Why do comments recommend an S5 ?

I have a Nikon D40 which is on death row, as it has for some weird reason taking to collecting dust, now back to Nikon for the fourth time since Jan, even although they admitted there was a problem and fitted a new sensor !!.
,

I also have a Fuji S6500 which is pretty good but am now looking at all sorts of options to replace the D40 and whilst at first I thought the new Fuji S100fs would be the answer to my problems it seems that there may be issues with pf.

I am therefore back looking at a dslr and among the current front runners are the latest batch, EOS450D, K20D, Alpha 350D, but one thing intrigues me and perhaps someone may be able to help here, I post my images on Flickr, link below, and several users have, when leaving comments, recommended one particular camera, the Fuji S5, any suggestions as to why ??

http://www.flickr.com/photos/donaldm/

the s5 can take all your nikon lenses.

woo hoo you can save on glass. you get the fuji look with out really trying hard and it a d200 body. its a good deal all the way around.
--
Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye

UUhmm, whats the "fuji look " ???, bit lost with all this, sorry for being such a duh.

Donald M Mackinnon said:

UUhmm, whats the "fuji look " ???, bit lost with all this, sorry for
being such a duh.

Click to expand...

Highest Dynamic Range in the industry, best colors, contrast and depth of tones that exists in the digital world!
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david
http://www.pbase.com/ddk

More than some, - most ,- or all other dslr's ?

Daft question No1, is it good for landscape, reason I ask is that it seems to be recommended for weddings ??

Browse through the Flickr Fuji s5 group for some of the answers:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/fujis5/pool/

As far as recommending an s5, Im going to be a bit contrary and say it isnt for everyone. Its for those who are beyond persnickety about image quality out of the camera. If you simply want an SLR go with a D200 or D300, theyre very excellent all-round cameras. The s5 takes a bit of learning to get the best out of it. However, along the way - you will find that the s5 just gives satisfying images, and it spoils you for other cameras.

If you browse through the Fuji s5 group and dont get whats so great about the images, then by all means, get a D300. You'll be more than satisfied.

The two reasons you might get an S5 Pro are :

(1) Largest dynamic range ( although the S3 Pro also has this ). Three stops in highlights.

(2) Takes Nikon lenses

The main reasons you would not want an S5 Pro are :

(1) Very large/heavy by the standards you are used to. This is actually fine but takes getting used to.

(2) Sloowww. By modern DSLR standards ( and even older DSLR standards ) it's terribly slow.

(3) If you only have kit lenses for your Nikon then you are not loosing much in getting something else. You don't loose anything, of course, if you get a Nikon.

I'd suggest you look at a Nikon D200 used. Many people are trading in and getting D300's, although they are still excellent cameras. The D80 is another option to consider.

If you don't care about those kit lenses I'd suggest you consider any other entry level DSLR or possibly the D80, Pentax K10D or a Canon 30D or 40D.

For the record I bought a used S3 Pro myself for the Nikon mount and dynamic range. I don't need the speed, so that's fine by me. I have only take some test shots with it, but so far it's the only camera I am comfortable taking JPEGs with. As always Fuji color is excellent.

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StephenG

Pentax K100D
Fuji S5200
Fuji E900
PCLinuxOS

Its really not that slow. The S3 is S---L----O----W.

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http://www.crystalkeesey.com

Haven't shot with an S5 Pro, although my understanding was that it compared unfavorably with the current crop of semi-pro and pro- models. I gather it's like an S3 pro with the buffer upgrade ( haven't shot with that either ).

It's academic from my point of view, but one S3 pro issue that always irritates me ( on principle ) is that it's faster with xD cards than what should be a faster CF card. Did Fuji fix that with the S5 pro or does it still favor xD cards ?

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StephenG

Pentax K100D
Fuji S5200
Fuji E900
PCLinuxOS

since you shoot nature with the sunsets etc a high dynamic range is nice so you don't have to underexpose the ground to much to get the clouds not overblown.

ofcourse you can fix a some in pp but the s5 saves you the trouble

and why of all the islands you have visited is not the isle of islay in you're list

Donald M Mackinnon said:

More than some, - most ,- or all other dslr's ?

Click to expand...

More than all other dslrs that I own/owned/tried, which includes/included top end Canons, Nikons and Kodaks which are also known for their amazing color & tones.

Donald M Mackinnon said:

Daft question No1, is it good for landscape, reason I ask is that it
seems to be recommended for weddings ??

Click to expand...

I find that it works great for everything, I have some landscapes in these galleries and can link you to more if this isn't enough. http://www.pbase.com/ddk/places

You should also look at Stephen's "claypaws", he has some excellent work with the S3, http://www.pbase.com/claypaws ;.

Shooting weddings is very demanding work, if you think about it, besides the pace and the pressure of capturing the moments, the wedding photographer is faced with a difficult for digital technical situation. There's the groom in black and the bride in white, a very extreme situation and while not often encountered in other types of photography, its almost always there in weddings and nearly in every shot. What do you expose for? The white or the black? With a typical dslr you have to choose whether to have detail in the black suit and risk blowing out the white dress or expose for the brides dress and lose all detail in the groom's suit, the problem is compounded when shooting outside. The wide dynamic range capabilities helps the photographer with finding the right exposure to have detail blacks/shadows without blowing out the whites/light.

The other unique Fuji characteristics are its amazing colors and tones, which translates into wonderful, natural and lively skin tones needed for good portrait work. These are the reasons that Fujis are also recommended to wedding photographers not that they're limited to them.

You'll benefit from the high DR range, rich colors and deep tones in every type of photography.
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david
http://www.pbase.com/ddk

sjgcit said:

Haven't shot with an S5 Pro, although my understanding was that it
compared unfavorably with the current crop of semi-pro and pro-
models. I gather it's like an S3 pro with the buffer upgrade (
haven't shot with that either ).

Click to expand...

You should try shooting with the S5 before condemning it, its a lot more than an S3 with a buffer upgrade. Besides, show me another semi-pro or even a pro dslr with the same DR that's faster with writing to card.

Deleted1929 said:

It's academic from my point of view, but one S3 pro issue that always
irritates me ( on principle ) is that it's faster with xD cards than
what should be a faster CF card. Did Fuji fix that with the S5 pro
or does it still favor xD cards ?

Click to expand...

I don't know why it bothers you, xD cards have different design elements than CF cards, hence the difference in writing to them. Unfortunately no xD cards in the S5.

--
david
http://www.pbase.com/ddk

--
Regards,

Provia_fan

http://www.the-viewfinder.blogspot.com

sjgcit said:

Haven't shot with an S5 Pro, although my understanding was that it
compared unfavorably with the current crop of semi-pro and pro-
models. I gather it's like an S3 pro with the buffer upgrade (
haven't shot with that either ).

Click to expand...

I have both and can assure you the S5 is in a different league than the S3 in terms of speed. I LOVE the S3's colors, but haven't really touched it except as a backup camera since I got the S5. Its painful to use compared to the S5. Please TRY the camera before making such a statement, especially to someone seeking advice as to whether or not the camera is right for them.

--
http://www.crystalkeesey.com

http://badpicphotography.net/
--
Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It's hard to say it, time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye

Actually, it is very good!
--
david
http://www.pbase.com/ddk

You guys seem to be taking this rather personally. I simply said that was my impression and that it was not an issue for me. I don't need the speed and I just want the DR, something I did mention positively.

People have to stop being so over-protective of their cameras. It's a competitive marketplace and we all have different criteria and each camera has different pros and cons.

I don't like xD cards because they are so incredibly slow. No-one like this aspect of them. It's why no-one apart from Fuji and Olympus use them and Fuji have dropped them. I still use them because I have to for some cameras ( the S3 is actually slower with CF cards ! ).

The timing comments were fair. You can get 3fps from an S5, I believe, but a D300 goes to 6fps and 8fps. A D200 will deliver 5fps. And to get 3fps you have to sacrifice the DR. At full DR you get a sedate 1.6 fps. No-one buys an S5 for speed.

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StephenG

Pentax K100D
Fuji S5200
Fuji E900
PCLinuxOS

Ta for that, now i understand why the S5 was being recommended, for the jpeg IQ and the dynamic range, very interesting.

Leading on from this then, I have read on the Nikon forum, and indeed in the D200 review, about issues with banding, not sure if this has been resolved with an update but does the S5 have any such issues ?, and perhaps if you know whether it was isolated examples of the D200 which were affected, dare not ask the Nikon forum, I need my head for taking pictures.

no no such issues on the S5. and the quality of pics for nature and landscape is wonderful. I also use a Sigma SD14, but i like Fuji more and more as first cam...these colours... dynamic range...



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waterlike

The way I understand the issue of banbing on the D200 was that early release had issuescaused by something to do with the way the image data came of the CCD. Nikon tweaked it and fix the problem early. No banding ploblems with my S5. So far the only thing I might trade it in for doesn't exsist yet. That would be an S6. I like some of the things about the D3 but I don't think I would like to deal with the light fall off in the corners and I kinda like having the 1.5X to make my 300mm a 450mm.
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Tic Tic



Martin Greeson