Canon Powershot S1 Lagtime

[MB104]

I am considering buying the Canon Powershot S1, 10x zoom, 3.1 megapixel camera as my dive camera. My only concern is the lagtime. I have heard good and bad about it. Can anyone give me a difinitive answer on how well this camera takes underwater pictures, and if there is a problem with lagtime between pressing the button to take the picture and the camera actually taking it?

 

[Uncle Pug]

I'm not a photographer... above or below water... but I did travel to Fiji with a few professional photographers last month.

They said that for a snapshooter like me the new Sea&Sea 5000g would be a good choice since the shutter lag was only 0.12 seconds.

How does that compare with the Canon you are considering?

 

[jonnythan]

The shutter lag is almost nil.. my A75 (very similar in terms of lag to the S1) is about 0.7 to 0.8 of a second from first pressing the button to snapping a picture, but that drops to 0.1 seconds if I'm pre-focused. A large part of the 0.1 second (maybe half) seems to be the display lag between what's actually happening and what I see on the display. When testing pre-focused shutter lag from what I actually see, I consistently get less than a tenth of a second.

 

[alcina]

I've used the Canon A series for quite a while and didn't even realise there was such a thing as lag time until I moved to my Oly 5050 and had to fight with it!

 

[hamilton]

I've been using the S1 underwater for a few months now.... the lag time is not a big issue.... all depends what youre trying to shoot, of course.
Certainly a bit of practice, and knowledge about 'pre-focus' techniques will help.

I find a bigger problem, particularly when shooting small things, is simply not being able to see them on the rear display, as the resolution and refresh rate are so much worse than ones own eyes. (but check my pic of a glass shrimp on a blue anemone, which I am particularly pleased with.... )

If you're going to do 'holiday snap' kind of stuff, then I'd certainly recommend it as a versatile camera... the mix of features makes it a very practical surface P&S camera (sufficient for me to ditch my SLR when weight is an issue), and the video mode is excellent.... but budget for a 1G CF card.

Negatives... seems to be difficult or unduly expensive to get a red filter to fit on the front of the case... not much talk about them on here, but you'll need one for 'coral' depth photos, in daylight.

The link below will show you some of what the camera can do.... despite the lack of experience of its user!
www.pbase.com/hamilton_w/water

 

[desperoadie]

I have the S1 and it is true that it helps to pre-focus and keep the camera 'awake' by half depressing the shutter. Then it's no issue.
Do not compare this to a lopside camera's. My 1D with L glass is a lot faster of course, as well as a lot more expensive...
Enjoy.