28mm wide angle in digital

Boy, I've been jilted. New Canon Powershot S60 can't produce sharp
pictures at its wide-angle (28mm in 35mm equiv.) setting. Either the
edges or center of all images are blurry and distorted. Can't even read
the street signs in my shots. And the purple fringing is severe, even
in moderately contrasty subjects. What a downer.

(BTW, this wasn't a camera shake issue. I had the same issues when the
camera was set on a tripod or a firm support.)

Has anyone found--and actually used!--a good wide-angle non-DSLR
digicam that can produce sharp images across the frame? That Samsung
Pro815 is supposed to, but I have yet to see either a review or a
retailer selling them.

-Cardamon Dave

 

Hi Dave,

Before giving up on the camera try using a couple of programs to fix
the images -

If you have Adobe, try the unsharp mask. If you do not have adobe, try
downloading either GIMP, and the unsharp mask, or PICASA 2, and then
use the I'm feeling lucky button on the menu.

Those programs are if you are on a Windows Box. If you are on a Linux
or FreeBSD box, then you should have GIMP install, and you can try the
unsharp mask. If you are on a Mac, I am afraid I am not going to be
much help other then I was told that Adobe came from Mac's to begin
with.

Now, if you are on a FreeBSD box, you should be able to find a version
of GIMP that will run on it.

Solaris, I have no clue!

A Unix box, again, you should be able to find a version of GIMP to use.
GIMP is not as user friendly as Adobe, but it does work. It is just a
little clunky.

Even with a Canon Digital Rebel, I find I have to do a little bit of
color balancing on the computer before printing.

roland

 

Cardamon Dave wrote:
[]

Nikon Coolpix 8400 - 24mm as-supplied, 19mm with attachment. I have the
plain 8MP 8400 and I've been delighted with it.

David

 

My Olympus C-5060 can, and I've heard the C-7070 is as good. Mild
barrel distortion, but sharp right to the corners at 27mm equivalent.
There's a freeware program that can correct the distortion - search for
PTLens. I shoot a lot of indoors pics at full wide angle and they
print really nice.

ECM

 

The Olympus C8080 handles 28mm very nicely, especially at f/5.6. The camera
is out of production, so if you find one, you can get it for a very
reasonable price. It's not a perfect camera (slow write to file in RAW
mode, slow focus in dim light) nor is it compact, but the optics and the
picture quality are superb.
David "Routemeister" Thompson
http://home.rochester.rr.com/backroads/

 

The indoor wide angle, how is the response of the camera re: focus and
exposure during these shots? I have an opportunity to buy either the
5060 or 7070 and that aspect is important to me. I have read (no
first hand knowledge) that the 7070 is not as responsive as the 5060
in this regard.

 

Well, I've not noted a lot of focus issues with my C-5060; the C-7070
is supposed to be improved according to some reports. However,I don't
have a lot to compare against - I went from a manual focus Nikon SLR to
the C-5060. The focus assist lamp, while it is irritating to the
subject, is very bright; if I can see the subject with my own eyes I
can usually get a focus lock on it eventually. It can sometimes take a
few seconds. Macro focus is more difficult; I usually use manual focus
mode and it helps a lot.

As for exposure indoors, it was OK if you were near a window in the
daytime, but at night or in low lighting a flash is required. I never
liked the look of the built-in flash in the C-5060 - mainly because I
was used to the external bounceable flash I used with the Nikon, I
suspect. I eventually broke down and bought an external TTL flash, it
made a huge difference and I've gotten a lot of excellent exposures.

Good Luck!
ECM

 

One of the faster auto-focus cameras is the Nikon 8400, as it has an extra
focus sensor (as well as measuring contrast of the imaging sensor). It's
now discontinued (I understand) so may be available quite cheaply.

David

 

I do event photography and often use my 5060 (with either FL-20 or
FL-36 ext flash), often with a wide angle converter. I do not use the
focus assist lamp and get excellent results; very seldom is anything
out of focus. In terms of the overall sharpness at wide angle, I get
very good results and seldom have to do any tweaking. Depending on
camera angle there can be some barrel distortion but that is fixed
easily with any number of programs. Incidentally, I also own an Oly
E-300, another very good camera. It is very difficult to discern any
difference in the overall quality of images taken by the two cameras.
The 5060's exposure system seems more accurate and reliable,
particularly in backlighting situations or where there is a bright
light near the center. And, for indoor or candid photography in
particular the tilting/swiveling 5060 monitor is a godsend.

 

I have an S60 also and haven't noticed any such problems. Sounds like you
got a lemon.

Nikon Coolpix 8400 is the way to go for wide angle, as far as I'm concerned.
It's 24-85mm in 35mm equivalence. I'm very happy with mine. Not pocketable
like the S60 but still a reasonably small camera.

Neil

 

"David J Taylor"
message [ . . . ]

I read somewhere that Nikon is dropping its "prosumer" cameras altogether,
so I guess this is the end of the line for the 8xxx models.

And yes, the 8400 is now available quite cheaply--it's $500 at Ritz with
free shipping. I'm tempted to get another one for a spare, since there won't
be any more.

Neil

 

I've taken thousands of shots with my S60 in over a year of ownership, and
apart from it haveing a noisier sensor than the S30 it replaced, I've
certailnly not noticed the problems you describe.

The pictures from both the S30 and S60 are fairly soft straight from the
camera, and nearly always benefit form a touch of sharpening in Photoshop.

As for purple fringing, I've never found this to be a problem at all apart
from in the most severe of lighting situations.

Apart from the extra noise in skies, I've found the S60 to be better in
virtually every way to my S30.

 

"David J Taylor" <-this-bit.nor-this-
part.uk.invalid> wrote in @text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

I use the older Coolpix 5000 -- 28mm as-is, and 19 with the attachment. I
like it both ways. It's good and sharp at wide angles, and doesn't have too
much purple fringe. I'd like the 8400 too, I'm sure, but so far I haven't
gotten it into the budget.

Bob

 

I'll second Bob's CP5000 suggestion. Most of these were made with the
wide angle lens (19mm equiv) on that camera:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/AB02CA3CB73E41E

 

I like the ones that focus in on the graphic elements painted on the cars.

I use mine a lot with the 19mm attachment for architecture.

Bob

 

Canon PowerShot Pro1? I'm almost certainly not as demanding as many of the
Pro users on this newsgroup, but I am absolutely delighted with my Pro1 and
its 28-200mm (equiv) L series lens.

So long as I don't want to go above ISO 100, of course.

regards,
/alan