Fuji Finepix S5600... bit of advice

[nok1]

hi
as a complete newbie when it comes to cameras, i was looking at this camera today.
it seems alright but is 5.1 megapixel enough? i like to take photos and then zoom in and crop to bits in the shot. can you do this with this camera?
i did a search and nothing really came up and would like someones opinion on the camera if anyones got one.

is there any good review sites for cameras in this price bracket ( asda £199 but dixon online £151, so it looks like dixons if i get one)
thanks

[venkata]

Fuji have differebt US/ European model names. Although there is no review at my favourite site www.dpreview.com, there are user ratings http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read..._finepixs5200z

ps, if you buy from dixons, buy it with an EGG card as you get 5% cashback...

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_...uji_s5200.html (another good review site.)

[icedraider]

http://www.livingroom.org.au/photolo...5600_s5200.php

loads of different reviews here

[nok1]

thanks for your replys, although there good reviews they still seem a bit technical. i don`t know if this camera is too much for me to be honest. i want good results but don`t understand most of the termanology,
hmmm might have to try and educate myself a bit more

[pete252]

nok1 - this is a fine camera, not got one as good myself, but looking at steve's digicams site review, I would love one. It has point and shoot capability so don't be worried about all the technical stuff. As for 5.1 megapixels - yes you can crop quite a lot and zoom in to small areas and still get a decent A4 size print. I am currently using a 4.1 megapixel camera with 8X optical zoom for mainly wildlife stuff and I usually need to crop heavily. I can send you examples of my photo's, before and after if you PM me. One thing I would look for though in a camera with a big zoom is image stabilisation - this is to avoid 'camera shake' when you use full zoom.

If you want more info PM me and we can chat but there are some real photo guru's on this board that put my efforts to shame.

Pete

[slartibartfast]

I wouldn't worry about the camera being too technical for you. IMO it's better to get one with greater manual control that you can learn how to use, rather than one limited to auto modes that may well start to frustrate you as your knowledge grows. As pete says, most cameras have a full auto mode anyway so you can use that while learning the more advanced features.

As for the S5600, it seems to be a good camera from what I've read. I know Deadly has one and he posted some cracking shots the other week.

http://www.digital-forums.com/showthread.php?t=275742

ps. Come one pete lets see some shots, we don't bite you know.

[Deadly]

Yeah, i got one of these cameras back at christmas, pretty happy with it overall.

Nice and compact, quite lightweight. No need to worry yourself about the technical stuff, you can keep it on the automatic setting and it takes good photos in most situations.

When you want to take it a step further you can switch it to the manual settings to be more creative with your photos.

5.1 megapixels is more than enough for good prints at 6x4/7x5/8x10/A4 and probably bigger aswell.

The 10x zoom is excellent aswell, found myself using that alot more recently for getting closer to action.

Takes nice shots at night aswell, very little noise in the photos, heres a quick example of one at night.



Would definately recomend it for a beginners/intermediate camera because you've got the automatic setting which takes good photos and when you get into the hobby more, you can take full control over everything in the camera with the manual settings. Might seem like double dutch now, but you'll learn, and when you do, you'll be glad you're able to choose the settings yourself.

I just googled it and found it for £151 at Dixons which i reckon is a total steal, i paid about £200 for it 9 months ago, and it was worth every penny.

Hope that helps

[dunfy2003]

I'd go for the s9500, takes a fantastic picture. Takes good quality movies too. £295 at Dixons.

[venkata]

I'd go for the s9500, takes a fantastic picture. Takes good quality movies too. £295 at Dixons.

But it's double the price!!!

[taff]

Iv got the s5500 and that is a good bit of kit. i like fuji as they are pretty simple to use.
Id recomend it at the price youv found you get a good camera for a good price.

taff.

[nok1]

cheers for the reviews .
wife got it from asda because you get 28 days no quibble if we find we don`t like it but to be honest it seems a nice camera. i like to take pics of wildlife so the zoom will come in handy @ Deadley . nice pic mate, we do a lot of site seeing and like to to take night pics and that looks good IMO. Those airshow pics , are they with this camera cause look superb and crisp with is what i`m after to be honest.

[venkata]

How much were ASDA? I do believe they pricematch ...

[nok1]

£199 at asda, won`t pricematch an internet offer, which is a pity but the last camera we got from asda we got a total refund { which we put to another one } with 3 days left on the 12 month gurantee so can`t really say fairer than that

[Deadly]

nok1 - Yeah, the airshow pics were with this camera. Sure you'll love it once you get used to using it. There's so many settings you can play with aswell once you want to take it a step further.

[nok1]

cheers mate, i`ll have to read the manuel then LOL

[Deadly]

You'll need to post up some pictures when you get round to taking some

[nok1]

been taking plenty LOL mainly of the dog and the other half. not very good at the mo to be honest.
did you say you bought some more lenses from e-bay? which ones should i look out for , theres quite a few to choose from
cheers

[Deadly]

Only thing that disapointed me about the camera was the macro/closeup setting, purely because my previous camera could focus with the lens practically touching what i wanted to get a photo of lol i think the S5600 needs to be about 10/12cm away? anyway, i picked up a set of close up lens/filters on ebay, they were about £14 inc delivery, well worth the money. If you go to ebay and search for "5600, close up" im sure it'll bring some up, it's a set of 4 lense, +1, +2, +4 and +10.

I doubt you'll really need them right now, but worth considering if you want to take pics of things really close up.

You can get other lenses for it like a wide angle lense and telephoto lense to increase the zoom, but i havn't bothered with any of those yet, the more zoom you have the more shakey your pics will be lol unless you have a really steady hand!

[nok1]

is this what your on about mate
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Macro-Close-Up...QQcmdZViewItem

it also says "simply mounted in the front of the Fuji FinePix S5600 adapter ring (supplied with the camera - 55mm filter thread)."
but i don`t know if i have one . there wasn`t anything in the box unless they mean they just clip on the front of the lens?

[gingertosser]

i know this is an old post now but i thought id thank you all...after reading a few reviews from the links that you posted i decided to purchase this camera from dixons..less than 150 quid delivered with no discount codes...bought a bag and a gig stick from ebay, and still have change from 200 quid..

anyway, i aint uch of a photographer, but is there any thing else that you would recommend, maybe lenses,filters etc?

thanks guys
chris