Camera Labs

In simple terms, a very good camera but, as with almost all P&S type cameras, the image drops off as you increase the ISO setting. So here are my impressions after using this camera for over 3 months and shooting almost a thousand images.
Ease of use- excellent except for the problem that my thumb causes when it accidentely hits the manual focus button on the 4 way rocker button.
Features - everything you could possibly want ecept no RAW
Menu system- very good and largely intuitive. Canon uses a FUNC button to access the more common settings. The camera also has the ability to set a button for quick access to a variety of features.
Image- again very good at low ISO settings.
Image Stabilization- good for about 3 stops
Provided Manual- good except for the poor index
Responsiveness- extremely good little shutter lag
LCD - agai, very good, readable in bright sun and the articulating viewfinder is a pleasure to use.
EVF- the electronic viewfinder is also very good.
Zoom Range- 28mm to 560 is more than enough. But if you think you need more you can try Canon's digital teleconverter which uses a small amount of digital zoom and then switches to optical. Very effective
Build-again, good, I would have preferred a metal body but the plastic one is very tight and good.

Cons-only three that are of any value. The lack of RAW was a concession to the SX-1 IS. The lack of HD video which again is a concession to the SX-1 IS. The inability to attach filters without using a method that Canon says will damage the camera. I have a lensmate attached with a UV filter and do not see a problem.

Several of my students have Panasonics FZ28 which is also a fine camera. If RAW is important then go to the FZ28. Otherwise it is a tossup and probably will revolve around which feels better in your hands.

DigitalJerry

Congrats..

Canon has introduced some new stitch assistance modes in SX10..

Left to right stitch assistance, right to left...
But.. You also have stitching four like a square and other new ones that canon has introduced in the SX10.. I would love to see some images in those stitch mode.

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Camera's: Canon 450D - Canon 40D
Lenses: Canon 70-200mm F/4 L, Sigma 10-20mm, Tokina 28-70, Sigma 300mm 2.8, Canon 50mm 1.4, EFS 60mm 2.8 macro
Flashes: 430EXII, 580EX and ST-E2

I believe that Canon has several stitch variations (left-right, right to left, up-down- down to up, and square) on some of their other cameras. I'd almost swear that it was onmy S5-IS but i could be wrong.

DigitalJerry

can you share some samples of square one as i never have seen them before.

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Camera's: Canon 450D - Canon 40D
Lenses: Canon 70-200mm F/4 L, Sigma 10-20mm, Tokina 28-70, Sigma 300mm 2.8, Canon 50mm 1.4, EFS 60mm 2.8 macro
Flashes: 430EXII, 580EX and ST-E2

Jerry - I've been seeing that "square stitching" in the SX10 Manual. I'm just wondering if one can create what would be a combined 7296 x 5472 image - then crop a, say, 4000 x 3000 image from any part of it - say, the centre - and have "an image that the camera can't do"...?

> Or just "crop across" to have, at different "heights" - 7296 x 2736 images from the same "stitchup"...?

Regards, Dave.

Hi Dave
I think you forgot to account for the 30% or so overlapping of images that the stitch mode uses to match adjacent images when stitching. To do what you want would probably take 3 images in each direction or a total of 9 images to create the file size you proposed. Then cropping it to 4000x3000 would be easy. However, I am not sure what you would gain from shooting a non-merged image in a wider angle or from a greater distance and just upsize the crop in photoshop.

As you change the angle of each image (assuming your using a tripod) the stitch program may not match up perfectly (it really will not) so you will have to deal with some distortion or image ghosting. Let me know if you try it and hit works.

Jerry

Jerry - Thanks muchly! Ahhh... Didn't realise it overlaps that much. Just looked at the Manual after you said that - and that shows it.

I was thinking more like having 4 x fractionally overlapping images in that "square circle" and having them on 4 layers in Photoshop. They won't quite line-up vertically or horizontally, so shift them until they do - and opacity-merge the small overlaps until they match the rest of the image. Then crop the outside of the resulting image where the edges don't quite line-up.

Then when the result was reduced to about 3648 x 2736 - would the "eye-visible" result look any better than the same content done as one "wider" 3648 x 2736?

Just wondering what one can do after changing one's images from *.jpg to non-lossy *.psd - then playing-about a bit!

As the weather-gods would have it - since I picked up my SX10 last Friday, the weather here in Sydney has been mostly wet, gray and dismal... So haven't been out - with tripod or not - for more than a few minutes, so far.

Thanks again for the good and quick reply.

Regards, Dave.