Which digital camera?

[JohnF]

Hi Everyone
This is my first post, and it's a straight forward question.
I've decided to buy a new digital camera, and have narrowed it down to the Fuji S5000 or the Minolta Dimage Z1.
Does anyone own any of these, and can give some advice as to which is the better of the two,or does anyone know of anything better in the same price range.
Any advice would be gratefully recieved.
Cheers JohnF.

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Hi John, and welcome to the Forum. I can't help with your question - but you're certain to get some answers soon. ;)

[Andy Bright]

Hi John and welcome to birdforum.net from all the staff here, always good to see a member post for the first time.

I'm afraid I'm not much help in this particular case, let's hope there's a member who can advise you. Maybe you could give us an idea of the type of photography you will be using the camera for, some cameras are better at some things than others.
Regards,
Andy

[JohnF]

Cheers Andy
I aim to use it just to keep a record of the birds,wildlife and anything else I see when out walking
JohnF

[Andy Bright]

I expect you've found this thread already...but if not, here it is http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=8801

Regards,
Andy

[john young]

hi john recently bought fuji ss5500 with 1.5 teleconverter and i am finding it easy to use with decent results, just practicing at the moment bu looks promising regards
john young

[rka]

Hi John,

I would avoid both cameras. There are better options out there such as the Panasonic FZ series, the more recent Dimage Z5 and shortly there will be a Sony 12X available. All of the previously mentioned camera have 12X lenses with image stabilisation.

[weather]

Were you a film photographer before digital? I have the Fuji s5000 with 1.5 teleconverter. You can see some pics at picturetrail. Just click on the link below my name. I was a photo nut with film (35mm) and then I went to digital. I liked the S5000 at first, but have now held and operated the Canon and Nikon SLRs. Big mistake! It really shows the limitations of the S5000. I'm now saving for a digital SLR. I think if you know a little about photography, the point and shot cameras get old fast. I say save awhile longer and buy a good SLR because you probably will eventually anyway.

Mike

[robski]

John

You don't mention your upper limit of your budget for a new camera. I guess your looking at only £200 or so for a Fuji S5500. I think the Fuji S5000 is not available unless your looking at secondhand.

My wife has a S5000 for over a year now. Generally it's not a bad camera and got good reviews at the time. However I have used it a few times and I will point out its good and bad points. My own camera is a dSLR.

I thought the x10 zoom was pretty good image quaility.

The x2.2 which added to the x10 gives the published x22 is digital
and at full zoom the image is only 1 mega pixel quaility.

The ISO 800 setting also is only 1 mega pixel quailty.

The 6 Mega Pixel setting is rubbish, worse than the 3 Mega pixel setting.

Fuji has gone for tick box sales approach so it looks good on paper.

Having said all of this if you bare the above in mind and and pick one up second hand for a £100 or so you have a decent 3 Mega pixel camera with a nice zoom. Which should be OK for taking snaps of birds. It's a good starter camera and you can always upgrade at a later date.

Sorry I cannot comment on the minolta.

If you can afford much more then look at the suggestions given above if you want better quaility.

Robert

[MikeMules]

I must say, if you don't have the thousands to spend on DSLRs, the S5500 would be an excellent choice. I have used (8000+ photos) its predecessor, the S5000 for the past 10 months and it has given me outstanding quality photographs (not screen images, printed photos).

With all due respect, I would take the comments on the 6MP image quality of the S5000 with a large grain of salt, as the S5500 (the only one available) has a 4MP CCD, with no 6MP setting. For the price it is, you will probably not find a better camera. (also, I notice no discernible difference between the 3MP and 6MP settings on screen, and better definition in print from the 6MP)

One of the features that sold me on the camera (apart from image quality and optical zoom - ignore the digital zoom, it works by cropping the image, leading to poorer quality) was the 55mm filter thread on the front. I use mine with an Olympus teleconverter to give a 635mm SLR equivalent zoom, and with polarisers, ND Grads and closeups filters - attached is a photo using a +4 filter taken a couple of days ago of a drinking preying mantis, and another taken with the teleconverter attached. I use it entirely on aperture and manual priority.

The other cameras mentioned (in Australia at least) cost an additional $200-500 on average; for that money, you would want them to be markedly better.

For what it's worth,

[robski]

Mike I have just re-run a test I did last year on the S5000 and I take it back about the 6 Mega Pixel being bad. I was interested to see how well the camera interpolated from 3 Mega pixel to 6 Mega Pixel and what I saw at the time was very bad. There were pixels jutting out from the diagonals of the "K". I can only assume the camera went to a lower resolution because of the ISO setting or I over zoomed.

For everybodies piece of mind I have supplied my test carried out tonight and as you can see there is no problem.

These are at 100% crop. The image on the left is at 6 Mega Pixel and on the right at 3 Mega Pixel.

As I have said it is basically a good camera. The S5500 is a 4 Mega Pixel so even better.

Robert

[helenol]

Maybe JohnF has already decided, he posted this thread in February 2004

[weather]

Maybe JohnF has already decided, he posted this thread in February 2004

LOL! How the hell did that happen?

Mike

[Henry B]

I think Johns first post caused some confusion..

[helenol]

Helen

Is your clock a bit fast ;) I see the starting post is Dec 2003 LOL

Passes the times LOL

RobertLOL, Thread started Monday 2nd February, 2004, at 22.34hrs. The member joined in Dec 2003

Ah well, nothing like having a browse through the old threads... ;)

[Dick Roadnight]

The topic Title question is still relevent today.

What do the "pros" use?

Lo-res is fine if you are only going to print A4 or upload a 480x640 to the web, but if you think you might want to try to sell something through an agency, they used to insist on 11Mpx cropped - maybe more now.

The Cannon 16Mpx might be an obvious choice for a few grand, but 24 x 36mm CCDs need long lenses.

The Sinar camera I want (not just for birds) has a 40x50mm CCD, but I have a range of lenses that might be OK for it, including a 400mm lens head made by Leica for Novoflex, an a 640 f9 lenshead for the Novoflex.

[LCN]

Hi,
I have the Fuji S5000. It is a good camera although you must use a tripod most of the time or you will get blur in your photos. I am not a pro and the camera is my starter camera. I am hoping to upgrade to a Canon XT with a 400 or 500mm lens. A much bigger cash outlay but I love this hobbie. I think you will like the camera. You can check some internet sites that give reviews on both cameras. If you would like a used S5000 KEEP ME IN MIND
lcn

Hi Everyone
This is my first post, and it's a straight forward question.
I've decided to buy a new digital camera, and have narrowed it down to the Fuji S5000 or the Minolta Dimage Z1.
Does anyone own any of these, and can give some advice as to which is the better of the two,or does anyone know of anything better in the same price range.
Any advice would be gratefully recieved.
Cheers JohnF.