A Small Digi That Is Changing My Photographic Life

R

ruben

Guest
I am not sure this will be of much interest to the well knowledgeable folks already using small digis, smaller than let's say a Konica Auto S3, or an Oly RC.

Nor I have any doubts that its optics can stand the competition of the above, even if I take for granted that as being my first entry into the digital cameras I may be not exploiting its best.

But for whatever shortcoming I detect on my Powershot A590is, and there are a lot when seen from the dslr point of view and almost none for fixed zoom digis - the magic world is convenience.

I must admit this is the first camera I can really carry with me everyday and be ready for everything. Almost (up to iso800 against Neopan with small film cameras).

But still the combination of high compactness + AF zoom starting at f2.6 + 5 color tones (from BW to "vivid" color) + unending number of pic storage, enables me to standard my shots at constant 8 megapix (my card is 8gb). Finally that immediate download without scanning... Ahhh!

And it is not just being ready, but out of this situation I am sarting more self asigned photo projects, from the hip.

When this leaves my film cameras ? Curiously my feeling is that my film cameras tasks remain basically where they were. Whenever I will get out of home for a specific task I will pick the same film cameras as before.

Can this small intelligent device be a street camera ? I don't think so. A Konica Auto S2 is a street camera, like a Kiev, a Canonet etc. I perceive my digi more as a toy camera than a really serious stuff. Optics are not real high quality optics, focus is a good chance at best (by comparizon to a film rangefinder) and lack of depht of field is a commodity I don't feel likely to donor.

So like many others I did my crazy tour of comparizons with a budget of $500 (five times more than the cost of the A590is) but the findings, including the Lumix, the G10 blah blah blah are far from being three times better, nor to speak about five times better, including non focusing eyefinders and no eyefinders at all...(are digi designers becomming crazy?)

But as a pocketable companion, this small and intelligent Powershot delivers. Oh yes! it delivers. And as said it widened my horizons, even before I start to explore its macro abilities.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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I have heard great things about this camera. At some point, I'd like to try it myself.

However, the camera that is my 'go anywhere' pocket digi is the Kodak C530 (same as the Kodak C315, just relabeled).

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=7498&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=2186

You can buy them for less than $40 USD most of the time on eBay. They are simple - 5 MP, no zoom (fixed 35mm equivalent focal length), JPEG only, fixed f/4.5 aperture, very basic, no manual controls.

But you can toss it in a pocket, leave it in a glovebox, and it takes nice photos. I think of it like an Olympus XA2.



 
WHAT!....do my old eyes deceive!....Ruben not only singing the praises - but buying a....gulp!...digital compact! :eek:, what is the world coming to?, next we'll have Al Kaplan getting one and asking about soft releases! ;)
Dave.
 
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This is already a crop from the original. Subsequents crops here were done from this one. Pic done at shadow and against backlight without flash. Self timer.



Richard Jenkinson said:
What does it deliver Ruben? Let's see some pictures!
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5/14/09: KINDLY NOTICE THE MAIN PIC FROM WHICH THE FOLLOWING TWO WERE CROPPED IS MISSING, DUE TO SOME SOFTWARE PROBLEM, SO YOU ARE NOT SEEING THE CROP PERCENTAGE. LATTER TODAY WHEN I ARRIVE HOME, I WILL CHECK IT.


Notice the pouch I use for the camera when ryding the bicycle.
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Hereby.................



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And my wife:

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Ruben -

I agree with you 100%. But for me, the camera is the Fuji Finepix F20. It shoots to ISO 2000, but really up to 800 is pretty darned good. And, yes, it can easily be slipped into a pants pocket, and has a really terrific flash - 21 feet, that powers down nicely (i-flash or something...) It takes nice pictures...

Oh - it has shortcomings, but a big plus in its favor is it is truly pocketable, moreso than my Konica Auto S3... Doesn't replace a film camera (give me bokeh or give me death : )
but I can take a lot more pictures, experiment more, and it's the only camera I own that I can genuinely slip into my pocket... And for $80 used? A steal. Pic quality doesn't suck - I would take this over a big, clunky, and expensive digital RF personally.
N
 
Convenience is exactly what prompted me to take just a Nikon P5100 P&S along on my holidays in the Mediterranean. I left all the other stuff at home, including RF/DSLR/SLRs, despite that the P5100 is officially a P.O.S. when it comes to focussing. It's so sloooowwww, often doesn't even lock on target, and doesn't allow scale focussing.

And somehow, the P5100 stood up to the task and brought back prettier pictures than I expected. I only had to work much and much harder than ever to get good pictures. But there was never a question of whether I'd take it along or not. It fits in a pants pocket..

What's most unsettling about this, despite the extra effort, is that I'm contemplating getting a digi P&S that's got better focussing capability and ditching the RF stuff..
 
Ruben, I can agree this little camera can deliver excellent resuls. But: how is your battery life? Here's why I ask:

I bought my wife an A590 (not sure about the "is" part). We would be going to France soon. This was to be her first digital. She requires an auto-everything camera and insists on an optical viewfinder. So I got her an A590. I couldn't think of another digital that had an optical finder. She shoot the 590 alongside her trusty Olympus Stylus, to reduce film demands while permitting almost unlimited shooting.

The batteries would not last any length of time. Often it was time for a new set of AA alkalines after only two hours of use. I brought five sets of spares along for her. "Surely that will be enough." No. She went through the eveready alkalines I brought with us, and then a trip to the local marche: "Vous avez des piles alkalines?" She went through the Kodak ones I bought, in two days. Back to the store, this time a big Paris department store. That trip yeilded some German Varta batteries. Those were a little better. She could shoot for about four or five hours on them.

I got the camera from Amazon. Like everything else I have gotten through Amazon--except for books--it has been a disappointment. The question is: Is this typical of the A 590?

And what should I do: complain to Amazon, or just send it in under warranty. I guess it depends on whether the A590 is supposed to do any better. The book says one set of batteries should last for 200 pictures. Sue was getting more like 30.

So I have to ask, has your luck been any better?
 
Rob-F said:
Ruben, I can agree this little camera can deliver excellent resuls. But: how is your battery life?...............
...............So I have to ask, has your luck been any better?
Click to expand...


At the begining I used a pair of alkaline batteries that lasted one day. The problem with any alkaline you buy anywhere is that you never know the real stregth they carry at the moment you buy them. No dates, no trademark is of help.

Then I tryied my old GP NIMH rechargeable whose max mah were 1800. Accordingly I felt they are not for digital cameras. Some 20 hours charging rendered a couple of hours.

Then I bought 8 rechargeable GP NIMH of 2700 mah, through eBay from an Aussie seller, and they last so well that I am sure just 4 batteries of this type would be enough.

Besides I bought an AC cheap device, which also is not of any real help, although it doesn't hurt. Somehow it came to my mind that the camera may have some internal battery which the AC connector may charge. Of course this is not the case.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Who are you and what have to done to Ruben? ;)



ruben said:
I am not sure this will be of much interest to the well knowledgeable folks already using small digis, smaller than let's say a Konica Auto S3, or an Oly RC.

Nor I have any doubts that its optics can stand the competition of the above, even if I take for granted that as being my first entry into the digital cameras I may be not exploiting its best.

But for whatever shortcoming I detect on my Powershot A590is, and there are a lot when seen from the dslr point of view and almost none for fixed zoom digis - the magic world is convenience.

I must admit this is the first camera I can really carry with me everyday and be ready for everything. Almost (up to iso800 against Neopan with small film cameras).

But still the combination of high compactness + AF zoom starting at f2.6 + 5 color tones (from BW to "vivid" color) + unending number of pic storage, enables me to standard my shots at constant 8 megapix (my card is 8gb). Finally that immediate download without scanning... Ahhh!

And it is not just being ready, but out of this situation I am sarting more self asigned photo projects, from the hip.

When this leaves my film cameras ? Curiously my feeling is that my film cameras tasks remain basically where they were. Whenever I will get out of home for a specific task I will pick the same film cameras as before.

Can this small intelligent device be a street camera ? I don't think so. A Konica Auto S2 is a street camera, like a Kiev, a Canonet etc. I perceive my digi more as a toy camera than a really serious stuff. Optics are not real high quality optics, focus is a good chance at best (by comparizon to a film rangefinder) and lack of depht of field is a commodity I don't feel likely to donor.

So like many others I did my crazy tour of comparizons with a budget of $500 (five times more than the cost of the A590is) but the findings, including the Lumix, the G10 blah blah blah are far from being three times better, nor to speak about five times better, including non focusing eyefinders and no eyefinders at all...(are digi designers becomming crazy?)

But as a pocketable companion, this small and intelligent Powershot delivers. Oh yes! it delivers. And as said it widened my horizons, even before I start to explore its macro abilities.

Cheers,
Ruben
Click to expand...
 
Rob-F said:
....I guess it depends on whether the A590 is supposed to do any better. The book says one set of batteries should last for 200 pictures. Sue was getting more like 30.
Click to expand...
Some digis have a menu option to specify what type of AA's you're using. This supposedly helps to get more mileage out of some types as the internal electronics will allow a lower voltage from the batteries before declaring them 'dead'..
 
ruben said:
Besides I bought an AC cheap device, which also is not of any real help, although it doesn't hurt. Somehow it came to my mind that the camera may have some internal battery which the AC connector may charge. Of course this is not the case.
Click to expand...
Digital cameras do have internal capacitors that allow some of the electronics to continue working (e.g. the clock, keeping settings etc..) when the batteries are removed or nearly exhausted. When you insert a battery, the first thing that happens is that the internal capacitors gobble up juice from the batteries to charge themselves again. So, keeping the camera on an AC adapter while the batteries are removed does help towards battery lifetime.
 
gudlagoba said:
Who are you and what have to done to Ruben? ;)
Click to expand...

Hi gudlagoba,

It is somewhat funy you ask me who am I, as the friends here signig with their real names and providing real data about themselves are not the most. Unless you are asking a rather rethorical question in pursue of a poetic answer.

Beyond my personal and outspoken data page, my updated portrait, my rff gallery, you will be getting a more rounded feeling of me along time, through my posts at RFF. I think this will be the most important area, who am I for you.

As for what I have done with the small digi this is an issue I wanted to post about today, so I will take the opportunity.

BTW it will be of great interest to hear from other folks what they are doing with their small digis too, as this can mount into a great source of ideas.

a) Connecting with my beloved overseas
Since my family is scattered between several countries and those in Israel are not neighbours in the same city, the small digi with its immediate upload has became a terrific means of almost daily comunication.

At one instance my mother sent me back a dozen of high bad quality pics, apparently done either with a cellular or with a first generation small digi. And despite the quality those pics had a great impact on me.

I have dreamed about it for decades, but I dreamed about it in film terms, therefore the project never gained strength. Now it is at full steam.

b) Photographing family parties
Of course we are not talking about pro services, but about those parties in which you are invited and make your snapshots. As you know according to the character of the event you may be taking just a few pics or a lot, as I did last Monday at the circumcision feast of my first grandson, where much of my family here was present, and the pictures relevant for a lot of my beloved overseas.

Now I will like to jump for a while to the tech side. At that party I had the three ambients altogether: indoors room, open shaded tents for lunch, and direct sun requiring fill in.

My recommended set up for such altogether lighting situations is as follows:

a) an auto Sunpak flash, with manual graduated power to fill in under the sun at different close distances.

b) the Sunpak will be fired through a slave whose cell will be TOUCHING and obstructing the digi small flash.

c) This requires a slave being sold for ten buck free ship which has a plug for a synch cord. Several Supak old flashes come with that cord built in.

d) Obviously the whole structure will be sustained by a light bracket.

c) Self asigned projects
I continue to do street photography. I have said that this is not THE camera for street photography, but this doesn't mean it can't do nothing out there. As said, it is not the camera I will purposedly pick in the morning for the job, but definitely it is the camera always in my belly pouch.

Within this I want to start a set about street cyclists, like me. For this purpose the auto opening of the camera iris/cap and the whole fast readiness with which the camera is ready to photograph since you touch the "on" button - makes it ideal for hanging it from my neck while I ride.

Lastly I would like to mention a new project about which I cannot give now much details beyond what you can infere from its title: My 55th Year.

Of course other folks like my local friend Mike Goldberg have a great interest in still subjects surrounding wherever he goes. It will be nice to hear about the areas other folks here find the small digis highly convenient.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
You need to use lithiums and not alkalines

You need to use lithiums and not alkalines

Rob-F said:
The batteries would not last any length of time.
Click to expand...

Use the blue and silver lithiums. Mine go months before needing replacing. They cost more but are well worth it. I took my a570 to europe for a week last fall and used two (2) batteries for the whole trip!

don
 
Hi Ruben
I did some research too and decided that the Canon A590IS looked to be 'the' camera to replace my old Nikon Coolpix. I agree with your analysis of small digital use, but then wondered why I needed to replace my 2m pixel Nikon. When would I need the extra pixels? Face recognition would be useful but that feature alone can't justify the Canon expense, and after all I can pick up a small RF for well less than a tenth of the Canon.
Thanks for your writing because you clarified my thinking.
jesse
 
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