[wildman]

For a long time I have wanted a high quality PS.
Small and light for a shirt pocket but with some ability for low light shots.
Simple with good ergonomics.

Bought one the other day. Seems to be pretty much what I'm looking for.

Any thoughts on this camera?

Quick and dirty test shot from the garden. Tripod, RAW full frame.

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Last edited by wildman; 09-30-2011 at 01:02 AM.

[JinDesu]

It's a good camera. Low ISO, I can't complain about it. Higher than 200 ISO, I hate looking at the raw images compared to my k-x. That's the unfortunate truth to P&S cameras.

[sweetpapa]

I like the Canon S series of cameras. Manual features, good image quality for a P&S, raw, in a small body.

[wildman]

Been working with it further.

Overall I like it.
Seems to me to be close to what I had hoped for.
I just use it in Av mode and pretty much forget about the other modes for now at least. Might find some use for the low light mode as time goes on.

The more I use it the more the over all design makes sense. Canon tried to make it a good useable relatively simple high quality PS and not muck it up with a lot of extraneous features that would only compromise its basic features. I don't have any use for the video however.

I find the low light capabilities better than I expected.. Can shot at f2 with good DOF compared to DSLR and find the image stabilization more effective than on my K20. With DeNoise I can get out to ISO 800 and still have a usable image.

Black, plain, small with good build quality so far as I can tell. Battery life, however, is just on the edge of being inadequate. Also It does have a tendency to blow the highlights.

Anyway so far it seems to suit me OK. I wanted a, light compact shirt pocket size, always available, go anywhere, shot under any conditions and still get useable images type of camera and so far so good.

It has it's limits - it just comes down to what realistic limits you are willing to accept.

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Last edited by wildman; 09-30-2011 at 01:02 AM.

[Unsinkable II]

Nice shots.

I'm tempted by the upcoming S100 (preview on dpreview.com)

[wildman]

I'm still liking it's low light performance.,,
,,,hand held FF under single 5watt florescent

[HGMonaro]

I run ours at -1/3 stop exp comp most of the time. Dial down the flash too (not that we use that much.. we have it in 'off' mode and just turn it on when desired)

[pingflood]

I run ours at -1/3 stop exp comp most of the time. Dial down the flash too (not that we use that much.. we have it in 'off' mode and just turn it on when desired)

Same here. Pretty much every Canon P&S I have used benefits from -1/3 EC.

[wildman]

Same here. Pretty much every Canon P&S I have used benefits from -1/3 EC.

Speaking only for myself - I'm glad I opted for a truly "shirtpocket" camera. I just miss too many shots with a DSLR because of size and bulk. It seems to me if you want something that you can carry with you at all times and not even notice you are carrying it and you also want decent quality the S95 is the best choice. It has it's limits but then what doesn't?

BTW I'm really finding the SR much more effective than I would have thought. It really enhances its use as a low light camera. It's SR is much better than that on my K20D as far as I can tell.

Anyway here's a shot taken with an EC of -2/3 with a very harsh south light coming in from the upper left it seems to control the highlights very well...

[twitch]

I've got a S90 and have got to say I've been really disappointed with the IQ. Aside from general lack of sharpness, am I the only one to find the default colors settings absolutely horrible?

Has anyone got settings to share where they were able to make the colors look more natural, or at least more like Pentax DSLR colors?

[twitch]

EDIT: I figured it out, I changed the colours to "neutral" and turned off "iContrast". I needed to get out of auto mode to do these changes No more orange skinned people or vomit green grass

[NeatKnight]

I love my Canon S90. I also highly recommend Samsung SL310 if you can still find one.

[wildman]

Using the S95 for a while now a thought occurred to me.

Why not two variations of the S95? A S95 and a S95M for "manual",
My guess is that it would require no more than flashing the operating system and changing the markings on the mode dial.

Get rid of the "auto", "scn and video modes and exchange them for fully programmable modes.
In other words a version of the S95 for the experienced still photographer.

Otherwise have been messing about with the low light mode.
Here is a shot taken under light so low I couldn't read the mode dial.
There was just a hint of very early morning sun coming through the window.
Not too bad all things considered.