Benefits of anti-shake in A1

[a7man]

Hi all,

may i know what are the benefits of having anti-shake in A1 besides preventing a blurr picture at end of the 7x zoom.

Does it also mean that I could take a decent night shots without tripod and also taking great indoor photos w/o any flash?

me need to know cos now deciding to get either Oly 5060 or A1.

If the anti-shake can really do the above...then more likely i will get A1...

oh yeah..does enabling the anti-shake 'suck up' the battery life ?

thks

[chriszzz]

Originally Posted by a7man Hi all, may i know what are the benefits of having anti-shake in A1 besides preventing a blurr picture at end of the 7x zoom. Does it also mean that I could take a decent night shots without tripod and also taking great indoor photos w/o any flash? me need to know cos now deciding to get either Oly 5060 or A1. If the anti-shake can really do the above...then more likely i will get A1... oh yeah..does enabling the anti-shake 'suck up' the battery life ? thks

You can take indoor (normal room lighting) shots ( I mean from the shutter speed point of view ) with AS ( antishake), although you might need to bump your ISO up to 200. It adds 1-3 stops to your shutter speed ( ie, divides your lowest handheld speed by 2 to 8 ). So if you shoot at 50mm, your handhold speed will change from the normal 1/50 to between 1/25 to 1/6, depending on how steady your hands are. This is usually enough to take a shot without using the flash. I've found that when the shutter speed is on the longish side, it helps to take a few shots. Usually, one of them will be sharp.


But NO, you CANNOT take decent night time photos with AS, because it is common for shutter speeds to range from 2 seconds and up. So AS would not be useful. Instead, you should use a tripod.

If I had to choose between the 5060 and the A1, I would take the A1. The superb ergonomics and feel of the A1, the fast SLR-style twist zooming, fast AF, plus its very versatile 28-200 lens, plus AntiShake are more than good enough reasons to choose it. On a trip to Europe, I took the A1 along instead of my 300D, and didn't regret it for 1 second.

[sulhan]

Hiee...

The AS can really help to "recover" shots at low shutter speeds well with proper hand held technique to low speeds up to 1/6 secs.

Here is an example taken today.....due to large after-office hour crowd cant.' use tripod...the AS was used in the shot to take photo of my lil girl with motion blurred people in background....at the train station...


Tv: 1/6sec
ISO: 100
Av: f3.5

BTW...battery life...excellent....(my rating)...now into 4th day haven't recharge yet......and its winter temperature too......great battery....

regards,
Sulhan

[chriszzz]

Originally Posted by sulhan Hiee... BTW...battery life...excellent....(my rating)...now into 4th day haven't recharge yet......and its winter temperature too......great battery.... regards, Sulhan

Battery life is excellent. DPReivew tests have shown that the A1 has the 2nd longest battery life of digicams they've tested, bettering the record set by the previous champs Sony 717 and Canon G3.

I used it in fairly cold weather ( below 10 C ) and found that with heavy IS use, I can still get 100-150 shots per battery, and that's a new battery ( batteries normally need a few charge/discharge cycles to reach peak capacity ). In warmer weather ( > 10 C), I get more than 200 shots per battery, using a microdrive ( which consumes more power than a normal CF ).

[a7man]

Hi guys,

thks for all the help and replies....