• 06-11-2006, 04:33 AM
    lukepingi
    Please help me choose a camera
    Hi everyone

    I'm planning on moving over to the UK to live and want to buy a camera. I've never bought a digital camera before so thats why I have come here to seek knowledge.

    I'm trying to decide between the Canon S3IS and the Canon IXUS 65. I know they are both completely different but thats what I've cut the field down to.

    I'm trying to decide which camera will benefit me more for my move. I plan to go to lots of soccer matches and that is where I will be taking most of my pictures. I would like to be able to zoom in and get good pictures of the players. I'm a little concerned I wouldnt be able to do that with the IXUS. I would love to be able to take photo's similar to this ( http://www.zdl.com.br/galeria/3767_adriano2.jpg ). I know this is a proffesional picture and its extrememly clear, I dont expect to be able to take pictures as good as that, but I would

    like to be able to get that close a shot from the stands. Where I would be sitting would be approximately 50 meters from the players, I havent been to a soccer game before so thats just an estimate.

    I would also like to take snaps of friends I meet at pubs and stuff like that as well though. And the size of the ISUX would be of great benefit here. I could just slip it in my pocket and carry it around where ever I go. With the powershot I would have to carry around a camera bag and that could be a problem I think. I wouldnt want to bring the camera everytime I went to a pub but would like to occasionally.

    So I have myself in a bad situation. I dont know much about camera's so that doesnt help much either. I know that the powershot is 12x and the IXUS is 4x or something. I know 12x is a lot better than 4x but only because the number is a lot bigger! I just want to be able to basically zoom in and get a snap of a player and take it home and transfer it to my computer. I dont want to be a proffesional photographer but I want to be able to take a good quality photo of a player, one I could look back at in the future and clearly see who it was, not just some blurry face. I've had no experiences with cameras so I wouldnt really know the difference between a 12x and a 4x other than the obvious. If I can do everything I explained with the IXUS than I will definitely buy that as it benefits me in every other area. So I'm basically writing just to find out how the ISUX would go at taking photos of players at a soccer match, thats what it comes down to!

    Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

    Regards,

    Luke

    (Digital Camera n00b)
  • 06-11-2006, 12:20 PM
    SmartWombat
    Re: Please help me choose a camera
    You will need 12x at least from the stands, and an image stabiliser too, unless you have very steady hands. Or you only shoot at the side lines :)
    My shots in the Superbikes thread in the sports forum (here: http://forums.photographyreview.com/...ad.php?t=21384) show what a 12x Panasonic Lumix can do with IS at about 75 to 100 metres.
    You really need more than 400mm on a 35mm, and that doesn't come in a small cheap package, without losing some quality.
    I think you will just about manage with a 12x high end P&S.
    But the results won't be brilliant, just good, and only some of them.
    You could wind up throwing away more shots than you keep, and you won't be able to tell the difference on the little screen built into the camera.