Thanks that all sounds great, I think she will be wanting to take full set shots so wont need to worry about the aperture going down with zooming in, and the 28mm lens sounds good for this. It would be brilliant if you get a chance to check the camera noises, I think that is the only potential problem. It looks like a great camera, cant wait to actually use it!
Thanks so much for your help.

Nic

The f2.0 lens is awesome for low light, so you will be able to get better shots with a faster shutter speed than with most other compacts. Because of the subject you would be shooting (actors) + the lighting challenge you will want to keep shutter speed as high as possible to reduce shake. You’ll need the wide aperture and the pretty decent high ISO settings to accomplish this. Stage lighting should be enough that you really wouldn’t need a flash so a compact should work fine (plus the actors would hate your girlfriend if she used a flash during performances).

One thing that you need to know is that f2.0 only applies at the widest angle setting. If you start zooming into your subject then the aperture drops off.

@ 28mm the widest aperture is f2.0
@ 105mm the widest aperture is f4.9
Unfortunatly I can’t tell you exactly how the f stop lines up with focal length but here is an approximation:
28mm – f2
35mm -f2.8
50mm – f3.5
85mm – f4.5
105mm – f4.9

So if your girlfriend needs to zoom in to capture an actors face she needs to know that she won’t have the wide aperture. What you can do instead though is crop the image during post processing to get a closeup. You may encounter some pixellation but it’s better than having a blurry/out of focus closeup.

If you were thinking of an SLR you could get a 3omm f1.4 which might be the best possible combination. For wider angles you’d need to add a 11-16mm f2.8 to get the wide shots. You’ll definitely get better pics, but you’re paying a lot more to do this + the hassle of changing lenses.

Because your girlfriend is a theater designer I’m assuming that she cares more about getting a wider viewing angle (I was thinking set design), so the 28mm might be enough on the S90 might be enough (just don’t show her what an 11-16mm can do).

In terms of silencing the camera I haven’t noticed too much noise and I’m sure there is an option but I would need to check first. I can let you know when I find out.

Are you still using the camera?

I advise you to learn to edit pictures, you’ll find that with just a little effort you can make a good picture look fantastic by changing the exposure and saturation slightly. Don’t bother learning photoshop it is way too complicated for beginners, instead check out Google Picasa. It’s free and will do about 90% of the tasks that most photographers need for picture editing. Also there are plenty of sites and tutorial where you can learn from other Picasa users.

I currently use Adobe Lightroom, which I consider somewhere in between Photoshop and Picasa. It’s a great program and I’d recommend it as a next purchase for anyone who wants to move beyond Picasa for their picture editing.

Scroll through the comments, I’ve posted a few pictures that are unedited when I first got the camera.