canon power shot s95

[smokes]

Hi I am looking for compact to go on holiday with.
It seems like the canon s95 is the best from the reviews.
Has anyone got one?
I'd like to know if it is easy enough to setup and use. As I don't know enough about photography..
What the battery life like?
How fast is the shutter? I really hate the digtal camera for taking an age to take a photo it like going back to glass plate photograhy.
What it like in low light conditions?
What the limitations of the len size?
I really need something that is a lot better than my fiancees olympus x765..

thanks

[Cooper]

I have the S90 and I absolutely love it! Perfect compact camera for me!
reminder: lens is very good in low light but can't zoom alot (you can't have both except with 1000£ lens and an SLR camera ;-) )


Battery life: very good
shutter: good, but not as fast as an SLR (duh)
low light: very good for a compact thanks to the f2 lens (wide angle use)
lens limits: zoom factor

extra +: you can buy an underwater housing for it!

[Zipper]

I work in the photographic industry and it's between the S95 and the LX5 as the best compacts currently available. The LX5 has the faster lens but the S95 is quite a bit cheaper.

[smokes]

Confused by the lens speed statement? If all lens use light they would all work at the same speed.
I am engineer by trade so i get confused with a lot of marketing speil.

I went ahead and got an s95, it easy to use and set up and has excellent features. Also the user interface is very intuative.

I did't look at the panasonic LX5 as I have had bad experiance with the panasonics brands in the 90's they would just fall to bits after a few months use. Though my dad had a 42" plasma viera tv which is awesome to view and still works few fine after 5 years.

[Matt-Photo]

Originally Posted by smokes

Confused by the lens speed statement? If all lens use light they would all work at the same speed.
I am engineer by trade so i get confused with a lot of marketing speil.

It's not so much Marketing speil - A lens which allows more light to pass through (for a given time interval) is concidered 'faster' because it will allow a faster shutter speed to be used.

However 'faster' lenses tend to be bigger, heavier and more expensive

Another factor is the maximum ISO rating of the camera - the ISO is effectively the 'gain' of the sensor - ampifying the data from the pixels. So High ISO value can allow a picture to be recorded using less light (i.e. faster shutter speed) at the expense of more noise (some cameras have a better noise charastic than others)

[Matt-Photo]

Originally Posted by smokes

What the battery life like?
How fast is the shutter? I really hate the digtal camera for taking an age to take a photo it like going back to glass plate photograhy.
What it like in low light conditions?
What the limitations of the len size?
I really need something that is a lot better than my fiancees olympus x765..

I'm affarid that I have no real experience of modern compacts. However if your budget is around £300 to £350, have you concidered a second hand digital SLR?

[JCJC]

aren't both these compacts F2's ?

[smokes]

Originally Posted by Matt-Photo

I'm affarid that I have no real experience of modern compacts. However if your budget is around £300 to £350, have you concidered a second hand digital SLR?

Considering I didnt know that some lenses are faster than others I think I will stick with a compact and figure that out first!

[Zipper]

There is a good article that compares the two camera here:

http://www.wirefresh.com/canon-power...mpact-top-dog/