Britt'sPhotoBlog

Here is the alternative assignment of talking about events of which I wish had taken a photograph and had not: HW#1: Alternative assignments:

When I bought my camera, I envisioned taking pictures of life and love and the joy of living. I want to go to Barrow and "shoot" a polar bear, somewhere around Fairbanks and "shoot" a grizzley bear, and then to the many islands of Alaska just to shoot scenes of the life abounding there. I have served in 42 countries as a United States Marine and could only hope to take now those photos of so much of the beauty I have seen in life that I now can only see in my mind. Whether it be Kabul, Afghanistan in 1956 or Ankara, Turkey in 1958 or even Tripoli, Libya or the Azores Islands earlier in 1956, there is so much that I remember but will never see again because that moment when I saw it many many years ago will never come again. I remember a train wreck outside of Severn, Maryland in early 1956 in which me and my Marine companions were not killed as many other people were. There were 15 of us 19, 20 and 21 year old Marine Sergeants on our way to many many different parts of the world from Beirut, Lebanon to Haifa, Israel or Moscow, Russia, or even to Paris, France or Addis Abba, Ethiopia; 15 of us to 15 different locations and yet each of us went to all the locations and none of us died that day when our train was the only train car that did not overturn in the crash. What a memory that is of what a joy it was to see all 15 of us alive and yet such a tragedy to see so many of other human beings not alive as we helped pull them out of the damaged cars bogged down in the swamps below the tracks.

Then in the second assignment:

First I got a picture from the USMC physical fitness training facility and posted its URL on my google photo blog site at http://brittsgooglephotoblog.blogspot.com/ for your review; then I found a photographer and her site on Google and posted that on the google photo blog as well.

The USMC site is: http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/images/pfp.jpg

The photographer I like site is: Heather Taggard at http://www.49Designs.com/ . She uses her myspace site of "Why Rabbit" provided in "Britt's Blog" linked to this site for purposes other than photography and prefers to use her web design site for photography purposes.




The following information is from the lesson outline requirements:

Lesson Outline Week 2, Homework#2:

My Camera: Canon Powershot S3 IS

Correction to three review sites and strengths and weaknesses requirement:

The three review sites for my Canon S3IS camera were:

• DCViews http://www.dcviews.com/reviews/Sony-H5-Canon-S3/Sony-H5-Canon-S3-review.htm
• Megapixel.net http://www.megapixel.net/reviews/canon-s3is/s3-gen.php
• Steves-digicams http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/s3is.html
  

It was quite interesting to read the reviews of my camera at these three sites and at several others as well. Although I bought the camera new (still in the original package with all paraphernalia) from someone at the University campus Fairbanks with no knowledge of any digital camera, I am now very impressed with my litle camera and want to learn to use it properly even more. My camera compared with the Sony H5 very well at the DCViews site and even appeared to be favored among the two in consideration of most of its comparable features. Megapixels.net offered an expansive review of the development and changes in the S3 over the S2 and provided useful knowledge as to the actual operation of the camera over the simplistic instructions that came with the camera. Steves-digicams was fun to read and explore for useful information as to the versatility of my little camera in different environmental circumstances.

Three (or more) strengths and weaknesses of the Canon S3 IS selected from all three reviews and lumped together here are:

Strengths:

• Makes stunning movies w/o much distortion at larger distances,
• Shoots with almost 2.5 frames per second,
• Good ergonomic design,
• Can capture a full resolution still image while camera is recording a movie,
• Excellent image quality,
• Stablized 12x zoom lens,
• Sharp images at all focal lengths,
• Good sensitivity range,

Weaknesses:

• Does not produce clean images at ISO 200 and higher (looks more grainy),
• Needs a large memory card to make long movies,
• Still no raw image format,
• EVF/monitor still average,
• cannot be used as a webcamera.

In addition to the stengths and weaknesses indicated above:

This is the Conclusion of the [Side by ediS] review of the Sony H5 and Canon S3 from DCViews:

The Canon Powershot S3 IS and the Sony Cybershot DSC-H5 are two very capable and compact all-round cameras and when you have to travel light they are the ultimate partners. They are consumer cameras due to absence of AdobeRGB and RAW, and responsiveness and image quality do not stand up to that of d-SLR's. With their manual controls however they are more than point-and-shoot cameras and can fulfil the wishes of even the more demanding amateur. On most points the Powershot S3 leaves the Sony H5 behind, but the latter has a very appealing LCD and resolution and image quality (besides the CA) are better. The colors of the H5 are somewhat more natural and the visible noise is less at higher ISO's. Both cameras can make breathtaking macros and very nice movies. The cameras are each others equals and won't disappoint its usersegment: all-round (travel) photography.

NEXT: The information for my camera selections are as follows:

Adjusting ISO: pg 69 of my book: Press the ISO button to switch settings/cycle through the ISO/hi (High ISO Auto) with each press of the button.

White Balance: pg 77: Change the white balance using a setting appropriate to the light source. FUNC Menu >[AWB]*(Auto) .

Adjusting the exposure compensation: pg75: Use the <> button to adjust the exposure compensation and press FUNC. button.

Setting file size and compression: pg 36: Using <> buttons to select recording pixels settings.

Using <> buttons to select compression.

Setting Exposure meter mode: pg 70: Locking the exposure setting. Focus, press shutter button halfway, re-aim camera and press shutter button fully.

Set Camera for macro focusing: pg 12 basic guide: find and press macro mode button.

Turn off flash redeye reduction: pgs 11&12: find in menu and change to off.