PowerShot A610 to S3IS

[Zadillo]

Hi all,

I think I have decided on the PowerShot S3IS as my next camera (it's on sale for $315 right now at Best Buy and MicroCenter, which seems like a nice price to me).

My current camera is an A610, which I've been happy with, but which I've honestly only used as a point-and-shoot... I haven't delved much into the manual controls, etc. but I am interested in learning more about digital photography, etc.

I've particularly been impressed with the photos in the S3 thread here, some of which seems absolutely beautiful (especially some of the close-up macro photos of flowers and bees and such).

Fundamentally I understand that the S3 is a completely different class of camera from my A610, but I was wondering if someone might be able to explain to me just what I would be getting by moving from the A610 to the S3. That is, being able to take better photos, having options that just wouldn't exist with the A610, etc.?

Mainly my hope is to make sure that when I do get an S3IS, that I make the most of it.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

-Zadillo

[LeeSC]

I am by no means an expert. I , too, just moved from a point and shoot Nikon to the S3IS. Just in stats, you would go from 5MP to 6MP. You would also double your optical zoom, 6x to 12x.

As far as manual settings, the S3 lets you do it all. You have the ability to control ISO, apeture, shutter speed. By altering these settings, you can control exposure and cause motion blur with shutter speed, features typically not available in standard P&S (although my Nikon did let me control exposure). To me, this camera is as close as you can get to a dSLR without taking the plunge.

As a warning, this camera is by no mean a pop in your pocket camera. Also, low light/ high ISO shots tend to be noisy, but can be cleaned up pretty well with noise reduction software.

If all you do is take handheld snapshots of your kids or family, you would probably not use this camera to it's full potential. But, if you plan on doing some advanced photography and don't mind toting a mono/tripod, you will probably enjoy it.