughts

I actually don't think that the lens control ring (front) is too hard to change, but the rear ring is definitely too easy, forcing me to move EC to the front ring. After shooting some sunsets a few nights ago, I instantly became enamored of the functionality of this new, physical control ring. It's almost impossible for a P&S camera to get a proper exposure of a sunset (especially at 28mm-equivalent), and using EC via menus was just too much of a pain. I'm sold on the new feature.

The popup flash is indeed a bit flaky, but for me, any image that the flash would be used for wouldn't be a big deal if the camera decided not to use it. The Function Set center button is pretty quick to access settings, and I think you can assign 'Flash' to the assignable button. Not a big deal either way, for me at least.

What I'm not fond of is the lack of a setting to show overexposed areas (in concert with no RGB histogram). It's curious on a RAW camera not to have the 'blinkies' to guide you, not sure what they were thinking there. I keep hoping I missed the setting somewhere, but I'm not finding it.

Other than the barrel distortion and purple fringing noted in the many reviews, the file quality is quite good (400 and below). Hopefully LR will be updated with a camera profile soon, as the colors are a bit off in v2.5. Haven't tried the v3.0b to see if there's any difference.

The camera will definitely work for what I bought it for: one-handed aerial images. The SD880 IS just wasn't cutting it; way too much in-camera NR and smearing of detail.

Nov 03, 2009 at 03:30 AM

MSC
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p.2 #8 · S90 thoughts

it costs $400 bucks. No Starbucks for a month or two and you own it. wait six months and it will cost about two weeks of starbucks...but still take a good pic.

Nov 03, 2009 at 03:34 AM

Bobster2
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p.2 #9 · S90 thoughts

The images have "blinkies." You just have to be in the right display mode. The flashing is gray, and very hard to see, but it is there.

Nov 03, 2009 at 03:48 AM

jotdeh
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p.2 #10 · S90 thoughts

Jeff wrote:
I actually don't think that the lens control ring (front) is too hard to change, but the rear ring is definitely too easy, forcing me to move EC to the front ring. After shooting some sunsets a few nights ago, I instantly became enamored of the functionality of this new, physical control ring. It's almost impossible for a P&S camera to get a proper exposure of a sunset (especially at 28mm-equivalent), and using EC via menus was just too much of a pain. I'm sold on the new feature.

The popup flash is indeed a bit flaky, but for me, any image that the flash would be used for wouldn't be a big deal if the camera decided not to use it. The Function Set center button is pretty quick to access settings, and I think you can assign 'Flash' to the assignable button. Not a big deal either way, for me at least.

Maybe EC on the lens ring isn't so bad after all. And you're right, it's not too hard to turn for that purpose (I tried again today). I still find it too hard when MFing zoomed, but then I don't think I'll actually be using it much in that mode, even if it was smoother.

As for assigning Flash to the S-button, that didn't seem to be possible, not in the standard menu anyway...

Nov 03, 2009 at 04:05 PM

dasrocket
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p.2 #11 · S90 thoughts

Pixel Perfect wrote:
Barry Pehlman wrote:

I think all the tricky little features are spoiling everybody.... and this is a $429 P&S camera. Better to ask Leica why the X1 only has half the screen brightness, 1/3rd the S90 features, no IS, and a slower, single FL lens for $2K.

Be careful Barry, that sort of talk if read on the Alternate Gear forum, could see you visited my masked assassin's when you least expect it.

nailed the nail on the head on this one!

Nov 03, 2009 at 04:11 PM

dasrocket
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p.2 #12 · S90 thoughts

I am seriously considering getting one, as I need a small carry-everywhere PS with manual control and decent higher ISO.

Barry, I also had the G10. How does the S90 fare against that from ISO400 and up?
And how is the responsiveness of it in terms of real world point-press-shoot, again, comparing it to say the G10?

And as a general question, given I don't know too much about video: capture between VGA and HD, is that hardware bound, or can a firmware update change a camera's capabilities given that the sensor can certainly handle the extra pixels?

Nov 03, 2009 at 04:19 PM

jerrykur
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p.2 #13 · S90 thoughts

dasrocket wrote:
And as a general question, given I don't know too much about video: capture between VGA and HD, is that hardware bound, or can a firmware update change a camera's capabilities given that the sensor can certainly handle the extra pixels?

Sorry, the Sony sensor in the camera cannot provide HD video output. The spec sheet from Sony is posted on DPReview.

Nov 03, 2009 at 06:04 PM


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