Well I’ve now shot two or three hundred images with my new camera and here are some impressions.
Things I Don’t Like
There were a number of exclamations of “stupid camera” during the shoots.
Occasionally it just wouldn’t let me take a picture. I think this had to do with an unwillingness to focus in a low light situation, but it seemed in focus. There was one time I was trying to take a picture of just Aleksandra’s legs and the thing wouldn’t fire. Could focus on her face and it would, but not her legs. Go figure.
The screen is more contrasty and less saturated than the D70. So the images don’t look as good on the back of the camera. It is higher resolution and bigger. With every digital SLR you have to calibrate yourself to the difference between the LCD and the final product. So I was learning. But the contrast means I’m not as eager to show images to the model.
The vertical shutter doesn’t wake the camera up. In order to save power the camera puts itself to sleep after a few seconds. In order to wake it up you press the shutter release in half way. The same way you focus, so normally you don’t even think about it. Put the camera to your eye, compose, focus, fire. It just works. The S3 has a vertical grip which is way cool since I shoot a lot of verticals, and there is a shutter release on the vertical grip. But this release doesn’t wake the camera up. So if it went to sleep, you have to press the other shutter first before the vertical one works.
Review is a little slow. When you take the picture the camera shows it to you immediately for a couple of seconds. But if you want to bring the picture back up to look at it again, or scroll through previous pictures, it has to read from the card. And that is slow. Takes a good 3 or 4 seconds to read an image back in. And I was shooting in 6 MP mode and not 12.
Things I Like
I shot all three sessions with JPEG instead of RAW. And for the most part I don’t regret it. The in camera software works great. And the F1 mode, which is color intended for skin and portaits, produces the most creamy skin tones ever. I love the way the pictures look. And in the end even if everything else sucked, I’d still use the camera because it is the results that count.
I’ve got 100 ASA now. The D70’s lowest was 200.
The S3 has a PC cord slot, so no more hot shoe adapter.
And I can shoot in B&W. Which I did. I’m not positive it is better than doing it yourself in post, but it’s nice to have the option in the camera.
Still haven’t tried the Fuji software, so I don’t know if it is worth going to RAW yet. Stay tuned for that. And I haven’t shot anything in 12MP which will be interesting. Nor have a I used my Nikon flash with it, another interesting test.
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