canon S1 IS to A620 switch

[scottg541]

I recently switched from a S1 IS to an A620 and immediately noticed many more blurry pictures.

I shoot almost exclusively with no strobe, my theory on this is that the lens of the S1 caught more light than that of the A620... The S1 IS did have image stablizing, but i often turned it off.

Any guesses? I know very little of how things work here, but it seems to me the larger lens diameter allows more light to enter, hence cutting down shutter speed, thus increasing the clarity of pictures..

Anyone notice this with a switch of camera's

Thanks,
Scott

 

[CompuDude]

I will tell you that, from shootin with an S80, and borrowing a friend's A540 for an evening, I noticed an immediate slower feeling in the general operation of the camera, including time to lock focus. It may have just been unfamiliarity, but I find it entirely probable that the higher-end camera series (the S series) may have some better, higher-speed electronics than the lower-end A series (even though I believe they are both DIGIC II at heart?). That in combination with your theory, and I think it's a reasonable assumption.

One other possibility is different sensitivity to light, and differing abillities to focus in low-light conditions, since you mentioned you mostly shoot without a strobe. The two cameras definitely use different CCDs.

Mere speculation on my part, but it's based on at least some experience with a variety of Canon P&S cameras.

 

[Jamdiver]

I recently switched from a S1 IS to an A620 and immediately noticed many more blurry pictures.

I shoot almost exclusively with no strobe, my theory on this is that the lens of the S1 caught more light than that of the A620... The S1 IS did have image stablizing, but i often turned it off.

Any guesses? I know very little of how things work here, but it seems to me the larger lens diameter allows more light to enter, hence cutting down shutter speed, thus increasing the clarity of pictures..

Anyone notice this with a switch of camera's

Thanks,
Scott

I'd recommend using the side by side comparison tool over on dpreview.com for these two cameras, you can look at this link here..
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/com...byside&cameras=canon_s1is,canon_a620&show=all

As to your user experiences they're interesting, S1is is a couple generations behind the A620.
So I would expect the functionality and general speediness of the camera (focusing, menu operation, battery life to be much improved on the A620 as compared to the S1is).

Could you give some more information on the conditions you were shooting (low vis, night time) under and the camera settings used??
That would help a lot in trying to figure out just why you're getting blurry pics.
IMO it's probably more user error than anything, takes a while to get used to the pecularities of a new camera .

Cheers.

 

[scottg541]

Could you give some more information on the conditions you were shooting (low vis, night time) under and the camera settings used??
That would help a lot in trying to figure out just why you're getting blurry pics.
IMO it's probably more user error than anything, takes a while to get used to the pecularities of a new camera .

Cheers.

Jamdiver,

I'm shooting in low light, low visibility (5-20 ft) waters of the pacific northwest... I agree that there's definitely user error involved... it took several trips before i dialed the S1 in... But i've been on several trips with the A620 and most of my good pictures have come from digital macro mode (all shooting on manual).

I used to set my S1 on "P" and set white balance, i got some good photo's from this, but doing the same on the A620 rarely yields a good photo (unless shooting very shallow or upward where more light becomes available).

I feel as though the S1 did much better in low light (apeture wasn't cranked down and shutter speed was still reasonable) wondered if lens size has anything to do with that?

Thanks again,
Scott

 

[Shoreliner11]

Are you using the onboard flash? I used the S1 IS before I sold it for my 350d but the flash was very powerful (compared to some p&s cameras). If not I would think you're probably right with your lens aperature idea.
Aaron