Canon Powershot A95 ??

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Love my A95, would buy another in a heartbeat, and have had
friends buy one after seeing ours. Don't drop it on the lens
when it's turned on though, they don't like that!

The only real drawbacks I find with it are that damn AiAF
autofocus - set it to center focus as soon as you get the
batteries in it, and I often have to try 3 or 4 times to get
decent autofocus at night under standard indoors lighting.

-Chris D

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:24:09 +0930, Chris D
<dicko-news@riverland.AAARRRGNOMORESPAM.net.au> wrote:

>Love my A95, would buy another in a heartbeat, and have had
>friends buy one after seeing ours. Don't drop it on the lens
>when it's turned on though, they don't like that!
>
>The only real drawbacks I find with it are that damn AiAF
>autofocus - set it to center focus as soon as you get the
>batteries in it, and I often have to try 3 or 4 times to get
>decent autofocus at night under standard indoors lighting.
>
>-Chris D

Chris D,
I agree completely, it works much better with the AiAF set to
center, less to confuse the AF & slow it down. An additional note
with regard to AF problems is a simple solution that I found on the
net that works extremely well 100% of the time "if" you do your part,
here is the link to the information:

http://albert.achtung.com/cameras/A80/index7.html#SNAP

Note this link talks about the A80 but the same principle will
work with the A95 too. The "C" , "Custom" mode setting will remember
all of your settings including Manual Focus & lens zoom position.
It's interesting that the 1 thing many people don't like about P&S
cameras is that they have such a huge DOF (Depth Of Field) that it's
difficult to isolated somebody with a narrow DOF. This method uses
that aspect of P&S to good advantage & basically turns it into a hyper
focal camera or at least 1 with a preset deep DOF near where you
expect your subject if interest to be. Reduces shutter lag from about
0.9 seconds to about 0.1 seconds too because AF is what takes the most
time & also what sometimes fails to work correctly in low contrast
lighting situations.

This method works with any camera that has MF Manual Focus but
the A80 & A95 both have a "C", "Custom" mode on the dial which will
remember the settings, thus making it just a turn of the dial to get
to your favorite settings. I also own an A60 & A70 & have used this
method with both cameras & it works great for action shots with
minimal shutter lag but I have to set the manual focus each time I
turn on the camera & just like with the A95, you must keep the LCD on
with live display.

I thought this would drain the batteries faster (LCD on) but I
was surprised that it did not reduce battery life much, probably
because the focus motor must take a considerable amount of power too &
when set to MF it never has to run. So if you take lot's of action
shots or shots in very poorly lit rooms where AF lag or accuracy can
be a problem, try this method. It's so simple, I often wonder why I
never thought of it but am thankful that somebody did & was nice
enough to share that information with the rest of us.

As for the A95 being a bit noisy above ISO 50, it is. That's
why Canon set the ISO to 50 for every mode other than full "AUTO"
where it to floats from 50-140 ISO but does still try to keep it as
low as possible. At ISO 50 the pictures are very clean & sharp for
any P&S camera is this price range. As for higher ISO's I never use
them with this camera & find that ISO=50 works just fine for 95+ % of
what I use this camera for. Also there are very good noise reduction
programs like "NeatImage" which does a very good job @ minimizing
noise in a picture. Also the process of having them printed on
photographic paper tends to also smooth out some of the noticeable
noise that is much more noticeable on a quality monitor.

Last I recall, B&H was selling the A95 for $260 USD.

Hope this info. helps you & or others.

Respectfully, DHB


..
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Way cool, it works on my A85 except for not being able to store it in a
custom setting. Excuse me while I go and play with it a while, the camera
that is.

Thanks for the tip.


"DHB" <yoda2k@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:k5pta1lhavim82qf85uub1k601mq5ida8t@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:24:09 +0930, Chris D
> <dicko-news@riverland.AAARRRGNOMORESPAM.net.au> wrote:
>
>>Love my A95, would buy another in a heartbeat, and have had
>>friends buy one after seeing ours. Don't drop it on the lens
>>when it's turned on though, they don't like that!
>>
>>The only real drawbacks I find with it are that damn AiAF
>>autofocus - set it to center focus as soon as you get the
>>batteries in it, and I often have to try 3 or 4 times to get
>>decent autofocus at night under standard indoors lighting.
>>
>>-Chris D
>
> Chris D,
> I agree completely, it works much better with the AiAF set to
> center, less to confuse the AF & slow it down. An additional note
> with regard to AF problems is a simple solution that I found on the
> net that works extremely well 100% of the time "if" you do your part,
> here is the link to the information:
>
> http://albert.achtung.com/cameras/A80/index7.html#SNAP
>
> Note this link talks about the A80 but the same principle will
> work with the A95 too. The "C" , "Custom" mode setting will remember
> all of your settings including Manual Focus & lens zoom position.
> It's interesting that the 1 thing many people don't like about P&S
> cameras is that they have such a huge DOF (Depth Of Field) that it's
> difficult to isolated somebody with a narrow DOF. This method uses
> that aspect of P&S to good advantage & basically turns it into a hyper
> focal camera or at least 1 with a preset deep DOF near where you
> expect your subject if interest to be. Reduces shutter lag from about
> 0.9 seconds to about 0.1 seconds too because AF is what takes the most
> time & also what sometimes fails to work correctly in low contrast
> lighting situations.
>
> This method works with any camera that has MF Manual Focus but
> the A80 & A95 both have a "C", "Custom" mode on the dial which will
> remember the settings, thus making it just a turn of the dial to get
> to your favorite settings. I also own an A60 & A70 & have used this
> method with both cameras & it works great for action shots with
> minimal shutter lag but I have to set the manual focus each time I
> turn on the camera & just like with the A95, you must keep the LCD on
> with live display.
>
> I thought this would drain the batteries faster (LCD on) but I
> was surprised that it did not reduce battery life much, probably
> because the focus motor must take a considerable amount of power too &
> when set to MF it never has to run. So if you take lot's of action
> shots or shots in very poorly lit rooms where AF lag or accuracy can
> be a problem, try this method. It's so simple, I often wonder why I
> never thought of it but am thankful that somebody did & was nice
> enough to share that information with the rest of us.
>
> As for the A95 being a bit noisy above ISO 50, it is. That's
> why Canon set the ISO to 50 for every mode other than full "AUTO"
> where it to floats from 50-140 ISO but does still try to keep it as
> low as possible. At ISO 50 the pictures are very clean & sharp for
> any P&S camera is this price range. As for higher ISO's I never use
> them with this camera & find that ISO=50 works just fine for 95+ % of
> what I use this camera for. Also there are very good noise reduction
> programs like "NeatImage" which does a very good job @ minimizing
> noise in a picture. Also the process of having them printed on
> photographic paper tends to also smooth out some of the noticeable
> noise that is much more noticeable on a quality monitor.
>
> Last I recall, B&H was selling the A95 for $260 USD.
>
> Hope this info. helps you & or others.
>
> Respectfully, DHB
>
>
> .
> "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
> or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong,
> is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
> to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918