My friend Noah was selling his bike, we got a few shots before it got sold

For the second year in a row I photographed the Oxford University London lecture in Church House, London. The main hall is a vast, striking room. I usilised a variety of wide angle and telephoto lenses to try and capture the perspective of the rom. It is not that often that I get to use my 10mm fisheye for events, but in this case I did so to capture the vast space.

Professor Sarah Harper was the lead speaker, her talk was discussing the changing spread of the age of the population and the effects on the economy and the health systems. She is one of the few people to see a bright future, and talked much of the great planning work being done in many Asian countries.

For a brief period in March the sun actually shone and it felt like maybe England isn’t such a bad place to live.

Good sessions, hurry up summer!

Introduction

For a long time I have wanted something in between my iPhone and my digital SLR which produced photographs that were of print quality. Often when I am traveling it is not practical to carry a digital SLR all the time, or don’t want to attract attention by taking out a large ‘professional’ looking camera.

The iPhone camera is great, and serves it’s purpose. But the image quality even on the latest iPhone 4 just isn’t quite there, especially in difficult low light situations.

I have had various other cheaper point and shoot cameras over the years, but I wanted a Camera that I can easily put in my pocket but know that the end result would have the potential to make prints from. The new Canon S100 seemed to meet my requirements so I took the plunge… Here are my thoughts.

Camera specs

• High-sensitivity 12.1 MP Canon CMOS
• HS System with DIGIC 5
• Ultra-wide 24mm, f/2.0, 5x zoom lens. Intelligent IS
• Lens Control Ring, NR control and RAW
• GPS tracking
• Full HD 1080p video, HDMI output
• Large 7.5 cm (3.0″) LCD
• Up to ISO 6400

Taken from Canon S100 webpage, full specifications there

Sample images

These are un-edited JPEGs from the camera. Click to view the full size images.

Pizza shot with in natural light – 1/60s F/2.0 and ISO800

Ski slope – ISO 80, 1/1250s, F/4.5

Mountain view – ISO 80, 1/320s, f/5,9

Headphone – ISO 400, 1/60s f/2.0

Advantages

• Fits in your pocket
• Fast F/2.0 aperture at wide end
• RAW files
• Great image quality at lower ISOs
• Acceptable image quality at ISO 1600
• GPS is a great feature
• Good sold built quality
• Responsive controls and no waiting for RAW file writes
• Video looks great
• Built in ND filter
• Wide 24mm lens

Disadvantages

• Small sensor, so limited depth of field
• Expensive
• Lens is slow when zoomed in (F/5.9 at long end)
• Function dial and shutter button are the wrong way round in my opinion!!
• Lacks custom functions available on DSLRs (considering price)
• Battery life isn’t great
• No optical view finder

All content and pictures Copyright Ed Salter 2012. No re-use without permission.