I Regret Getting Rid of My Fuji...

… S5 PRO!!!

I have two weddings coming up in a few months and I would have zero problems in using the S5 Pro. I used that camera and did two weddings years ago and the images came out very very nice on a 11x14 photo album. I hate myself now for getting rid of it and I at least should have waited until it died by itself. Most of those cameras being sold now are all beat up and don't even work and they are only being sold for parts only.

The S5 Pro with the Nikon flash was actually very responsive and it simply worked and it inspired confidence, unlike my Fuji X-E1 which I would never use for a wedding since it is so poor in AF performance. Now that I have much better and faster Nikon F mount glass I don't have the S5 anymore to take advantage of it. The tones out of the S5 are simply fantastic and I would have loved to use that oldie but goodie camera this year. I miss it a lot.

I will post a "wanted" ad to see if hopefully anyone local has one that might be interested in selling me one but I don't see any around my area being sold.  That's pretty sad.

I regret that you got rid of it too.  I think we all do.

Threaded wrote:

I regret that you got rid of it too. I think we all do.

During the last coupe of years I think that I have improved a little bit with my PP skills and as I said I have much better glass now and I would have been able to squeeze more juice out of the S5.  I recently used my D4 for some graduation photos but man is just NOT the same thing

The S5 is simply a classic!

Goodglass2 wrote:

Hello, I see on your profile that you live in so cal. There is a craigslisting in Riverside for an S5 that looks pretty clean.

Hi Goodglass2,

Mmmm weird because Riverside doesn't show in the city listings in craigslist.  I guess Riverside should be in the Inland empire but I don't see any S5 pro for sale anywhere.  The only Fuji stuff that comes up are a bunch of Fuji bicycles hahaha.

Well, get it back and don't do it again.  It is easy enough with all of the photography flip/floppers out there buying, selling, re-buying, re-selling, acquiring, re-acquiring, analyzing, over analyzing, every aspect of every piece of glass and endless combinations of body/lens performance .......  I am glazing over just typing this.

Batdude wrote:

… S5 PRO!!!

I have two weddings coming up in a few months and I would have zero problems in using the S5 Pro. I used that camera and did two weddings years ago and the images came out very very nice on a 11x14 photo album. I hate myself now for getting rid of it and I at least should have waited until it died by itself. Most of those cameras being sold now are all beat up and don't even work and they are only being sold for parts only.

Thanks for sharing your images.   I love reading about those who find their old, trusty gear to be very relevant tools today.  Speaks so well about strong familiarity with good photographic tools used well and the joy in using them.

Slightly off topic but this reminds me of my own wedding in 2006 where our photographer was using a Fuji S3 Pro. At the time, I had no idea Fuji even made these.

I agree this camera is great in spite of it's age. The quality especially out of raws is excellent and the sooc jpegs are perfect. Pixel peepers won't be too impressed, bad for them. I disagree that it's too old and only sold for parts. I got mine in pretty good condition and it's been working flawlessly for almost 2 years even when I used it in extreme conditions. It's built like a tank and I only fear about Fuji electronics failing one day. There is always a bunch of them for sale and I can get another whenever I want but it's too big and heavy, one is enough for now. As a sidenote I've bought an Oly e-pl3 recently and I was shocked how good it is, it's a sort of miniature S5 without the DR and tonality, e-pl3 looks more digital but the colors and overall picture is very close. I must check more older cameras, there might be more surprises.

Made all the rounds of the used departments at Adorama, B&H and Roberts Photo Pro there was a Fuji S at one of them, but I don't recalll which store.

There are a couple on KEH currently:

https://www.keh.com/shop/fuji-s5-pro-digital-camera-body-12-34-m-p-674554.html

bobogdan78 wrote:

I agree this camera is great in spite of it's age. The quality especially out of raws is excellent and the sooc jpegs are perfect. Pixel peepers won't be too impressed, bad for them. I disagree that it's too old and only sold for parts. I got mine in pretty good condition and it's been working flawlessly for almost 2 years even when I used it in extreme conditions. It's built like a tank and I only fear about Fuji electronics failing one day. There is always a bunch of them for sale and I can get another whenever I want but it's too big and heavy, one is enough for now. As a sidenote I've bought an Oly e-pl3 recently and I was shocked how good it is, it's a sort of miniature S5 without the DR and tonality, e-pl3 looks more digital but the colors and overall picture is very close. I must check more older cameras, there might be more surprises.

I'm of the mindset that none of Fuji's current cameras have the same color image quality of the S5 Pro. New Fuji's have resolution, high ISO, and AF advantages galore, but when it comes to rendering color naturally, and particularly so for human skin, the S5 Pro and its predecessors are in a league of their own.

fPrime

fPrime wrote:

bobogdan78 wrote:

I agree this camera is great in spite of it's age. The quality especially out of raws is excellent and the sooc jpegs are perfect. Pixel peepers won't be too impressed, bad for them. I disagree that it's too old and only sold for parts. I got mine in pretty good condition and it's been working flawlessly for almost 2 years even when I used it in extreme conditions. It's built like a tank and I only fear about Fuji electronics failing one day. There is always a bunch of them for sale and I can get another whenever I want but it's too big and heavy, one is enough for now. As a sidenote I've bought an Oly e-pl3 recently and I was shocked how good it is, it's a sort of miniature S5 without the DR and tonality, e-pl3 looks more digital but the colors and overall picture is very close. I must check more older cameras, there might be more surprises.

I'm of the mindset that none of Fuji's current cameras have the same color image quality of the S5 Pro. New Fuji's have resolution, high ISO, and AF advantages galore, but when it comes to rendering color naturally, and particularly so for human skin, the S5 Pro and its predecessors are in a league of their own.

fPrime

Well the S5 Pro do not produce "natural" rendering, that's why we love Fuji so much.  If you want "natural" go Nikon with more flat plain "natural" looking skin tones.  The S5 as well as other Fuji cameras produce "pleasing" skin tones, but certainly not natural hahaha

I have never shot with a X100 but if Im correct the X100 has 12MP so maybe something like that would be much closer than the S5.  The X-E1 is close, but the S5 produces even more "film like" images with a very different grain and tones.

… X10

I thought and thought and thought about it and although I really want another S5 at this point I already have too many big cameras and I don't have one single camera for traveling/fun.  I had the X10 a few years ago and it is a fantastic little camera and SUPER fun to shoot with.  The IQ is too outstanding IMHO and I got some pretty darn impressive images out of that little puppy which I printed out on a 11x14 album and the color output is fenomenal.

At the time when I had the X10 I was not shooting in RAW so I really feel that I truly didn't take full advantage of the X10 and now a few years later with a little bit more PP skills I could possibly make better images with this little beauty.  For quite a while I have been wanting to buy another 12MPcamera and It was between the S5, X100 or the X10 and my heart went for the X10.  The camera fits almost anywhere and now in 2019 I feel I'm going to have a blast with it.  In fact I honestly didn't realize it until just now that the X10 I had back then has IBIS hahahaha and I know I didn't use that function.

I just clicked on the Amazon button and I should be getting it in two days.

OIS, not IBIS, although on a fixed lens camera it amounts to the same thing!

The X10 is great little camera and that clever EXR sensor pulls off some impressive dynamic range.  I’m not so sure about shooting raw with it though - as I recall the raws aren’t straightforward to process (because of that sensor) and the best results are easiest to get with the in camera jpegs using those EXR modes.  Typical Fuji really.

Threaded wrote:

OIS, not IBIS, although on a fixed lens camera it amounts to the same thing!

Got it thanks

The X10 is great little camera and that clever EXR sensor pulls off some impressive dynamic range. I’m not so sure about shooting raw with it though - as I recall the raws aren’t straightforward to process (because of that sensor) and the best results are easiest to get with the in camera jpegs using those EXR modes. Typical Fuji really.

I see. Like I said I'm not too familiar with it's RAW capabilities since I was a jpeg shooter at the time so it should be interesting to see the results. Yes either way I'm sure I'll get great photos in jpeg. Can't wait to see those gorgeous low resolution looking rich saturated colors!