Slide 1

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 2

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 3

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 4

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 5

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 6

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 7

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 8

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 9

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 10

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 11

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 12

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 13

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 14

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 15

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 16

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 17

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 18

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 19

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 20

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 21

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 22

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin


Slide 23

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana
.

Canon S5is Test & More…
Any excuse to shoot

Copyright © 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Any Excuse: Curiosity
Every time I take a picture, I’m always testing
some feature of the camera, my ability to see, or
to capture what I think I see.
Here are 2 found-shots from
my exercise walk in and
around the Greenwood Fred Meyers store. I shot
them using Canon’s latest super-zoom contender,
PowerShoit S5-IS.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Visual Joke:
I go there to do my
exercise walk when
the weather is not
inviting outside.
Seeing the tiny
brown kid shoe
tickled my funny
bone. I decided to
share the sight with
you…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Not Quiet:
The final shot
doesn’t quite tickle
my funny bone. It
may be because I
have been looking at
it too long. Or, it just
is not there.
The adult shoe is not
as big as I wanted
for the comparison…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

PowerShot: S5 IS
The IS part stands for
Image Stabilization. It
helps to minimize
camera movement
and it worked well for
this handheld shot
using a very slow
1/10 second shutter
speed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Making Opportunities:
Most stores have a
‘No Photo’ policy. And
with that knowledge in
mind, I worked quickly
to set up and shoot
the shot.
I decided that contrast
would be a good story
to show scale which
was part of the humor.

Before

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Lab work: 3 adjustments
1. Levels adjustment
2. Brightness/ Contrast
3. Color adjustments
The 3 adjustments were
applied to bring up the
image P R E S E N C E.
Use the keyboard Up and
Down arrows to compare
this After image with the
previous Before image.

After

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot:

Retouching:
I liked the curved line
for design reasons
but it was too bright.
So it was toned down
and colorized.
Now it’s a subtle
curve line repeating
design elements in
the subject.
Did you notice it in
the previous image?

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing The Limits:
I pushed the ISO 1-stop to 200 because of’ the low light
‘emergency’ situation. That allowed shutter speed to move
up to 1/5 sec (dangerously slow). Needing a faster speed, I
set the camera bias to EC ‘-1’. That allowed me to increase
the shutter speed 1-stop to 1/10 sec, still extremely slow for
a hand held shot. I would not have attempted the shot
without Image Stabilization.
Even with all that emergency ‘adjustments’, the exposure
setting was still a borderline 1/10 sec at f/3.2. The last
‘adjustment’ was to use the 11mm ‘normal’ focal length. I
also added an additional camera stabilization by bracing my
back against the next shoe rack.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Good Result: Lucky
This would make a very
fine industrial espionage
photo .
The PowerShot performed
extremely well and
surprised me with the
example detail to the top
right.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital The
Photography
camera test is I100% but the intended story is about 90%.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Details: Hand held shot
In order to get this level of sharpness, I
cranked the ISO up to 200 and made

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

.

Outdoor Skylight Shot Example
Parking Lot (Found) Shot

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

This black area is the ‘10% safety-margin’ crop-frame applied to the camera original.

Before Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise.
One.

AFTER: Cropped, processed, & colorized. This is the same image as the previous BEFORE image. .

Digital Photography I

Over-The-Top Shoe:
I walk for my exercise. One
of my indoor walking place
is the near by Fred Meyers.
I always make sure to walk
by the shoe department.
This tiny over-the-top shoe
always make me laugh.
Here is my attempt to
share it with you.
I used a new camera,
Canon PowerShot S5 IS.
I’m testing it for the NSCC
Media department.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Processing Steps:
Processed

The top image has been
basic processed to bring
out the ‘presence’.
Light painted bottom
example look more like
what I visualized when I
found the shot.
Light painted technique
utilizes selection with
feathered edges and a
liberal use of ‘painting
on the mask’.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Detail: Digital noise…

Detail

Both my Panasonic and Canon
super-zooms have 8 MP sensors,
which is pushing the practical
limits of the tiny thumb-nail size
sensor chip.
The 8 MP is causing serious over
crowding which results in excess
heat. And that results in digital
Noise, which is similar to film
grain. The top Detail image shows the
noise problem. The grain is making the
image less sharp, less contrasty, and less
present. The technical flaws are getting in the
way of seeing just the object…

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Any excuse to shoot

Pushing the Practical Limits:
With current technology, 8 MP is pushing the
practical limits of the compact digital sensor
chip. Until the chip size or chip technology
changes, fighting digital noise with electronic
‘smoothing’ is playing havoc with trying to maintain photorealistic image quality.
I would rather see more R&D focused on minimizing heat
and digital noise rather than in continuing to increase sales
by upping the pixel count. Unfortunately, that’s a harder sell
for the camera makers. And to some extent, it works for
them to create compact digitals that does not compete with
their DSLR digitals.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

New Kids On The Block:
Sony and Panasonic are the new kids on the block.
Sony is pushing hard at the heels of Nikon and
Canon, the big boys. They both have to offer and
deliver more to be noticed in an already crowded field
of digital cameras.
Panasonic is not a serious contender yet. So it has
less to lose and more to gain by making their
SuperZoom prosumer compact digital lead the pack.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Competition: It’s good for us
In order to get noticed as ‘real’, Panasonic teamed up
with Leitz to produce their digital cameras. Leitz is
famous for their Lica cameras. And the partnership is
good for both companies. Panasonic supplies the
advanced electronics while Leitz supplies the
advanced zoom design with excellent optics.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Direct competition

Panasonic DMC FZ18: My current favorite
I started with a Nikon Coolpix Prosumer 900
but, currently with both a longer (18x) super-zoom by
Leica and the power of the RAW image file format.
Nikon and Canon have both withdrawn the RAW
capability from their compact digitals.
Panasonic was very wise to offer the RAW capability
to their Super-Zoom digital. More than the Leica lens,
the RAW is what made me buy the Panasonic Lumix
FZ-18.
With the the RAW does improve the image quality
from FZ18, it still suffers from being ‘grainy’. Although
the RAW allows me to make the grain look more like
film grain, which was beautiful in some ways.

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place

Sony: A contender
Sony does not offer the RAW capability because it’s
going for the #3 spot in the DSLR market. Sony does
not want its own CyberShot superzoom H series to
complete with it DSLR Alpha series.

Sony Alpha 100 was the DSLR ‘Camera of the Year’
for 2-years in a row. And they continue to get noticed
with all their new models.
Besides putting the IS into the body, they offer active
LCD preview and live histogram. They are the only
camera maker to offer high image quality zoom lens
with the preferred 18 to 70mm zoom range as a kit
lens choice.

Digital Photography I
Canon PowerShot S5is Test: Competitive market place:

Summary
Both Nikon and Canon put the IS in the lens which
makes each lens heavier and more expensive.
Sony’s offers lighter zoom lenses with superb
German optics at a more affordable pricing.

If your thinking about moving up to a DSLR, give
the Sony Alpha 350 ($900), a serious though.
Although I still recommend the Panasonic FZ18
($329) over any DSLR.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

Digital Photography I

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana

x

Fin