Another new S3 owner.

[de8212]

Just got one on Sunday and haven't even opened the box yet. Planning on doing alot of research but if anyone can offer answers to my questions I would be greatful.

I bought a sandisk UltraII 1GB card with it but want to get a couple of 2GB or even a 4GB card as well. I read some mixed reviews about brands like transcend and adata. Seems the advertised 150x speed was questionable. Anyone here have similar thoughts?
Any good deals currently available for SD cards?

I know the camera has a million settings and I will read the book but if anyone has any advice on some of the basic settings to change I would appreciate it.

I'm sure I'll have alot of other questions but again if there's any basic tips to help a new user out please do.

[dagonpaul]

Hey man, Welcome.

Not to much advice on memory... im in the market for some as well.

However my first piece of advice for those millions of settings is to start off in "P" mode. The more time you spend here instead of "auto" the quicker you will understand the settings. "P" basically will "automatically" select aperature and shutterspeed for you, as well as default to the automatic ISO, White Balance and Color settings. however how this differs from Auto is that you can press "function" and change these settings while in "P" mode, whereas in "auto" you cant change anything.

Another problem people have when getting used to a manual camera is with ISO. It may be a little down the road for you, but always remember that the higher the ISO setting the more noise and grain will show up in your pictures. ISO is the sensitivity to light... so by turning it up you can take pictures with less light and avoid using a flash... so use the high settings only if you have too, other wise keep it low.

[de8212]

Thanks dagonpaul.


I had read about the P mode and that's what I've been tinkering around with.
Also I do understand ISO a little bit and will use as low of a # as possible. But you remind me of another question. I've seen some decent results of people removing noise when they have to shoot at a higher ISO. Is there a program favored with the members here to decrease that noise? I've seen a few mentioned while doing research but cannot remember which one is recommended.

[danidabi]

I use adobe photoshop cs and it works well for me. I do see other people recommending software just for noise reduction but I have yet to try it.

[griptape]

My personal preference is Noise Ninja. You loose some detail, but it's better in most cases to have a bright grainy image straight out of the camera that you can fix later and decide how much detail you're willing to give up than it is to have a dark, smooth picture that just gets blurrier as you edit it.

As for memory, I have the Transcend 2gb card (purchased from newegg, my computer parts store of choice for several years now) and it's been great to me so far. I just ordered a couple more. The 4gb seems to give people problems, so I decided to steer clear of it.

[Setter Dog]

Your S3 is compatible with the new SDHC cards and they are available here and there. Amazon has a 4GB Ultra 2 SDHC card with a reader for $99. I use a 2GB Ultra 2 in my a710. For some reason, I have stayed away from all the other brands since Sansdisk has worked so well for me for many years.

Canon, by the way, will not recommend ANY memory cards but they will tell you that the S3 is compatible with SDHC in any size,.....or any future size.

Enjoy your S3!