john-henry
Well-known member
normjackson said:
That's a very interesting link Norm, thank you very much.
I've bookmarked it for a long look later.
Regards
John
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Fuji F30 - mixed thoughts. (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter john-henry
- Start date
That's a very interesting link Norm, thank you very much.
I've bookmarked it for a long look later.
Regards
John
Forcreeks
If you want to see something new in nature!
Fuji's last-3 burst feature
This new shot in my Gallery shows how useful the F-30's "final-3" feature can be; used here to catch the "flicking" tongue of Northern Flicker. Every camera for digiscoping should have this feature.. ahh if only they made a camera for digiscoping!!
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/128124/sort/1/cat/500/page/1
This new shot in my Gallery shows how useful the F-30's "final-3" feature can be; used here to catch the "flicking" tongue of Northern Flicker. Every camera for digiscoping should have this feature.. ahh if only they made a camera for digiscoping!!
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/128124/sort/1/cat/500/page/1
After reading all you guys talking about the F30 I took a look at the Cameras in my local electronics store. I couldn't find the F30 anywhere but I could find a Fuji F40. Is this updated version of the F30? On the display blurb it said it had been released last month.............
Apologies if this has already been mentioned.
Apologies if this has already been mentioned.
Unfortunately not Stu. The F31fd is the replacement for the F30 with the addition of Face Detection as the main difference. The F40 is an 8 meg (up from 6 ) but they've dropped the frame rate way down and only 2 frames in Continuous which is not very useful as far as I'm concerned. Neil.
Neil said:
Hi Neil. I was back in the Store today and the F31 was there (for the princely sum of 37000 yen).
Unfortunately I got a Nikon P4 last autumn and the wife would kill me if I got another camera so soon after the last purchase (I found that I don't even like the P4 for digiscoping and have gone back to my old 4200 so digicams are a bit of a sore point in our household at the moment!).
What does "face detection" mean? I guess it's a mode that focuses more on the face in portrait pics? Will it have any benefits for digiscoping or is it just a gimicky little extra with no practical use for us digiscopers?
Stu,
Face Detection shouldn't have any application for birds. What didn't you like about the P4 for digiscoping? I've seen some good digiscoped images from it. Also does it have the Green Macro symbol? Do you want to sell it? Neil.
ps I got into trouble too when I go the Sony W100 so soon after the A640.
Face Detection shouldn't have any application for birds. What didn't you like about the P4 for digiscoping? I've seen some good digiscoped images from it. Also does it have the Green Macro symbol? Do you want to sell it? Neil.
ps I got into trouble too when I go the Sony W100 so soon after the A640.
Neil said:
Hi Neil.
Apologies for hijacking the F30 thread. The images on the P4 are a little soft. There was a fairly long thread about it last year (I think you may have posted on it a few times) and I tried a few different things but went back to my old 4200. I haven't completely given up on it. I've attached a couple of Eagle pics I took a couple of weeks ago with the P4 (after I'd taken a lot with the 4200).
The bluer looking one was on regular point and shoot and the other was on "A" mode. I think. Both as they came and unedited except I cropped out a bit of vignetting.
The Macro symbol is green though. Do I want to sell it? Hadn't really thought about it to be honest. If you're being serious you can PM me.
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Stu,
I think you are being a bit hard on yourself. I had a close look at the eagles and they look reaonable to me. I gave one quick run through in CS2. Did you use the P4 in Green Macro Mode ( I shoot this way in the 8400 90% of the time )?. I have seen some very sharp images from the P4 so I suspect the images may need post-processing. The RAW images from the 8400 are soft and need some work. I would use Spot Metering , not Centre Weighted, particularly for against the sky subjects. Neil.
I think you are being a bit hard on yourself. I had a close look at the eagles and they look reaonable to me. I gave one quick run through in CS2. Did you use the P4 in Green Macro Mode ( I shoot this way in the 8400 90% of the time )?. I have seen some very sharp images from the P4 so I suspect the images may need post-processing. The RAW images from the 8400 are soft and need some work. I would use Spot Metering , not Centre Weighted, particularly for against the sky subjects. Neil.
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Mike Penfold
Well-known member
Here are some photographs taken in Panama earlier this month, with the F30 hand-held to the zoom lens of one of the Canopy Tower's Leica 77's by our guide. While the the Fuji's lens is well protected, I was reluctant to damage the Leica; so I said go ahead, not expecting the results attached, taken in the anti-shake setting.
The Ocellated Antbird was photographed in deep shade; they were trimmed in-camera, re-sized/filed in PhotoImpression 3.0.
Mike
The Ocellated Antbird was photographed in deep shade; they were trimmed in-camera, re-sized/filed in PhotoImpression 3.0.
Mike
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border reiver
John
Great results Mike the 2nd pic is better than any hand held shot I've taken. Well done.
John
John
john-henry
Well-known member
Mike Penfold said:
Some nice pics there Mike, if they were taken in "anti-shake mode" the ISO must have been cranked right up, can you let us know, from your EXIF data, what the ISO was etc. It's amazing how little noise there is.
Regards
John
Mike Penfold
Well-known member
Thanks; the credit is due to Carlos and the F30. With a Green Kingfisher, I initially had the camera in automatic mode; then changed to shutter priority mode, but had the ISO at 200 from previous photography. The second set of photographs were worse than the first and both were dark/soft. For a Black-throated Trogon, I changed to a slower shutter speed and ISO 1600, still trying to keep as much depth of field as possible; however, some of these were also not sharp.john-henry said:
With new birds everywhere, the lighting changing from sun to deep shade, Carlos just holding the F30 up to the ocular lens between thumb and forefinger, and everything depending on speed, I thought: let's just put it in the anti-shake mode, which I'd never used before. After the Slaty-tailed Trogon, I just left it there. However, the camera should have been on 6MF resolution.
Here is the info on the photographs: Slaty-tailed Trogon:1/420, F4.3, ISO400, 6MN. Olivaceous Trogon: 1/480, F4.7, ISO800, 6MN. Ocellated Antbird: 1/17, F4.3, ISO3200, 6MN.
Mike
john-henry
Well-known member
Mike Penfold said:
Thanks Mike, there's no doubt about it the F30 is brilliant in this type of situation, especially hand-held shooting.
Regards
John
hughlewiswright
Member
Focusing
Hey there
Took the opportunity to try out some more digiscoping with the Cornwall white-billed diver yesterday. Out of the 60 or so shots I took a few were ok, but I was a little disappointed that not more turned out ok given that the bird was so obliging and conditions were so good.
Quite a lot of shots suffered from a lack of good focusing. I had spot-metering and macro focus on most of the time. Attached are some shots I'm quite pleased with (though the sharpness of the image isn't amazing) and some shots where the focus was clearly not great. I am wondering whether I should use multi or average 'photometry' for shots where the bird fills the picture?? Then maybe more of the bird and bill will be in focus and not just the head.
Has anyone got any other tips on getting super sharp images and also, what is the best combination of sharpening tools to use in photoshop? I'm usually cautious with sharpening but if there is a subtle option in photoshop I would like to experiment.
Thanks in advance :t:
Hugh
(First three photos are cropped with some lighting adjustment in photoshop. The crappy two are unaltered)
Hey there
Took the opportunity to try out some more digiscoping with the Cornwall white-billed diver yesterday. Out of the 60 or so shots I took a few were ok, but I was a little disappointed that not more turned out ok given that the bird was so obliging and conditions were so good.
Quite a lot of shots suffered from a lack of good focusing. I had spot-metering and macro focus on most of the time. Attached are some shots I'm quite pleased with (though the sharpness of the image isn't amazing) and some shots where the focus was clearly not great. I am wondering whether I should use multi or average 'photometry' for shots where the bird fills the picture?? Then maybe more of the bird and bill will be in focus and not just the head.
Has anyone got any other tips on getting super sharp images and also, what is the best combination of sharpening tools to use in photoshop? I'm usually cautious with sharpening but if there is a subtle option in photoshop I would like to experiment.
Thanks in advance :t:
Hugh
(First three photos are cropped with some lighting adjustment in photoshop. The crappy two are unaltered)
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hughlewiswright
Member
ermine said:
The scope I am using is a Kowa TSN-834. Though the progressive loss of sharpness to the edges could perhaps be due to the spot focusing which I had positioned on the centre anyway.
Hugh,
I guess you were happy to see the bird anyway. I think there is some good detail still be got out of these images in Photoshop. I had a play with one. Probably the only thing I would tried is faster shutter speeds by bumping up the iso. I think 1/200 sec is a bit marginal for swimming/bobbing ducks. I've also found that Auto-focus sometimes has difficulty getting sharp focus on moving ,low contrast subjects. Worth while setting Manual Expsosure and then focusing on water in front of the duck so that it moves into focus.
For Unsharp Masking I normally start at 100.1.0 on the reduced image and adjust from there.
Take lot's of photos, Neil.
I guess you were happy to see the bird anyway. I think there is some good detail still be got out of these images in Photoshop. I had a play with one. Probably the only thing I would tried is faster shutter speeds by bumping up the iso. I think 1/200 sec is a bit marginal for swimming/bobbing ducks. I've also found that Auto-focus sometimes has difficulty getting sharp focus on moving ,low contrast subjects. Worth while setting Manual Expsosure and then focusing on water in front of the duck so that it moves into focus.
For Unsharp Masking I normally start at 100.1.0 on the reduced image and adjust from there.
Take lot's of photos, Neil.
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Mike Penfold
Well-known member
Macro (close-up) mode with the Fuj F30 is excellent for subjects at a distance of 2.0 in. to 6.6 ft., depending on the use of wide angle, telephoto and shooting mode.
At wide apertures the depth of field is quite shallow. You may want to experiment with aperture priority AE, or try the anti-blur mode, which seems to adjust settings to favour a greater depth of field, while keeping shutter speeds relatively high by increasing ISO.
Although spot metering/focusing in the manual and A/S modes seems to work, you could also experiment with continuous focusing with moving subjects, or high-speed shooting (haven't tried either of these).
The 6MF resolution mode looks the same as 6MN, but isn't compressed; so it accepts enlargement more effectively.
The other issue is the type of adapter you use, about which there's a lot of information posted. Apart from hand-held for folks with hands and nerves of steel, the fastest and least expensive adapters seem to be made from jar lids of one kind or another, or the digiscoping alignment collar from SRB-Griturn.
Mike
At wide apertures the depth of field is quite shallow. You may want to experiment with aperture priority AE, or try the anti-blur mode, which seems to adjust settings to favour a greater depth of field, while keeping shutter speeds relatively high by increasing ISO.
Although spot metering/focusing in the manual and A/S modes seems to work, you could also experiment with continuous focusing with moving subjects, or high-speed shooting (haven't tried either of these).
The 6MF resolution mode looks the same as 6MN, but isn't compressed; so it accepts enlargement more effectively.
The other issue is the type of adapter you use, about which there's a lot of information posted. Apart from hand-held for folks with hands and nerves of steel, the fastest and least expensive adapters seem to be made from jar lids of one kind or another, or the digiscoping alignment collar from SRB-Griturn.
Mike
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