Raghu Rajagopalan's Library tagged camera_research → View Popular

29 Aug 08

29 Mar 07

with noise being the FZ7's weak spot
You'll get full manual controls, plus many automatic modes for the beginner. The newest manual control is for focus, and it works well (though a manual focus ring would've been nice). You'll also find controls for white balance (including fine tuning), shutter speed, and aperture.
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- Sound is recorded as well.
- As is usually the case, you cannot use the zoom lens during filming. The image stabilizer functions in movie mode, as you'd expect.
- The FZ7 turned in one of the best night shots that I've seen in some time. Like with the macro shot, everything's nice and sharp here. The camera took in plenty of light, thanks to the manual shutter speed control. Purple fringing levels were low, and noise was well controlled.
- proprietary batteries used by the DMC-FZ7 apply here

I was disappointed that Canon includes a tiny memory card and throwaway batteries on the S3.
Camera performance was very good. The S3 starts up remarkably quickly for an ultra zoom, taking just 1.4 seconds. Focus speeds were very good (though Panasonic's cameras are faster), shutter lag was not a problem, and the camera can take another picture in about a second. Low light focusing was very good thanks to the S3's AF-assist lamp. Battery life is best-in-class.
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- For all of these movie modes you'll want to have a high speed memory card. If you don't have one, movie recording may stop unexpectedly.
  
  Two great things about the S3's movie mode are its stereo sound recording and the fact that you can zoom during filming. That ultrasonic motor allows you to zoom in and out silently, just like on a camcorder. As I mentioned in the previous section, you can adjust the microphone sensitivity and sound recording quality. A wind filter helps cut out annoying wind noise in your movies. And while I shouldn't have to say this, the image stabilization system is active during filming.
  
  One more cool feature: the S3 can take a full resolution still photo while recording a movie. The catch is that the movie recording pauses very briefly while this happens.