Canon PowerShot SD700 IS first blood test...

[rzozaya1969]

Well, today was my first ride since about 2 or 3 weeks, so I was glad to head out, and try the camera for what I bought it.

Part of my opinion on the Canon is on this thread.

Comparison between HP R927 & Canon SD700 IS

On this ride, I finally took some pictures, not as many or as interesting as I wanted, but I got some more opinions on my new toy. Bottom line, before writing more, is that I am very glad for this camera.

What I really didn't like about the camera was the power button. It was hard to push with gloves on. It was possible, just more difficult than on my previous cameras (a Kodak, another Canon, and a HP). Once used to that, it was a pretty good, fast, point and shoot camera. Actually, all the buttons to select menus and stuff is pretty small for me, so I just need to adapt to it. I don't know why they have one button for all the cursors, I would prefer to have different buttons for up, down, left and right.

The dial for selecting modes is pretty useful, no problem with that.

The power up start time is pretty fast, it focus real fast, and you can start shooting like 1 or 2 seconds after pushing the little black button that says power.

The image quality of the camera is pretty nice. The close up function is pretty nice. This pic of a frog I almost took it touching the gloves, and it came pretty nice, and fast:



This is a closeup of the frog without altering the pixel count. It was at 1 for 1:


This are just some images I took during the ride:



And this is the most blurry picture I took (BTW, the image stabilizer really works for me ):


Other than size, I didn't made any picture enhancements or modifications of the pics, except the frog crop image, which doesn't have any size alteration.

Edit:

I also took some videos, and while they're not broadcast quality, they have very nice image quality, but I have a lot of noise in the audio track.

[rzozaya1969]

This pic was from a friend when he was riding fast, but the camera did get the spokes, you can read the brand in the rims, and the autofocus really focused on the rider, not the background....



This pic was from a sequence when I was just shooting as fast as I could, and the pics came out great

[Photo-John]

Nice! I mean the Santa Cruz Jackal, not your pictures

Just teasing

The photos look good. I like the little frog. That's a cool photo. Looks like you had to take your gloves off for that one

I always take my gloves off when I take pictures. Not sure if I need to or not. But I always do.

Where do you live again? It looks like California. Are you in Mexico City?

Looks like the camera is serving you well. I'm glad. I think that's one of the more interesting point-and-shoot digital cameras available right now. I was excited when I first saw it at the PMA show, this spring. I think I saw you posted a review, too. Thanks for that.

[rzozaya1969]

Nice! I mean the Santa Cruz Jackal, not your pictures

Just teasing

The photos look good. I like the little frog. That's a cool photo. Looks like you had to take your gloves off for that one

I always take my gloves off when I take pictures. Not sure if I need to or not. But I always do.

Where do you live again? It looks like California. Are you in Mexico City?

Looks like the camera is serving you well. I'm glad. I think that's one of the more interesting point-and-shoot digital cameras available right now. I was excited when I first saw it at the PMA show, this spring. I think I saw you posted a review, too. Thanks for that.

Actually, I can use the camera with my gloves on. Just pushing the little power button is a little complicated, but possible. A friend was holding the frog. That pic turned out better that I've thought when shooting it.

The place is called Ocoyoacac, which is near Toluca, about 30 minutes from Mexico City. It's actually pretty nice, has some nice singletracks and trails.

I'm really liking the camera.

[rzozaya1969]

Okay, I went last sunday on another ride. After the first mile, it started raining, and it didn't stop until we got to the destination, soooo, I don't have that many pics. Actually, I just have some proof that you can take bad pics on this camera if you're not carefull! or overconfident in the IS feature.

Also, I still feel that digital zoom is a big no no :nonod: :nono: :nonod: Here is a pic of an eagle we saw at maximum optical zoom:


And here is the same eagle at maximum digital zoom:


Well, to be fair, maybe not going max digital zoom might get some decent results, but I still turn off the digital zoom feature.

And, here is a pic I took just thinking that the IS was going to make it cristal sharp


This pictures are just cropped from the original files, I didn't do any resizing or image enhancement filters on them....

[muso]

Nice... :-)

[RosieB]

When you shot the blurry picture, did you give the camera time to activate the image stabilization?

[rzozaya1969]

When you shot the blurry picture, did you give the camera time to activate the image stabilization?

I'm not sure about giving it time, but I think it came out blurry because I just was waaay to overconfident that the image stabilization would do it's stuff on any speed. I think that right after I applied the clic I just used that momentum to lower the camera.

Look at the second post, with the guy riding the bike. On the actual pic (without changing image size) you can read the brand in the wheels, and he was riding fast. Actually, that was one of a series of shots that I just took as fast as I could as I followed his path.

I'm attaching a thumbprint of the whole secuence:


A detail of the front tire:

[Photo-John]

This isn't an image stabilization issue. The mountain bikers are just out-of-focus.

[rzozaya1969]

This isn't an image stabilization issue. The mountain bikers are just out-of-focus.

Yep, you're right. Thanks for the info