Fuji Camera experts - need help!

[juligrl]

Okay so here's what we have my Fuji Finepix 400 and our Fuji Finepix 3800 digital cameras. Help us get some good night shots - parades, lights, etc with one of our cameras.

Here's the gripes - with mine everything looks a lot sharper on the camera screen then it does when we download them onto the computer. With the 3800 it's slow to recover from taking a picture (especially in low-light situations) and as with just about any camera I've ever had it's nearly impossible to get a decent picture of lights.

Anyone got any tips out there.

After you've addressed one of these issues feel free to try and sell me on another type of camera that does really well at night shots and isn't too expensive. What do you like and why (show pics if you can)?

TIA!

 

[YEKCIM]

Okay so here's what we have my Fuji Finepix 400 and our Fuji Finepix 3800 digital cameras. Help us get some good night shots - parades, lights, etc with one of our cameras.

Here's the gripes - with mine everything looks a lot sharper on the camera screen then it does when we download them onto the computer. With the 3800 it's slow to recover from taking a picture (especially in low-light situations) and as with just about any camera I've ever had it's nearly impossible to get a decent picture of lights.

Anyone got any tips out there.

After you've addressed one of these issues feel free to try and sell me on another type of camera that does really well at night shots and isn't too expensive. What do you like and why (show pics if you can)?

TIA!

First off, the 3800 was released in 2002, making it almost 5 years old technology which is an eternity nowadays. In addition, if the specs shown on dpreview are accurate, it has only one ISO setting, ISO 100, which is totally inadequate for nighttime photography, unless you use a tripod and can manage a long enough exposure. Your other camera, the A400, if that is the correct model, has adjustable ISO, up to 400 but, like the 3800, has a tiny sensor, meaning that it will not deliver high quality low-light results. I am no expert, by any means, and there are other folks on this forum who are much more qualified than I to make recommendations.

That said, depending on your budget, you would probably do well to stick with Fuji, as their newer models use largers sensors, which excel (comparatively) at low light performance. I have the S5200, which gives pretty good performance up to ISO 800 (see examples below). Fuji also has some newer models, like the S6000fd and the F31fd. The former is a "superzoom", which is larger, to accommodate the larger lens, while the latter is a more compact design, but does not have nearly as much "reach" as the S6000fd in terms of the lens. Both should deliver very good results in low light situations, as compared to most other point-n-shoot digital cameras, although for best performance, a dSLR would be best. However, that is a quantum leap in both cost and complexity, and it does not sound like you are looking in that direction.

I suggest you read some online reviews on some of the review sites such as www.dpreview.com, www.steves-digicams.com, www.imaging-resource.com, and www.dcresource.com.

Here are some examples of the S5200's performance at ISO 800:

Good luck.

~YEKCIM

 

[photo_chick]

As far as seeing a great shot on the tiny lcd screen then getting to the pc and it not looking so great, that is just becasue the lcd screen is so small. You tend not to see motion blur and other problems on that tiny screen.

As far as night shots, I have had 2 Fuji p&s cameras. They do well IMO for point and shoot cameras with night shots but don't compare to a DSLR with a fast lens. The only shots I was able to do well with my Fuji p&s without a flash were when i used a tripod. They both did fine for people shots with a flash though. Here is one with a tripod (I would have needed a tripod even with a DSLR probably)...

Fuji FInepix A340

 

[Amy]

Hi Juligrl! It was great meeting you and your DH at the parade in Pitcairn today! Good thing my antenna perked up when I overheard "Disney discussion forum" while I was walking past!

Your DH was asking about my camera a little, but I was kind of busy taking pictures of my boys so I didn't try to "sell" him on it right then. (By the way, that was my oldest son who played the lead on echo Taps this morning.)

Anyway, I've got a Canon S3 IS - there's an entire thread here devoted to photos taken with the S3 so you can see for yourself how well it does under all kinds of situations. I've taken photos of my boys during their band competitions at night on a football field under stadium lights; I've used the "Sports" setting on the camera and have gotten some decent shots, BUT they had a lot of noise. In the Sports setting, the S3 automatically bumps up the ISO as far as 800 (and even higher if you choose the right (or wrong?) setting).

Here's a low-light, hand-held shot from the Penguin exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo. This was using ISO of 400, shutter 1/30 and aperture 3.5:

Here's one from the Oglebay Festival of Lights, using "Night Scene" and a tripod:

I can't wait for our trip so I can try it out on fireworks and Spectromagic. I'm taking along a Gorillapod, so we'll see how it does. From everything I've read, it's really tough to get good hand-held shots in low light, even with a dSLR. I plan to take tons of pictures and hope a couple turn out decent!

 

[Amy]

Forgot to add.....the S3 is also pretty easy to use. You can set it on full automatic if you want, but it also has settings so you can get creative and set your own shutter and aperture. And I can't believe I forgot to mention the 12x zoom!! It's absolutely awesome!

As for price, Canon is set to release the S5 this summer (I think in July), so the S3 price will be coming down, if it's not already. I think somebody on this board recently bought one for $303. The only diff. between the S3 and the new S5 is that the S5 has a hot shoe for an external flash and the S5 has more pixels but the same size sensor.

 

[juligrl]

Thanks everyone. And hi Amy - I'm glad you were attuned to the mention of the Dis. Cool !

So after the parade DH and I stopped by Best Buy to check out their selection of cameras which was sorely lacking. There was a Canon that set off an alarm everytime anyone touched it , and a Sony H9 (I think) that DH really liked the screen on. That was pretty much it unless we were looking for the smaller ones or the DSLRs.

We then stopped over at Ritz where they had a beter selection and staff to answer questions and talk camera . We looked at the Fuji s5700 and liked it. Seemed like a newer version of what we have now.

The other one we looked at was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8K - it's got the 12x optical zoom Leica lens (I had a photography professor who would always rave about Leica anything). I liked how lightweight it was, but it does take the special batteries (can't think of what they're called ). We also liked the rapid fire mode - got some cool pics of DD doing a twirl in the store.

I've always been a Canon lover so that's probably worth checking out too. I like shopping for cameras so this is fun for me - plus I love seeing pictures taken with these cameras so if you have any, direct me that way.

Thanks again and keep those suggestions coming!

P.S.

(By the way, that was my oldest son who played the lead on echo Taps this morning.)

My younger sister was the Taps echo player with the Gateway Marching Band at that parade 8th-10th grade (lead 11th & 12th). That was back in 95-99 so its been a while but it's neat to know that's your kid (or kid sister as the case may be). I was a flute/piccolo player so no Taps for me. I still follow the band - once a band geek always a band geek.