How good is the S5600 ???????.

Hello There, I have been using other brands of digital cameras for about 5 years, mostly Kodaks, Olympus, Konica Minolta, Canon and Vivitar.

Many stores over here in Australia are selling the S5600 at almost give away prices, I have had a look at this camera and it feels good in the hand, looks well made and has everything I need eg Manual modes.

I am just wondering how good the picture quality is, also is there any problems people have been having with this model?, any help would be greatly appreciated.
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God Bless
Dave
Downunder.
http://www.picturetrail.com/oldshutterbug

I think the S5600 is a great camera. I'm very pleased with the image quality. Check this forum or the link below for some examples.

There are a few things that could be considered minor flaws though (I'm not talking about camera specs, you can find those everywhere, so I assume that you know the cam hasn't got OIS etc.)

• the flash is not the strongest. ISO needs to be set to ISO400 for best results. Luckily the results are very usable and not destroyed by noise.
• there is a metering problem with flash in M and S-mode.
• the purple fringing can be pretty bad (but can be dealt with pretty easily in PP)/ I don't know however how the PF compares to other compacts.

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My gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/klaastuin/

Thank you very much for your information and the link to your beautiful gallery, lovely work.
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God Bless
Dave
Downunder.
http://www.picturetrail.com/oldshutterbug

I also have this camera, and also very pleased. The value of the camera is exceptional. Sure there are some drawbacks, and areas where improvements could be made...but that goes w/ any camera. The camera is very versatile with is full range of manual control and long zoom, and I think for the "give away" prices you speak of you would be very pleased with it as well. If you do get it, please feel free to share some of your work with it. -N

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http://www.natemetz.com

I have had this camera for several months now and can say for the price you wo'nt beat it!

As with any camera there will always be things you like and dont like, but at the end of the day for me its the quality of the printed photos. I am no pro thats for sure but I know a quality photo when I see one.

For the money you will not get better.

Just check out some of the photos produced by some people here. That will show you the capabilities of the camera.

Like most things its a tool that in the right hands can produce some stunning results.

Obviously no OIS and the flash could be stronger but the only REAL fault that it has is the flash metering in S and M modes but you may never use the flash in these modes... see link below...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1012&message=18479032

All in all this is a nice responsive camera (very fast in "high speed" mode) that takes good quality pictures. Very clean up to iso400. Iso 800 is good at nomal print sizes..up to 7x5..poss even 8x10 in the right lighting. (noise gets worse the longer the shutter is open..

The Auto modes are well thought out as well. ie Auto..Natural light and Antiblur.. I use a lot...They are just a turn of the dial away and and the programing behind them I believe is very sound. I hope that makes sence...

PS.... they are selling them cheap most probably because a new model will be announced soon... Most likely on the 28th July, But knowing Fuji it will take another few months to actually hit the market.

Cheers Darin

I've had the s5600 for 4 months & it is a truly great camera. Yes there are a couple of minor glitches (the flash could be a little stronger or a hot shoe supplied, and the manual focus system is difficult to use), but the overall features of the camera & the image quality is terrific. ISO 64 to 1600 (and very usable), lovely colour & tonal range, all features (other than manual focus) are simple to use, good autofocus performance.

You can see them advertised around Australia now for under A$400. This is an absolute bargain. You won't find any other camera with the features & performance of the s5600 for that kind of money.

Agree with the other problems you list but never spotted any purple fringing problem (thought that was perculular to the F30?).

Fast start up, fast picture taking (especially in fast focus mode) and good zoom (up to 370 mm) especially with a TCON-17 lens (taking it to 629 mm) attached.

Problems with flash are fair comment as the fact that if you're in a confined space, that a wide angle lens is probably a good idea (the S5600 starts at 37 mm focal length rather than 35 mm).

The ISO ramp system is 'okay' for image stabilisation, but I'd prefer a proper optical image stabilisation as on other cameras. 5 MP top whack rather than 6 MP top whack is a very minor irritation.

Overall, very pleased with it.

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Ian (Beefy_SAFC)
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http://www.tibet.freeserve.co.uk
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/kathmandu/index.html

it is this good , 5600 picture,



and this was the reason i bought the 9000 a little later, gr, rob

A PS to Darin's PS: Knowing Fuji, any successor at this time is highly unlikely to offer improvements worth the wait -- or the additional price.

As others have said, there isn't a bigger bargain on an outstanding performer. But it's more than just a huge bargain -- on speed and image quality across a range of lighting conditions, it's more than a match for its competitors, even at their prices.

Tianium said:

PS.... they are selling them cheap most probably because a new
model will be announced soon... Most likely on the 28th July, But
knowing Fuji it will take another few months to actually hit the
market.

Cheers Darin

Click to expand...

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Tim

Which is more versatile: S5600 or S7000 (used, of course)?

Which can take better images (after postprocessing) at ISOs below 800? At ISO 800?
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Paul S. in Maryland
(Fuji FinePix F810)

Interesting question, Paul.

There must be numerous ways to measure versatility. The ones important to me are length of zoom, speed of operation, and ability to handle a wide range of lighting conditions.

On each of those measures, I believe the 5200/5600 excels.

For my needs, a 6X zoom is a non-starter -- especially if all I get in return is a couple more mm at the wide end.

As to speed, the 5200/5600 is measured as twice as fast in power-on the first image capture and shot-to-shot times. Its High Speed Shooting should give it a significant edge in focusing speed, as well. To me, speed also means the ability to capture many shots, so 5200's 40-shot continuous mode is another plus (7000 has no long-term continuous mode, but offers a 5 vs. 3-shot burst ability).

I really have no basis for comparing IQ between the two below ISO 800, though I would have concerns about the 7000's aggressive file compression plus its 6-12 MP interpolation and consequent elimination of image quality settings below 12 MP. I would point out that the 7000 tops out at ISO 800 with only a 3 MP image.

Because your question made me curious, I just shot several quick shots with my 5200 inside at ISO's 800 and 1600. I think in each you can clearly see the big toenail on my left foot needs to be cut. Of course, no pp of any kind, merely resized by Photobucket. Been waiting about an hour for photobucket to upload. If and when it does, I'll post the pix.

This is admittedly a narrow comparison, and obviously there are areas in which the 7000 excels. They're just not priorities for me, with or without the very significant price differential.

paul613 said:

Which is more versatile: S5600 or S7000 (used, of course)?
Which can take better images (after postprocessing) at ISOs below
800? At ISO 800?
--
Paul S. in Maryland
(Fuji FinePix F810)

Click to expand...

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Tim

It is very good for the price. I bought the camera a month ago (upgrading from Canon A70).

See http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1012&thread=19026903
for some pics I recently shot at a concert.

Paul,

Finally the S5200 ISO 800 & 1600 shots.

First, 800:



Now, 1600:



And one more at 1600:



--
Tim

Yes, those shots are just fine, Tim. I've been toying with the idea of keeping a size-no-object camera in my car. While the S7000 wins on tele-aperture (f/3.2 @200mm), a car camera should probably be able to reach out farther for the unexpected. Combine that with the 5600's other modern amenities--including ISO 1600 and the ability to use my F810's XD cards!)--and it probably wins out.

I just glanced at the specs. Holy--it shoots RAW, too!

--
Paul S. in Maryland
(Fuji FinePix F810)

paul613 said:

While the S7000 wins on tele-aperture (f/3.2 @200mm)

Click to expand...

The S5600 offers f3.2 at 380mm.... (3.6 at 200mm)

Klaas

How was this picture taken? It looks somewhat smeared....I would almost say that my S5500 could do better....

Marcel Geers said:

How was this picture taken? It looks somewhat smeared....I would
almost say that my S5500 could do better....

Click to expand...

The S5500 was a Sleeper, when shot in soft mode and sharpened in Photoshop the resolution was superb, the lens is too (lack of CA, sharpness edge to edge, end to end wide open), shot to shot it was like lightning and the flash had plenty of power, AF was fast even at the long end in low light and it handled like a dream ..

the only downers to the S5500 IMO were a tendency towards noise even at Base ISO (low Noise reduction in-cam but that also meant plenty of detal which the S5600 can melt out) and you had to leave the lens tube on to protect the fragile lens (no issue really but the S5600 cured this totally with an internal zoom) - also the S5500 IMO "looks" better, almost like a tiny Canon 10D, there's something about the S5600 which shouts "Cheap Digicam" at you, maybe the finish or rounding of the styling or something..

I liked the S5500 a lot, the image quality was way way way better than the horrible mess the S5000 came out with and due to lack of Noise reduction, I'd say was a close match for the 5Mp S5600.. S5500s can be picked up for next to nothing, Heck, the thing can even shoot RAW !!

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Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

It looks smeared to me too. The trees make me think that noise reduction was applied in pp. Also the lights could have been an bit sharper by using a slightly smaller apperture.

Oops, I wanted to add this: