Digital camera question.

[VicS]

I have been looking at getting a digital camera, as some of you already know, but I am totally bewilldered by the all the bells and whistles they have and overwhelmed by the range of models available.

I guess I am looking to spend £100- £200 ish I could go higher but would have prefered to go lower. I was at one point thinking about something very basic to begin with ie £100 or below and then upgrading later but I am moving away from that idea although a cheap camera on the boat or for SWMBO to use might not be such a bad idea. I really cannot justify spending as much as I would really like to so there is not a lot of point in spending £100 with a view to upgrading to only 200ish

Anyway to get to the point one of the offers in Jessops summer sale caught my eye namely the Fujifilm Finepix S5700 which is exclusive to Jessops.

I fancy a viewfinder as well as a screen. This one has an electronic viewfinder

Marked down from £250 ish to £160 ish, it seems to be a good buy. I guess though it is a faily old model as it connects via USB rather tha USB 2 and is compatible with Windows 98 as well as all the later versions including Vista. Presumabably USB 1 is a lot slower than USB 2 but would this really matter if all the photos were stored on an SD card and down loaded from that via a media reader.

Any comments about the spec of this camera and the USB thing and electronic viewfinder in particular would be welcome.

 

[Lakesailor]

Seems a decent spec. I had an earlier Fuji in this range and it was a very good camera.
2 points.

- It's a "faux" slr design. Is that going to be too bulky for you?

- It's wide angle only covers the equivalent of a 38 mm lens in 35mm Camera terms, is this wide enough for you? Plenty of digicams give an equivalent of 28mm wide angle.

 

[nigelhudson]

I understand your requirement for a viewfinder - no matter how good the screen is it's still a problem framing a shot in bright sunlight. In the price range that you are considering then I would advise that you go with the one that has the features that you want and feels right for you.

There is one possible exception to this if you want to use the camera regularly in the cockpit. I bought a Pentax Optio W20 (actually I bought a W10 but Pentax replaced it under warranty with a W20 - great service) which is waterproof to a couple of metres. If the camera gets covered in salt I just run it under the tap. I see that they've now brought out the W30.

If you follow the link under my signature you'll find pictures from the W10, W20, a Kodak and a Nikon. They are all within your price bracket but bear in mind that the shots on the website are much reduced in resolution so that they can be uploaded.

 

[photodog]

My experience with these style of Bridge cameras is that I dont like them, they are small enough to be small, but too clunky to fit in your pocket or a handbag. When I bought a compact I bought a nikon one like that, and instantly hated it as it was so inconvenient.....

The speck on most of these cameras is pretty good, that camera will produce 21mb files, which are pretty big, and so should make pretty good prints in reasonable light.

These compacts tend to preform very poorly in low light, with quite a lot of noise being generated at even middling iso's (say 400)

I hate digital viewfinders, I agree a viewfinder is great, but a digital one is no advantage really over a screen.

USB 2 is quicker, but you are right that its probably more convenient to take the card out and slot it straight into the computer, especially if you are using more than one card.

My advice would be, if looking for a small point and shoot digital camera, then get something like a Canon Ixus, with a proper viewfinder, they can fit well into a small handbag or pocket, and Canon in particular takes very good pictures.

If you dont mind the bridge design, Then I am sure that the Fuji will be fine! I Think that you can get add on widey lenses for these types of things as well, which makes them a bit more fun. The speck on that fuji looks pretty tidy, you can manually set the colour balance, which is really the key to getting the best picture quality on these small cameras.

In reality, as long as you can get along with that bridge design, than this is probably a pretty good camera.

Given the technology now I think you get better value on a model about to be phased out, (which this appears to be, 10mp is coming in now) as in fact anything more than about 5mp should give a okay picture.

Spend as little as possible to get what you need, as you will be replacing it in 2 years anyways. (sooner if like swmbo you put leaky water bottle into your handbag.)

If you are going to use it on the boat, remember, Water+digital camera= paperweight.

Last week I turned 2 Eos digital cameras into paperweights! (Scratch £7k)

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[srp]

I bought one with a seperate (optical) viewfinder, partly to save on batteries with the screen turned off and partly because of the bright sunlight thing. I also wanted one with an optical zoom for better quality. Some cameras need 4 x AA batteries, which makes them quite heavy (not necessarily a bad thing), but 2 batteries might be better if you're on board for a few days. Have you thought about battery charging, either from 12v or with a solar charger?
My own camera is a Sony, but we have Fujis at work and are happy with them.

 

[aitchw]

May I add to that based on my experience of this range. I found the imaging to be lacking a bit in sublety and the metering to be less than brilliant compared with other makes, particularly Olympus. I also found the viewfinder to be a bit dark making it's use in anything other than bright conditions problematical.

Fuji have always been good value, however, I would not buy mail order without trying/looking and comparing with other cameras.

 

[Sinbad2222]

Vic, I would strongly recommend you get one with a swiveling screen ( if that is the right term) Great for taking pics of inaccessible places on the boat or taking surreptitious shots. The canon A series Powershots are good for this and you can get them cheap on Canon's website if you can put up with an obsolescent model. I also prefer those with AA batteries as easy to charge up yourself, inexpensive, and you can use non-rechargables, available anywhere in an emergency

 

[pvb]

If you want to use it on the boat...

If you want to use it on the boat, go for a waterproof camera. Like Nigel Hudson, I have an Optio W20. It's great for anytime use, waterproof for snorkelling, etc, good optical zoom range, long battery life, very compact and (so far) virtually bomb-proof. About £140, or the slightly better W30 is only £150 at PurelyGadgets.

 

[oldharry]

Re: If you want to use it on the boat...

I bought a Fuji 5600 when my old Olympus turned stupid just at the beginning of 3 week holiday. Argos £179. Brilliant camera for the price, and far better at low light level pictures than the old Olympus C750 - without any of the 'noise' mentioned above.

Obviously you pays yer money and takes yer choice but spending double that would not get much better pics unless you are enlarging to poster sizes, and probably not much more in the way of bells and whistles.

SWMBO commented it looks like a 'proper' camera. If you want something to slip in your pocket to grab pics then there are lots of suitable products which would probably give just as good results, but would not give you the 10x optical telephoto which is brill for bringing distant objects (boats specially) in close. I like this size of camera because they are big and chunky enough to have something to hang on to, but still light enough (well the 5600 is) for single handed shooting.

On 3 weeks acquaintance I would not hesitate to recommend it at the price.

 

[pvb]

Fuji 5600...

Your Fuji 5600 sounds great. Is it waterproof for use on the boat?

 

[pete]

I found taking pictures at sea mainly of other boats everything looked like a dot on the horizon with my old Olympus 3x optical zoom, a couple of years ago I replaced it with a Sony 12x optical zoom with a stabilized lens ( I don`t know how this works but it does) even fully zoomed in pics are mostly sharp even in choppy weather but as I take quite a few of each subject if I do get camera shake on one it doesn`t matter to much.
To me long optical zoom is a must.

Pete

 

[Vara]

As I said I'm very happy with my 5600 which has less pixies and a smaller screen, everything else seems to be the same.

LS's point about size is very true, you can't slip it into your pocket, unlike the Olympus which I had before.

I haven't noticed a problem with the wide angle but thats probably a case of I don't know what I'm missing!(But you can get a wide angle adapter which brings it down to 30mm equiv if that is a problem)

Not convinced by the Jessops deal, an extra £30 for a different colour seems a bit strong.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fuji-FinePix-S57...5134&sr=1-1

Looks more like it.

 

[Frontier]

S5700 here at £128 sounds good
Fuji FinePix S5700 Digital Camera (7.0MP, 10x Optical) 2.5" LCD

 

[grumpy_o_g]

I've got the Optio (W20 I think) with a Nikon Coolpix pix 8800 as my "main" camera.

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I'd have a look on dpreview for something with a maximum aperture of f2.8 and a lens of 28-100 mm. Check and make it has a good shutter response (this avoids 30 pictures of the patch of water were a dolphin/seal/porpoise was 1/2 a second ago). Also check that it writes to the card at a decent speed, maybe using high speed cards, otherwise you'll end up waiting for the camera to sort itself out before you can take the next photo. I wouldn't worry about about USB 1 vs 2 - you'll save 20 mins or so in an extreme case.


The Pentax is okay but I would prefer something with an optical viewfinder as I find the screen very hard to see in bright sunlight (okay, I know that sounds stupid at the moment /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif ). I also find it easier to steady the camera if I'm not holding it at arm's length, especially as there's a fair bit of shutter lag. The aperture and focal length aren't the best in class but the Olympus waterproof seems to be similar (38mm widest angle and F3.5) although it does have an optical viewfinder and is supposed to be shockproof as well.

The Nikon was a great camera when it came out but does suffer from a slow write to the card - take a high-res photo and you can wait several seconds before you can take another one. It's quite bulky and I tend to only have it with me "if I'm going to be taking photos". It takes excellents pictures though (if not in my hands) and is superb at long focal lengths (not much use on a boat I guess).

Canon Ixus S850 ticks all the boxes but is pricy (£229 Jessops, £160 eBay). If you just want a camera to keep inside the hatch for the odd moment, what about a disposable waterproof one? Surprisingly good quality, totally point and shoot and just a few quid.

 

[tcm]

ah well now, swmbo and I bought one at the airport so i am a complete expert. The most important tip i can give you is not to leave the box with all the spare gubbins on the boat and bring the camera back on its own like i did, cos then you can't recharge the dead camera, and can't get any of the pictures off it either...

 

[Vara]

Re: Fuji 5600...

The 5600/5700 isn't waterproof, I'm experimenting with a UV filter,cable ties and various grades of polythene bag to try and provide some sort of spray protection as the last time I used it at sea it got encrusted with salt.

 

[BrendanS]

Vic,

what do you want to do with the camera?

 

[CPD]

Vic,
I had a point and shoot Fuji which was fine but then upgraded to a finepix s9500 a fgew months ago. Didnt want changeabkle lenses etc but wanted to be able to do more than just point and shoot. Mine has USB1 and is just fine. I dont think the fewer pixels on the 5700 will make much difference at all.

 

[ditchcrawler]

www.7dayshop.com are now stocking Canon cameras at good prices.I have an Ixus & they are very handy for the pocket.I do not use my digital SLR on the boat.

 

[halcyon]

I use, if we get out on the boat, a Olympus Mju 725SW, mainly due to it operating to a depth of 5 meter, and in sea water you wash in a bucket of freash water after.
May be limited on optical zoom, 3x, but it is flat, waterproof, and seems ideal for a life at sea.
Time will tell

Brian