Canon S70 - A620

[Sjokkel]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum so i need to do a little introduction. I'm Belgian and moved to Curacao a couple months ago. I will be staying here for a couple of years. In the weekends i'm mostly diving. I'm an experience photographer on dry land but i'm new to underwater photography.
On land i'm using a 20D . I love that camera but i think it is to early to take it underwater with me. I needed a smaller camera that wouldn't take up too much space and would't be too expensive. After reading some forums i decited to get an S70 with a WP-DC40 housing. The store didn't have an S70 and offered me an A620. I didn't know the camera because it was brand new. He told me the underwater housings would arrive also in 10 days. Ordering an S70 would take him 3 weeks but he had the WP-DC40 housing. I decited to read up on the a620. On my trip home i noticed an S70 in a store, bargained with the guy and he gave me a good price. I bought it and picked up the housing in the other store.
I tested the S70 the day after. It was very clouded but i still wanted to test my purchase. I went out with my gf in rather rough sea. I was not expecting to get any descent shots because of the low light but the S70 didn't seem to have any problems with it. I made a couple of movies which were nice also.
You can check them at http://weeweewee.be/dive if you'd like

When i got home i started reading the review of the A620 and started thinking i may have made a hasty and bad descision.
The A620 is using a DIGICII sensor which i love in my 20D, it had a 1 cm macro mode... i just love macro ... it has better movie quality.
The S70 seems a bit more sturdy, can shoot in RAW, has 28 mm wide instead of the 35 on the A620 and uses the same CF cards as my 20D.

I'm still able to change the S70 +WP-DC40 for a A620 + WP-DC90.

I needed this much text just to ask the following :
What should i do ?

 

[HowardE]

I am confused... You have the S70 or the A620 or both?

 

[midwestdvr]

I have the a620 but I don't have the s70. I've played around with the s60 (which I think is just a lower megapixel version of the s70) in the store and I think the focusing and shutter lag is better with the a620. However, the s70 does have the wide angle lens, the a620 does not and I haven't heard of any adapter for wide angle lens yet for the wp-dc90. And if you're a photoshopaholic, I've heard that RAW is the only way to go. Sorry can't give you opinion on the video mode since I didn't play around with it on the s60 but I'm amazed with the quality of the a620.

Sorry didn't really tell which one to pick but just gave you more things to consider. Hope you pick the right one for you. Also, never tried the a620 underwater yet so my opinion is only based on topside observations. Good luck and I envy you. You've got a nice underwater backyard there.

midwestdvr

 

[Sjokkel]

I am confused... You have the S70 or the A620 or both?

I own an S70 , not an a620 but i can still exchange it for an A620.

Bot 7.1 Mpix, both their advantages. Is it possible to get a macro adaptor for the WP-DC 40 and the canon S70.
The 1 cm macro of the A620 is what i'm missing on the S70 :s

 

[HowardE]

My wife uses the S70... We both think it takes great photos. I agree with your analysis of the 2 cameras, and I also picked the S70 because of the wider angle lens, and the ability to shoot in RAW.

My gallery has a lot of her photos (shot with an S70) posted there.

 

[scubadobadoo]

That's a tough one. Both decent cameras but I chose the a610 (5.1 mp version of the a620) because of the faster shutter and focus speed. I have to say, it is really fast! Easily more than twice as fast as my OLD Canon a80. I also liked the macro mode more too. Great movie mode up to 60fps helped too. Wide angle didn't really mean much to me personally and shooting in RAW wasn't either. The a620 is really new so not alot of underwater gizmos for it yet but I think that will change since it really is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) cameras in its price range of $305-$400. Tough choice but I think the faster digic II is worth it. Have fun shooting!

 

[Sjokkel]

That's a tough one. Both decent cameras but I chose the a610 (5.1 mp version of the a620) because of the faster shutter and focus speed. I have to say, it is really fast! Easily more than twice as fast as my OLD Canon a80. I also liked the macro mode more too. Great movie mode up to 60fps helped too. Wide angle didn't really mean much to me personally and shooting in RAW wasn't either. The a620 is really new so not alot of underwater gizmos for it yet but I think that will change since it really is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) cameras in its price range of $305-$400. Tough choice but I think the faster digic II is worth it. Have fun shooting!

I just went to the store and tested the macro mode of the a620 ... it certainly has me hooked ... but on the other hand .... is there a big advantage in having RAW as a format on the S70. I never use it when shooting the 20D ... but in underwater photography some PS editing would be nice. Also in bad weather i managed to get all my shots done at ISO 100 in the S70 so i think you won't notice the difference in noise between the DIGIC and DIGIC 2 at iso 100. Only the extremely fast focussing and the macro of the a 620 are a huge + . How is the WP-DC90 compared to the WP-DC40 ?

 

[scubadobadoo]

I just went to the store and tested the macro mode of the a620 ... it certainly has me hooked ... but on the other hand .... is there a big advantage in having RAW as a format on the S70. I never use it when shooting the 20D ... but in underwater photography some PS editing would be nice. Also in bad weather i managed to get all my shots done at ISO 100 in the S70 so i think you won't notice the difference in noise between the DIGIC and DIGIC 2 at iso 100. Only the extremely fast focussing and the macro of the a 620 are a huge + . How is the WP-DC90 compared to the WP-DC40 ?

Can't answer your housing questions as I am still waiting for the wp-dc90 to arrive in the mail on the 13th. Making add ons for it might be tough as the housing port is more square than round and the flash cover is also attached to the port. Nonetheless, a camera with this many features and at that price doesn't exist elsewhere so I think the a620 could become the new oly 5050 so to speak. A cheaper camera with higher end qualities. All I can say is that the faster focus and shutter won me over along with the macro mode. My old a80 was a decent camera but I hated how slow it was. As for RAW, I have never had it so don't have any experience using it. Many won't buy a camera without it. It's kinda like the BP/W of camera features, LOL. Someone will chime in on the RAW issue...

 

[midwestdvr]

The flash diffuser on the wp-dc90 is attached to the lens port but can be removed. As scubadobadoo stated, the lens port is more square than round and would make it difficult to devise a lens adapter for it. Also, that lens port seems to portrude quite a bit from the housing so there may be some shadow issues if you're not using a diffuser. Would like to test that theory out but I'm all packed and I also use a strobe so probably won't be an issue for me.

As for the RAW vs. non-RAW, there are diehards here that swears by it. I imagine if you can tweak a decent pic into a really good pic, then RAW is a must have feature. For me, I'm lazy. If I don't get it right the first couple of shots (I bracket), then don the dive gear and dive some more. Makes for a good exuse to go diving.

midwestdvr

 

[Sjokkel]

The flash diffuser on the wp-dc90 is attached to the lens port but can be removed. As scubadobadoo stated, the lens port is more square than round and would make it difficult to devise a lens adapter for it. Also, that lens port seems to portrude quite a bit from the housing so there may be some shadow issues if you're not using a diffuser. Would like to test that theory out but I'm all packed and I also use a strobe so probably won't be an issue for me.
midwestdvr

I am thinking the fast focus of the A620 combined with the great macro and movie mode is more important to me then the ability to shoot in RAW. I just hope the WP-DC90 is any good. Does anybody here have one?

All shots on the site were done without flash. The visibility here is great even in bad cloudy topside weather up to 18 m depth ... i guess below that i'll be using flash ... or to shoot underneath a piece of coral or something.

Thx guys for all the info... i'm liking this board allready