• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Fuji F30 - mixed thoughts. (1 Viewer)

erniehatt said:
John, thankyou for a very informative unbiased review of the f30, there is no comments about it being better than others, as some I have read, this is what New Commers requier. Very Nice images too. Ernie

Hi Ernie, and a belated New Year to you. Hope all is going well with your new setup.

Best wishes

John
 
John

Thanks for your reply, and also more of the Purple Sandpipers, I especially like the last one, with the waves breaking in the background.

As regards our trip to Extremadura, it will be our fourth trip down there, we used to go down south, on the coast of Andalucia, but over a period of years it has gradually been spoilt, we where pushed father inland to unspoilt places, and then ended up in Extremadura, and also a place to the south of the Gredos Mountains.
I must add that we don't own any property (I wish) but rent a house just for our stay, it will be our fourth time to "The Barn" at this link.
http://www.finca-al-manzil.com/Finca-Al-manzil.htm
A stunning place, out on its own, we like to be away from it all, but not cheap. It is almost central between the triangle of Caceres, Trujillo and Merida.

We have always been interested in Birds, Love the Bee Eaters, But only had 10x50 binos and a Sony F717 to work with. We do not have great identification skills, but hopefully that will improve. The purchase of the ED82 and F30 will help in that respect.

Time is another problem, I am 58 and run my own business, just me, repairing domestic appliances, and my wife 65 gardens for old people.
We also love gardening our own small plot, and have the garden open to the public 3 or 4 times in summer, we also have garden clubs visit the garden too.
A link to our garden website, take a quick look
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/lynandmalcolm/index.htm

So always busy.

Portugal will be our first time, however the place we are staying, is only about 60 miles away from where we stay in Extremadura.

Hope I have not hijacked the thread too much.

Regards
Malc
 
You're doing well JH

Your pics with the F30 look good to me. Did you use autofocus or manual? I find the most frequent cause of bad pics is simply being unable to focus the scope and camera combination perfectly. I have a great scope - Swarovski 80 HD, but my Olympus C4000 is not the best thing to stick on the end of it. Until I see several people raving about a camera with at least 8 Mp I am reluctant to replace it!
 
Benderloch, the F30 is auto-focus only.

John-henry, can I ask you if the Purple Sands (or any of your earlier pics) are taken with the 'chrome' setting on? Also, do you use 'macro' for focussing? Other threads I've read seem to recommend this for digiscoping. Finally, do you use the 'fine' setting (ie the one which halves the number of pics you get)?

I've just got an F30 myself. I've digiscoped with a Sony PC120 camcorder and Kowa TSN 823 for a few years but the F30 is actually my very first digital stills camera and the settings are a bit like a new language.

Thanks,

David
 
Hi John,

I just love your Purple Sandpiper shots, especially the two on the right. The lighting on the middle one is just great and the splashing water on the right hand one is 'frozen' superbly. What were your setting for these? Pretty darn good for a little p.a.s. camera.

BR Ian
 
Benderloch said:
Your pics with the F30 look good to me. Did you use autofocus or manual? I find the most frequent cause of bad pics is simply being unable to focus the scope and camera combination perfectly. I have a great scope - Swarovski 80 HD, but my Olympus C4000 is not the best thing to stick on the end of it. Until I see several people raving about a camera with at least 8 Mp I am reluctant to replace it!

As David says there is only autofocus on the F30, I find this works very well, focusing quickly and accurately. I do wish it had spot focus as well as centre focus but so far no problems with it picking out the right subject.

I had a Swarovski AT80HD for 2-3 years and it is a great scope.
I find I get better pictures focusing through the scope rather than using the screen for focus, especially if the screen is small or a low resolution one.

If you're looking for a new camera you could do a lot worse than the F30, I find 6Mpix plenty big enough to give good A4 size prints so unless you want larger prints than his you could save yourself some money on cards, batteries etc.

Regards

John
 
davpen said:
Benderloch, the F30 is auto-focus only.

John-henry, can I ask you if the Purple Sands (or any of your earlier pics) are taken with the 'chrome' setting on? Also, do you use 'macro' for focussing? Other threads I've read seem to recommend this for digiscoping. Finally, do you use the 'fine' setting (ie the one which halves the number of pics you get)?

I've just got an F30 myself. I've digiscoped with a Sony PC120 camcorder and Kowa TSN 823 for a few years but the F30 is actually my very first digital stills camera and the settings are a bit like a new language.

Thanks,

David

Hi David,
I use Standard colours, I think the colours look more natural for birds.

Normal autofocus, Centre.

6Mpix and F (fine) - might as well get the best quality you can out of it and cards are reasonable these days.

Aperture Priority to help give the best shutter speed for available light.

I set -1/3EV as standard and increase this to -2/3EV if the bird has white on it that I can't meter, I find the F30 over-exposes a little and this stops the whites from being blown-out, (this only applies to sunny days of course).

Auto White Balance.

ISO, set to the lowest but good enough to give you a reasonable shutter speed.

Other things like top3, bottom3 etc. I select when I need them.

I Don't use digital zoom or focus assist lamp.

This should give you a good start with settings until you find what suits you best.

regards

John
 
Thanks John, that's great. If I get results anywhere near the quality of yours I'll be extremely happy.

Cheers,

David
 
westi said:
Hi John,

I just love your Purple Sandpiper shots, especially the two on the right. The lighting on the middle one is just great and the splashing water on the right hand one is 'frozen' superbly. What were your setting for these? Pretty darn good for a little p.a.s. camera.

BR Ian

Hi BR Ian,
Thanks for your kind comments, I was using ISO100 as the light was good, for a change, this gave 1/450th and 1/640th respectively for the two shots at f4.5 with -2/3EV. Scope on 20x and camera zoom 16.1mm (2/3 zoom). The spot metering helps as by moving it a little around the bird you can see the changes on the screen and pick what you think is best.

Regards

John
 
Feathered one said:
John

Thanks for your reply, and also more of the Purple Sandpipers, I especially like the last one, with the waves breaking in the background.

As regards our trip to Extremadura, it will be our fourth trip down there, we used to go down south, on the coast of Andalucia, but over a period of years it has gradually been spoilt, we where pushed father inland to unspoilt places, and then ended up in Extremadura, and also a place to the south of the Gredos Mountains.
I must add that we don't own any property (I wish) but rent a house just for our stay, it will be our fourth time to "The Barn" at this link.
http://www.finca-al-manzil.com/Finca-Al-manzil.htm
A stunning place, out on its own, we like to be away from it all, but not cheap. It is almost central between the triangle of Caceres, Trujillo and Merida.

We have always been interested in Birds, Love the Bee Eaters, But only had 10x50 binos and a Sony F717 to work with. We do not have great identification skills, but hopefully that will improve. The purchase of the ED82 and F30 will help in that respect.

Time is another problem, I am 58 and run my own business, just me, repairing domestic appliances, and my wife 65 gardens for old people.
We also love gardening our own small plot, and have the garden open to the public 3 or 4 times in summer, we also have garden clubs visit the garden too.
A link to our garden website, take a quick look
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/lynandmalcolm/index.htm

So always busy.

Portugal will be our first time, however the place we are staying, is only about 60 miles away from where we stay in Extremadura.

Hope I have not hijacked the thread too much.

Regards
Malc

That's a really beautiful garden you've got there Malc, must keep you and your wife busy all year round. Opening it for charity funds is a great idea too. Between this and your work I should think you are a very busy man indeed.

Enjoy your holiday in Extremadura, it looks a fantastic area to be in, one of those places we all dream of having for ourselves, should be loads of birds for you to photograph as well, good luck on this.

Best wishes

John
 
Olympus cameras for digiscoping

Until I see several people raving about a camera with at least 8 Mp I am reluctant to replace it![/QUOTE]

I haven't seen much on the 4000 model but the subsequent 5060 (5 megs ) and 7070 (7 megs ) were excellent digiscoping cameras used by many serious digiscopers. In fact my reason for getting the 7070wz was due to the many great photos I had seen from the 5060 (they use the same lens ). For digiscoping 6 megs is enough (Fuji F30 ) if you are able to fill the frame but for 8 megs the Nikon CP8400 is the best out there , although discontinued now. Even with the latest equipment I still find that I can take a series of photos that are not in focus although the times this happens is a lot less with the CP8400 than the 7070 (the Electronic Viewfinder and better lcd screen of the 8400 ) but both are much better than the Nikon CP4500 workhorse which many people still use. Don't continue to use equipment that frustrates you as life is too short and you'll curse about the images that "got away". Neil.
 
Neil said:
Until I see several people raving about a camera with at least 8 Mp I am reluctant to replace it!

I haven't seen much on the 4000 model but the subsequent 5060 (5 megs ) and 7070 (7 megs ) were excellent digiscoping cameras used by many serious digiscopers. In fact my reason for getting the 7070wz was due to the many great photos I had seen from the 5060 (they use the same lens ). For digiscoping 6 megs is enough (Fuji F30 ) if you are able to fill the frame but for 8 megs the Nikon CP8400 is the best out there , although discontinued now. Even with the latest equipment I still find that I can take a series of photos that are not in focus although the times this happens is a lot less with the CP8400 than the 7070 (the Electronic Viewfinder and better lcd screen of the 8400 ) but both are much better than the Nikon CP4500 workhorse which many people still use. Don't continue to use equipment that frustrates you as life is too short and you'll curse about the images that "got away". Neil.[/QUOTE]

Neil, the last sentence is of course true, but unfortunately it does not work for all and sundry. Many who come to digiscoping have a scope, which they have had for a number of years, and are on a very low budget.Others like myself have to make do with what we have bought, wether we like it or not, so we make the most of it.
It really doesn't help when those who evidently can afford to change at a whim to impress there opinions, on the less well off. Ernie
 
John et al

A number of the shots that are on this thread seem overly sharpened )especially at the edges). Is this the aggresive in-camera sharpening that has been referred too?
 
I don't notice "aggressive" in-camera sharpening at all with the F30. I suspect people have used sharpening techniques.
 
Allen said:
John et al

A number of the shots that are on this thread seem overly sharpened )especially at the edges). Is this the aggresive in-camera sharpening that has been referred too?

Hi Allen,
I can't really see any pics that are over-sharpened, ie. no halo or jaggies, why you think they are?

regards

John
 
John

Apologies - on looking again there isn't and they are just very crisp excellent photos - it may have been my monitor as I'm now viewing on a diff one.

I'm very tempted to get this camera as I'm looking to change from my Nikon4300 and the results look good - a portable adaptor is my only concern
 
Allen said:
John

Apologies - on looking again there isn't and they are just very crisp excellent photos - it may have been my monitor as I'm now viewing on a diff one.

I'm very tempted to get this camera as I'm looking to change from my Nikon4300 and the results look good - a portable adaptor is my only concern

No problem Allen, the images do come out of the camera with lots of sharpening applied although they can be tweaked just a little at a low radius.

Regarding an adapter the SRB-Griturn seems to be the one to go for, they're tailored to your scope eyepiece and will take virtually all compact cameras, internal and external zoom, so you could still use your Nikon as well.

Regards

John
 
john-henry said:
No problem Allen, the images do come out of the camera with lots of sharpening applied although they can be tweaked just a little at a low radius.

Regarding an adapter the SRB-Griturn seems to be the one to go for, they're tailored to your scope eyepiece and will take virtually all compact cameras, internal and external zoom, so you could still use your Nikon as well.

Regards

John

All,

I was able to digiscope a Snowy Owl this afternoon from about 50-80m out using the F30 on self-timer (2 sec.). I'm very happy with this camera! This was at 60X on the scope.

Jerry
 

Attachments

  • SnowyOwl0784b.jpg
    SnowyOwl0784b.jpg
    92.9 KB · Views: 274
Warning! This thread is more than 17 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top