need some advice

[shifty_uk]

Hi guys,

A while back I posted a thread asking some advice on purchasing a camera. I actually forgot all about it, I don't visit this section much.
The thread here

Well, I've still not bought a camera, and I've recently been looking at the Fuji S9500. Which comes in at just over £300, which is around my budget.
The camera


The problem is, I'm not too clued up on cameras or photography atall, and I need help
I want a camera that will be able to achieve effects like this:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

They are all by the same photographer, who uses a Canon 300D.
I want a camera that will give me great lighting, great quality, and focus effects, for example being able to focus on something moving, like a car, where the background is blurred and the car is visible.

Sorry I don't know much about all this, but it's something I'm pretty interested in, and some advice would be great.

Is this camera good enough to achieve the quality of these images I've shown, will it be able to perform the tasks I've said?

Thanks a lot

 

[robertgilbert86]

Have you considered a DSLR? You can find the Nikon D50 with the kit lens for £380 on the internet.

From what I've heard the S9500 is pretty good, try googling reviews for it, they're should be sample shots over at steve's digicams too.

I think the effects in those photos are more about the photographer than the camera, looks like creative uses of lamps.

 

[MaxPower]

I dont claim to be an expert on the matter having only bought this camera about 3 days ago but I must say that I am absolutely stunned byt the pictures this camera is capable of taking. As a complete novice I have so far been able to capture some good quality close up shots, moving shots and used the zoom to a certain amount of sucess. I believe it is all about how you take the picture and the shots in your OP are certainly achieveable with this camera (even though I wouldnt be able to tell you how).

The camera has a couple of drawbacks for example its fixed lensed so you cannot replace the lens even though the range of the attached lens is very good, it is also difficult to manually focus with the digital viewfinder but Im sure this is something to get used to. The XD card supplied is a measly 16mb so I would also budget for some larger memory I opted to buy a 2.5" HDD memory card backup device which I am also extremely happy with.

In my opinion this camera was an excellent choice and for the price range a worthy competitor for the DSLR which start at ~£400.

 

[rpstewart]

Is this camera good enough to achieve the quality of these images I've shown, will it be able to perform the tasks I've said?

All the things you've mentioned are down to technique rather than the camera itself. The effects in the links are simply down to the lighting employed by the photographer, the first for example is just the model holding a lamp to her face.

If by focus effects you mean foreground subjects in focus with a blurred background that might e a bit more tricky. The smallish sensor in the Fuji means that by and large the depth of field is quite big so blurred backgrounds, while achieveable are more difficult than with a DSLR for example.

Focussing on moving objects should be a bit easier, again it's down to technique - a slow shutter speed (1/200s or less) and panning with the moving subject.

 

[shifty_uk]

That's great, thanks a lot for the advice

Have you considered a DSLR?

Can you explain what a DSLR is exactly?

I've been looking at the reviews for the S9500, and they all seem good Steve's digicams even said "Fujifilm have struck gold" wtih this camera.

It seems like a really good camera, and I think I'm going to buy one next week

Thanks again for the info guys.

 

[rpstewart]

Can you explain what a DSLR is exactly?

A DSLR is a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera. SLRs have been around for a long time, the defining feature is that they have an optical viewfinder which looks directly through the main objective lens of the camera. Therefore you see exactly what the camera sees.

Normally there's a moving mirror between the lens and the viewfinder which directs light up to the eye, this moves out of the way so that the sensor or film can be exposed. In some cameras (Olympus E10 for example) a split prism is used to direct light in two directions without moving parts.

There are other features which are associated with SLRs but are not defining attributes:

Changeable lenses - some non SLR cameras have changeable lenses (Leica rangefinders) some SLRs don't (E-10 again)
Larger sensors - DSLRs have sensors approaching the size of 35mm film, this tends to give lower image noise and shallower depth of field for a given aperture setting. Sony have produced at least one non SLR camera with a large sensor so again not a defining feature.