New toy - Fuji s6500fd

freebooter · 14 May 2007 at 14:56

After a long period of going round in circles looking at cheap bridge cameras and then working my way up to dSLRs and lenses that I couldn't afford and then starting all over again, I took advantage of the recent price cuts and bought a fuji s6500.

I bought it at a well known high st shop for £150. They only had the display model so I tried for a further discount with no luck but he did give me a free extended 3yr warranty. Waiting for details to arrive but I know these usually get a bad press but it was free. The usb cable was missing from the box so he gave me a free card reader instead. Only USB Hi Speed, which I think is usb1.1(?) but again it was free.

First impressions are that it feels pretty solid, reasonable ergonomics - I had an Oly OM2 years ago and it is nice to get back to a bigger slr style camera. Manual zoom ring was a big plus for me and it feels quite smooth. Controls are quite nicely laid out although there are always niggles; why is the raw option still buried in the setup menu? This was the same in my fuji E550 I bought a couple of years ago and everyone moaned about it then. Overall I am very impressed so far for the price. It obviously isn't an slr but then it was much cheaper.

I can start off with mem card and batteries I already own but didn't have a case. Luckily I found one in a cupboard that fits perfectly. Although, I didn't realise Cadbury made camera cases

Few test images in next post.

freebooter · 14 May 2007 at 14:56

Was raining on Sunday but I managed to get out to the canal to take some first test shots. Un fortunately all the ducks were hiding from the rain and I didn't see any flowers suitable for macros so I couldn't take any proper technical test shots

I did manage to get some of a statue, however, before being told to stop by a security guard. Annoying as it was a good statue and would have made a great subject to go back to again in different conditions.

I underexposed them as it looked as if the highlights may blow so I had to do some pp to them. There was also a purplish colour cast which I had to get rid off. It was raining heavily at the time and I just left wb on auto so see how it works in other conditions. My pp skills are very limited so these just had a bit of colour correction and levels in digikam.

Bobbler · 14 May 2007 at 17:43

Just picked one of these up myself down a high street store. Certainly wipes the floor with my old Panny LC40 for quality. Paid an extra tenner and got a Lowepro case and a 512 XD card.

ZG002 · 14 May 2007 at 21:00

I to have just picked one of these up tonight

paid alittle more than you but meh to that lol..

Ive had a quick play with it and all feels really nice so far just got back in from taking some photos but they are shocking lol..

Im spanking new to photography and felt it would be a good place to start..
Anyone got any nice online guides i can read?

sjt269 · 14 May 2007 at 21:32

Nice. I've got the S5600. Don't know what the real-world differences are, but they look the same. If yours brings you anywhere near as much fun as mine brought/still brings me, it's money well spent.

freebooter said:
Although, I didn't realise Cadbury made camera cases

*whisper* Caldbury don't make Galaxy *whisper*

J1234 · 14 May 2007 at 21:57

tTz said:
*whisper* Caldbury don't make Galaxy *whisper*

Mars make Galaxy, and their soon not going to be vegetarian...

ZG002 · 14 May 2007 at 23:36

ill add one of my pics lol...

woohoo my first proper pic in this section lol

z0mbi3 · 14 May 2007 at 23:41

I've had 2 of these cameras and they both developed faults within the first few days of use. The CCD went bandy on one and the other managed to get dirt on the inside of the lense. I wasn't doing anything special with them at all.

I'm very sceptical on picking up another even though they really impressed me when they were working.

I'm stumped on what to do tbh.

ZG002 · 14 May 2007 at 23:44

3rd time lucky?

z0mbi3 · 15 May 2007 at 08:24

Possibly.

I'm going to have a think on it.

broona · 15 May 2007 at 22:18

Any more comments on this camera please? I'm seriously tempted, got a couple of mates with 350D's, but i can't really justify £300+ on a SLR, and this looks like the next best option for half the price, just in the middle of reading a review, but would appreciate user feedback too. Thanks.

Fr0dders · 16 May 2007 at 09:21

z0mbi3 said:
Possibly.

I'm going to have a think on it.

what about a canon powershot S3

or a Panasonic FZ8 ?

the Panny shoots RAW (much quicker than the fuji as well) has 12 X Zoom, and is 7 Megapixel.

the Canon can be made to shoot RAW with a bit of firmware "added" to the camera, and also does 10 x zoom with manual focusing.

I've just bought the panasonic, arrives tomorrow. Will let you know how i get on if you're intrerested.

a1ex2001 · 16 May 2007 at 11:37

MrLOL said:
I've just bought the panasonic, arrives tomorrow. Will let you know how i get on if you're intrerested.

I'd be very interested to hear what you think I'm going to take the plunge on a brdge camera in the near future and can't decide which one to go for! I've heard some negaive comments around noise on this model.

Fr0dders · 16 May 2007 at 11:57

a1ex2001 said:
I'd be very interested to hear what you think I'm going to take the plunge on a brdge camera in the near future and can't decide which one to go for! I've heard some negaive comments around noise on this model.

i've read the same dpreview as you then

I also read a review on Steve's Digicams, and in this months What camera, neither of which made any comment on it.

I've decided to take the plunge on the grounds that even though DPreview criticised it, they still gave it a "highly recommended" award.

I've seen the difference that photographing in RAW makes too, if you you use your own noise reduction (as opposed to the camera) with noise ninja or whatever, you can achieve much better results than the jpeg output, which just come out smeared at high ISO.