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General discussion

S1 IS & A95

Aug 26, 2004 8:28AM PDT

I have used some digital cameras as an amateur and now I want to use something more advanced. I am planning to buy a canon for max $400, however I couldn't decide which one is better: S1 IS or A95 (this is a new model but at least someone who got 75-80 can help me to compare)...

Discussion is locked

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Re: S1 IS & A95
Aug 26, 2004 9:01AM PDT

Your criteria of how you would determine "better" is not in your post. Some will define lower light performance, others will blast a camera off the list because the LCD colors are not that great.

Got a list?

Bob

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Re: S1 IS & A95
Aug 26, 2004 9:10AM PDT

I am looking for the following features:
* lower light performance is more important than LCD
* flexibility to manual use, it should teach me using manual features when i want to use an SLR camera in the future
* i want to use the camera to gain experience in photography(with all aspects)

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Re: S1 IS & A95
Aug 26, 2004 11:03AM PDT

It might help to look at the features side by side:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_a95%2Ccanon_s1is&show=all

Regarding low light ability:

Look down the side by side list for Aperture Range.
Click the ? next to that name for an explaination.
Light gathering ability is measured as aperture range.
The most common with digital cameras is F2.8
A better choice for low light would be a camera with a rating of F2.0 or lower. But that takes you out of your price range. Take a look at the Canon G5 or its new replacement the G6 for a low light camera.

...

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Re: S1 IS & A95
Aug 27, 2004 2:46AM PDT

I do agree with Snapshot2. The better camera for the dimmer light will probably make you broke. The more aperture you seek, the more money you'll spend. Either Canon S1 IS or A95 won't matter much. For the dimmer light, tripod and appropriate apperture are more necessary, just like the conventional camera. From my experience, the higher resolution will be quite helpful for the dimmer light, under manually adjusted mode. Choose what you can spend for. But, if you're willing to spend more, go for the higher pixels. Eventually, it does matter !