Fuji digital camera info

S5600 is $449 after Cashback

Hi there Austravel,we purchased a Fuji S602 nearly 2 years ago and were using it extensively for wedding photography,right up until we bought a chicken,seafood and takeaway shop.The camera has been treated like a "pro" tpye camera and only a few weeks back I discovered what looked like fungus in the lens.
We sent it to Fuji repairs in Sydney and the camera arrived back today,all fixed and no Bill!! The camera is way out of warranty,now thats service for ya.If I was going to get another camera,it wouild be another Fuji..cya happy snapping.ps this camera will be going enroute throughout Aus with us very shortly as we will be working on a book on Gold prospecting,thru the gold fields of Australia.

Thanks uncle. Sounds like your trip will be a bit of work as well, though better than behind a counter serving people I'll bet.

Hi there Mark,

The Canon /Nikon thing is almost as big as the Toyota / Nissan thing as you probably know.

My investment in Canon Lenses that has seen me through since the film days through 3 generations of digitals is worth heaps more than all the bodies I have used - and I rarely keep them for more than 1 year - so spare parts never get to be an issue. In my experience, however, Canon and reputable repairers are able to fix even the oldest Canon (and for that matter Nikon) professional or prosumer gear.

The S3Pro is quite a different camera to the FinePix S5600 however.

Ciao for now
Andrew.

Hi there Utemad,

I agree with a lot of what you've said, but wanted to correct a few misconceptions.

The Canon film SLRs do not have D's - could be an EOS50 or perhaps EOS500 but all the lenses from your Canon film SLRs fit the Digital SLRs or D-SLRs.

The Fujifilm S5600 is not an SLR camera - what you won't get is the fast reaction or short lag times of digital SLRs. You are talking an order of magnitude difference. This could be important if you want to capture the moment (wildlife, children, sport, 4WDing etc.). This is the principle reason for having a D-SLR unless you want to start getting really technical and shoot in RAW, use professional lenses, get really creative with depth of field etc. (in which case you'll probably know what you need anyways).

The apertures supported is somewhat of a red-herring for most users.

For a start, the sensor on the point & shoot cameras is much smaller than that on Digital SLRs - the corrolary of this is that you have much larger Depth of Field for the same aperture/subject distance, and there is little need for miniscule apertures - everything is in focus anyway.

Also, you are talking about sensor sites (pixels effectively) that are so tiny, that the chromatic aberation from even a great lens at small apertures will be bad. That is why most point and shoots get purple and orange fringing in extreme light conditions. There's no point having smaller apertures.

The one place where you will wish you could've had them if the laws of physics didn't intervene is for macros - basically, if you need anything more than a bees whisker DOF you can't successfully shoot it with a p&s. You'll need not just a D-SLR but some great lights and fancy lenses.

I recommend to many first time digital cameras that they get a cheapy with the view to upgrading once they have taken a few thousand photos - by then, they will know what they use it for, what they like, what they hate, and can make informed decisions.

Like you, I prefer NiMH rechargable batteries when my equipment (not my D-SLRs but most everything else) requires AA batteries. I have about 12 sets of 4 x 2600mAh (milli-amp-hour) which I rotate around and recharge constantly. IN my experience these are even better than the Lithium batteries and don't cost that much more.

Ciao for now
Andrew.

Even though DSLRs have come way down in price, I still prefer the benefits of top-of-the-range non-DSLR.
- no worry aboout dust on the sensor, or salt spray !
- no shots lost changing lenses
- no extra lenses to lug around
- videocamera-quality video
- great macro depth-of-field using +4 closeup lens
- imperceptible shutter lag when you know how to set it up
- real preview of the picture.

My KM A200 provides RAW option, Image Stabiliser etc etc. If a really want shallow depth of field for artistic effect I can always add it in the computer.

I regularly produce prints that are A3 size and no-one says - shame about the quality - in fact, quite the opposite.

Mike

Well put Mike - horses for courses, and most can get excellent results from compact digitals.

For clarification, your +4 closeup lens gives you shorter working distance but no greater depth of field. You will still have bee's whisker DOF if you're not careful and dog's hair DOF if you are ;-)

DOF is matter of subject distance and aperture (period).

There is a nice calculator at www.dof-master.com if you're interested.

With pre-focusing you can reduce the shutter lag to .3s or so - to me that is quite perceptible and will mean that I don't get the very shot (or every shot for that matter) that I was shooting.

The real preview is not exactly what the camera will take - it is what the camera is seeing some moments before it takes it, and using a different aperture/shutterspeed to what will eventually be used.

For most seetings these things won't bother you - sometimes they might.

Salt spray is the bane of every lens, and dust the bane of Digital SLRs that the manufacturers have not properly owned up to (with some minor exceptions).

Ciao for now
Andrew.

Hi Andrew.

I gather you know a lot more about cameras than I do :-)
I just checked my wifes camera and it is an EOS 500N my sister has the digital 500D.

I am not sure if you think I was saying that the S5600 is an SLR??? I was actually trying to say it wasn't and that even though it said it had full manual features that it still wasn't as good (for photography) as an SLR.

One of the reasons I went with the S5600 is, like Mike, I didn't want to have all the other stuff to carry. Like lenses and flashes etc. Plus as I am a gadget junky I would spend a huge amount on all the good gear :-) and I don't want to do that. Plus I want something that can go under my jacket when snowboarding/climbing without risking thousands of dollars of equipment.

I have taught myself a lot about Photoshop CS from books and practice to make up for some of my shortcomings as a photographer.

I agree that it is a good idea to have something relatively cheap to get used to digital camera functions and what you like and don't like. Otherwise I would probably have just bought the Canon version of the S5600 because people reckon Canon's are good :-)

. . . an excellent and up-to-date practical guide to help people to pick a camera !

Mike

Thanks for the compliment Mike - I was just wondering if I needed to do a more up to date version actually.

The things I would add would be:

1. Image stabilisation - now much more available and accessible and useful feature (or OIS or VR or whatever your favourite manufacturer calls is)

2. review the M-Pixels and memory card size details - their price has come down a lot so the entry levels tend to be 4 or 5 MPixels these days

3. review the sensitivity/low light shooting material - there are some reasonable high sensitivity compact cameras around now.

Ciao for now
Andrew.