[augustus]

Hi all

am planning to buy a digital camera, hopefully Canon S3 IS, is it a good one for biginers?

can i attach external lences to it??

[stepheno]

Hi augustus and . First off, the camera you mention is a very fine camera with a top spec for a bridge camera. The term bridge camera leads into the next part of your question and the answer is - no you can't change lenses with this or other bridge cameras. That is the main point, being that you have everything in one camera and you can take excellent shots.

If you specifically want to change lenses then you need a DSLR. But, you haven't said much about what you want to shoot or what the purpose is of the camera. That sort of information will help members to give you more appropriate advice. In the meantime you can read the spec and reviews for the S3 and other cameras in our Equipment Reviews Section. HTH and post back with more info

[bpickles256]

Hi Agustus,

I am also new here and new to photograhpy, digital or otherwise. I also have a Canon S3 IS camera. It is a very nice camera for a beginner to get started with. Like any comapct digital camera it has a range of predefined shootong modes, Auto, portrait, Scenery, Night, etc. It also has Program mode, Shutter Priority mode, Aperature Priority mode, Manual Mode and a Custom mode to save settings for taking lots of similar shots.

As for lens options you can get a lens adapter tube (Canon or Lensmate) which allows you to attach a variety of filters and a small selectin of Telephoto Zoom Lenses (1.5X, 2X), and also a variety of wide angle lenses (.6X, .75X). Lenses can be purchased from Canon or Raynox.

Get your camera, take lots of pictures and just have fun.

Then get some decent photo editing software to fine tune your shots. I use Adobe Photoshop a lot and also Corel PaintShop Pro IX. Adobe is awome and Corel is very very good and easier to use.

[Steve]

bpickles256 - I would just like to thank you for replying to Agustus's question, especially since its your first post here. Its always good to have someone reply that has personal experience with the same equipment that someone is interested in. I am sure that your response is very welcomed

[Boofers]

My friend at work just bought this camera "S3 IS", as I looked over the info, I noticed it takes the lens adaptor mentioned by bpickles, but said it would take a magnifer with a 58mm thread,,,,opens up a range of filters and step-up rings,,,but you need the adaptor. of course that means Super macro fun.

[ian.percival]

I've owned one since august, and the pics on my portfolio are taken with it. I really like it in so many ways - it renewed my love of photography with it's full range of manual settings, some really fun effects (e.g. making everything black & white but for a colour of your choice, or swapping a blue sky for a green one etc.!) and incredible flexibility from amazing macro to very powerful telephoto. For it's price I think it's a gem.

But! I've used it so much, and got so into photography because of it, that it's also taught me I now want something better (I'll soon be buying a nikon d80 soon with some great lenses). Obviously that is much more expensive, and it's unfair really to compare it to my beloved s3, but here are the things I want to improve on:

I want a much clearer viewfinder for composing my shots (so important) - the s3's is a small not brilliantly clear digital image that is hard to use in sunny conditions.
I want a better range of tonality/image quality in my shots (from more megapixes/better sensor/better quality optics).
I want a megapixel level/sensor size that allows me to try and sell pictures (not many magazines/stock libraries etc accept 6mp)
I want it to be easier to have a full range of lenses and filters (e.g. an ultra wide angle lens, a polarizer & nds...; not tried the optional wide angle converter for the s3).
I want to be able to shoot in RAW.
less noise / better low light performance

As I said, these comparisons are unfair in a lot of ways as the s3 is so much cheaper than the setup I'm talking about, and it's image quality is excellent for it's price, but I thought it might be worth you knowing what you won't get. Here's what I will probably miss once I get a dslr:

the tilting/swivelable lcd - this has been used a lot for so many awkward position shots (e.g. ground viewpoints / tripod shots / holding above crowds). You can even tilt it to see yourself whilst taking yourself (kids love this).
the weight! and amazing amount of stuff (including excellent video) it can do whilst being so incredibly compact (you have to lug a lot of heavy stuff around to match all it's features with a dslr)
The (discreet) size
the price!!

have a look at Canon S3 or Canon 5D System ....$420 or $5000+ Photo Gallery by J. Vincent at pbase.com for an amazing comparison of both size and price for the dslr equivalent of an s3

hope that's of help. For getting into photography it's an amazing choice.

[naios]

Hi. I just recently purchased a Canon S3 IS and am loving it. I am finding that it is a fantastic tool for learning about photography, and I can see that once I hone my skills I'll be able to take some very nice photos with it. The price was quite good and I really like the fact that I can purchase products such as the telextender without "blowing out" my budget.