My wife is looking to get into photography a bit. Nothing professional, just a step up from the average. I/We know squat about cameras.

We've been looking at a Canon S3 IS. It's on sale right now for $319, so that's about the price range we're looking at, and of course adding a good SD card.
Canon S3 IS

Looking at it in the store, it has a lot of features, amazing zoom, and fits her hand good. 6 mp seems low compared to some others, but megapixels aren't everything, or so I've been told?

Comments, suggestions?

I don't know anything about that camera but maybe you can find some better answers here..

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

Great stuff, thanks!

5 trucks to you.

www.dpreview.com is also an awesome Photography review site. Here's their review on the S3: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3is/

Looks like a more modern version of the Powershot G6, which I had before upgrading to my Rebel XTI. Well I still have the G6 too, wife just uses it now instead. Can't go to wrong with a Canon and for $320 that sounds pretty good, Beachcamera.com the site I always deal with has it at $301 with no tax outside of NY.

Depends on what you plan to do with your pics. If you're going to make prints, especially enlargements, the more MP the better. For example, I have a a 6MP camera (Canon Digital Rebel) and at the max resolution setting it produces excellent prints up to say 16X20 or so. You can go bigger but you'll see some degradation in quality.

Please note the part about max resolution since that's an important aspect of digital photography. A low-res pic looks fine on a computer monitor but you won't be able to print it larger than 4x6 or so. When you get your camera, be sure to set it to the highest resolution and buy a big memory card (at least 1 GB) so you'll be able to take plenty of pics.

I know someone who had a baby last year and has dozens of very cute pics of her. Sadly, they didn't know about resolution so their camera was on a low-res setting. Now none of those pics can be printed bigger than wallet-size.

Please read this twice: Back up your pictures. I learned the hard way. When - not if - your hard drive dies, and it will one day, everything not backed up will be gone, never to be seen again. External drive, DVDs, however you want to do it...just do it, and often.

Don't leave anything on your hard drive that's not backed up unless you're prepared to lose it. Some software allows you to automatically back up pics as you download them off the card.

Getting a good camera is important, but a good eye for composition is most important to producing great pics. Here's a link with some good articles: http://www.betterphoto.com/home.asp

Also, take a look at Picasa from Google. It's free and has some nice organizational and editing features.

BTW, photography makes for great gifts. Just did Mother's Day calendars using family pics for my daughter and mom at snapfish.com.

I'd be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Just shoot me an e-mail or PM. Not an expert by any stretch but I've been shooting for a long time and enjoy sharing what I've learned.

If you're interested, go to my photo blog to see some of my work. It desperately needs updating but there's some good stuff there.

Good luck!

Well, thanks to the link from RIX, I saw the Staples deal. I got the S3 IS, a Canon IP6310D printer and 2 gig Ultra II SD for $480. I have $100 in rebates, so basically the printer is free. She's going to love it.

Russell, thanks for the info. Great site you have, good stuff!

Congrats! You got a great deal on an awesome camera! I have the S1 IS (only 3MP), and I've been considering upgrading to the S3. The ultrazoom feature is awesome, and with its movie mode, the S3 is nearly the ultimate still/video camera in one!

A couple of years ago, I took my S1 IS, a 2gig memory card, and a "digital wallet" (to download my pics each day) on a 3-week vacation. I used the camera to take photos, as well as short movies, to document my trip.

I have a S2 IS and I love it.

One of the best camera sites that I have found is dpreview

http://www.dpreview.com/

These days, the size of the sensor is just as, if not more, important.

I have a Nikon D100, a friend has the Sony DSC F828. The Sony has 8MP, the Nikon 6MP.

I guarantee the Nikon is going to take MUCH better pictures - ones that can be blown up much better.

The Nikon's sensor is 23.7x15.5mm. The Sony's sensor is 8.8x6.6mm.

The Nikon is nearly 9x the size of the Sony.

(They are both Sony made sensors, btw)

That's a really good point, Moby.

The sensor size and the lens' resolving ability should be closely matched on whatever camera they're paired on. The D100 is a professional digital SLR camera, while the F828 is a "prosumer" model. Lenses for the D100 can cost more than the camera body itself. I would expect better picture quality from the D100 because its lenses are much bigger.

Small lenses don't do a big sensor any good, just as large lenses won't really be of much help with a small sensor.

Nikon D40 or D50. Excellent cameras which make excellent shots. Don't waste any money on extra lenses or useless filters, except for a nice polarizer.

My sister has that camera (Canon S3 IS) and it takes great pics even blown up to 20X30 thay looked realy sharp. Im not up on all the photo mubo jombo mojo but I know what my eyes see...I almost bought one myself but got a smoking deal on a Sony H5 a few months ago that I could not pass up. FWIW Had the deal not come up on the H5 I would have gotten the canon.

http://www.dcviews.com/reviews/Sony-H5-Canon-S3/Sony-H5-Canon-S3-review.htm

See you've already purchased, but lots of good and accurate advise in here already. The S3 IS is one of the best point and shoots available at the price point right now, so you purchased wisely.

And, yes, sensor size is more important many times than the number of megapixels. I, too, have a 6MP Canon Digital Rebel and have taken some pretty awesome pictures with it. When you get into digital SLRs, lens choice is a very important factor. Generally speaking, more money = better quality images.

When all is said and done, however, the most expensive camera will not take any better pictures from an aesthetic standpoint than the cheapest point and shoot. The person pushing the shutter button decides that.

Not many huge differences between the S2 and the S3 except the S3 costs about $100 more. If you didn't get it already, try and find a new S2 and use that money on accessories (like a lens cap - the lens cap on the S2 and S3 are GHETTO. Also the popup flash is a bit ghetto too.)

I suggest you get this lens adapter: http://www.lensmateonline.com/newsite/S2.html

It protects the telescoping feature as well as gives you threads to mount a UV filter or polarizing filter, etc. Also lets you upgrade the lens cap to something that won't fall off so often.

I dunno how this affects the timing for you - but Canon just announced the S5 IS last week. (What happened to the S4?????)

Prices on the S4 might be coming down slightly in the new few months.