Fuji S5 pro owners

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Name
Barry
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i just wondered how many Fuji S5 pro owners there is on here and why you chose it ?
 
i've got one, not used it much yet but it was bought for the dynamic range that everyone waffles on about
 
I have one I use mostly for personal work (got one really cheap about a year ago).

It renders beautiful colours and the dynamic range is superb.

Slow as a week in jail though!
 
It renders beautiful colours and the dynamic range is superb.

Slow as a week in jail though!

:agree: It's the slowest camera I've ever used, it's also the one that'll stay when the others go on their merry way :)

Slow as a week in the jail.....that's a good old Glasgow expression :LOL:
 
Got one cos it was cheaper than a Pentax a year or so ago and I thought I'd be snapping nekkid ladies for a calendar. It's ass backwards, but that's thanks to Nikon, who don't seem to understand ergonomics.
 
Got one cos it was cheaper than a Pentax a year or so ago and I thought I'd be snapping nekkid ladies for a calendar. It's ass backwards, but that's thanks to Nikon, who don't seem to understand ergonomics.

:thinking:

The one consistant thing that Nikon get praised for is their ergonomics....:shrug:
 
Bought mine for the dynamic range and colours as well. Ergonomics are good, it's the interface that sucks.
 
One year ago this month, there was an ad in one of the monthly camera mags, from a big retailer (can't remember which one :thinking:) who were selling these bodies new for 479GBP. At that time, a D300 would set you back 950GBP.

Why oh why didn't I buy one :bang: - it would have been the perfect DX counterpart to my D700.

As I try to do a lot of landscape stuff (with high dynamic range), this is one camera that I was very interested in indeed. I'd be interested to see any "A/B" comparison shots, which owners here have, showing the difference between the Fuji and any Nikon of the same scene with the same lens :) ....

Any takers?
 
At one point, they got down to £420 brand new from calumet :eek:

I loved mine, could push it to iso1600 if need be, as opposed to a max 'usable' of 800 from the D200, great pictures and dynamic range... but yeah, slow as hell... if your camera is always recharging slower than your lights then you know something's wrong!
 
i don't really know how to take comparative shots that will show the difference but i'll do some if people suggest things to shoot on my d300 and s5 (if i can find the bloody battery)
 
At one point, they got down to £420 brand new from calumet :eek:

I loved mine, could push it to iso1600 if need be, as opposed to a max 'usable' of 800 from the D200, great pictures and dynamic range... but yeah, slow as hell... if your camera is always recharging slower than your lights then you know something's wrong!

:p I'm glad that I didn't know that before, as I'd be even more gutted at missing out on one.

i don't really know how to take comparative shots that will show the difference but i'll do some if people suggest things to shoot on my d300 and s5 (if i can find the bloody battery)

:thinking: I guess any old scene where the histogram goes right off both edges of the scale on the Nikon :shrug: - shooting tree branches against an overcast sky should do it, it doesn't have to be a Ansel Adams job ;).

Would be really interesting to see if the Fuji sensor can lift some detail out of the shadows, well, more so than the "Active D-Lighting" function (in some Nikons) already does :|.
 
In my experience it deals better with overexposure rather than underexposure. Will try and post some examples for comparison when I get home.
 
GAH!
The internet consumed my 1st attempt at a reply, this one will be abridged as I'm short on time.

The Interface -> I prefer it to Nikon's weird-ass-backward menus and adore it compared to Canon's interesting take on user friendliness. The people who complain about the Fuji menu's are people who are complaining about it being different to the Nikon setup. There is nothing wrong with the Fuji menus, in fact they're better than Nikon for a couple of functions, just different.

The Speed -> most people can count on one hand the times they have needed a motor drive. 99% of shots, it's your timing that counts and a motordrive at 5-8 fps is going to be either side of the critical moment anyway. It's not a sport camera, but I don't shoot sports :) Some people really do need speed, some people merely THINK they do. Most people fall in the latter category. FPS will never ever be a factor for me in cameras, afterall I'm happiest when shooting film.

Those two classic complaints out of the way, I bought mine as an upgrade from my S2 because of excellent colour, best-in-class DR and RAW files so flexible that when forced to work with nikon and canon files it feels having your hands tied.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/denyerec/3294453393/

That shot was white on the LCD, recovered with -4EV in lightroom. The colours were fine, but I preferred the B&W. not an incredible image, but shows how badly you can screw up and how well the Fuji will save you. Also the extended DR manifests itself in different ways than just "Oh look what a blown photo I can recover". For example, large dynamic shifts in colour channels that blow out on inferior cameras hold their ground on the Fuji, allowing you to get away with murder in Lightroom.

The camera will NOT unplug shadows. You MUST expose to the right if you want maximum detail, but then with a 4-stop overhead, there's practically no risk in leaving the camera set to +1 EV and pulling everything 1 stop in Lightroom on import. Providing you can live with the LCD never really showing you your exposure (And, irritatingly, the histogram shows you only the 8-bit space and not the full overhead, making it impossible to judge when you really have blown it) this is a straightforward way to work. Clients don't much like looking at the LCD though...

Would I upgrade to a D700 ? No.
A D3x? Maybe.
Mamiya DM33 ? Yes.

Hopefully Nikon's next "D800" will have a colour range and malleability on a par with the venerable S5. If it doesn't, I'll just sit tight for another 18 months. My web/A3 output is just fine so until I get asked to do something that needs either more MP or a motor drive, I'm not feeling the need to "upgrade".

Am I a fanboy? Unreservedly. Beyond the subject in the frame, photographs are about light and colour. The Fuji nails both.
 
Puddleduck I think had a thread showing the ability of the S5 to pull back data from blown highlights.

I love my S5:)
 
I originally went to collect a d200 when I got mine after using my mates D2oo for a week..but when I tried the S5 pro at high ISO levels the difference was amazing and ended up getting the S5 Pro....I still fancy getting a D200 for action shots but would never part with the S5 Pro to get one
 
Dont own a fuji but did get to use one for a weekend and im a nikon only man really but the tones for portraits and landscapes are cracking and you really can drag tons from a raw file.. however if you shoot nikon and use the nx2 software id say its near as dam it the same in terms of tonal range and ability to pull back blown shots.

not a perfect shot by any stretch but the only tweak on this was convert to black and white.

4073719888_bc9cc8bb72.jpg


heres a landscape from the same body and same very very wet weekend!

4074040757_23c206c382.jpg
 
I bought mine as a backup body (£425 yay bargain) to go with the D200 and get the extra DR. Only thing that bugs me considerably is the kack handed image review controls. It's used as much if not more than the Nikon now.
 
So what would you lot say to a Fuji S6 Pro based on the Four Thirds standard utilizing the EXR technology (self adjusting dynamic sensor)?
 
Not interested in 4/3
The S5 stressed the APS form factor at 6MP due to the photosite size. Cramming that onto a 4/3 sensor... Even if they kept it at 6MP (Which for marketing reasons they wouldn't, because the PhotoTards would complain about lack of MP for their 800px Facebook photos) the pixel density would cripple the ISO performance.

Not saying I wouldn't mind a decent GP1-style camera, but y'know.

12MP 35mm, that would be worth something.
 
Not interested in 4/3
The S5 stressed the APS form factor at 6MP due to the photosite size. Cramming that onto a 4/3 sensor... Even if they kept it at 6MP (Which for marketing reasons they wouldn't, because the PhotoTards would complain about lack of MP for their 800px Facebook photos) the pixel density would cripple the ISO performance.

Not saying I wouldn't mind a decent GP1-style camera, but y'know.

12MP 35mm, that would be worth something.

Have a wee read up on EXR. ISO and dynamic range are the important factors. There have been many rumors of a Fuji / Olympus partnership and Foveon (Sigma) might have jumped on board too. This linked with the information of a Trine CCD setup makes for some interesting prospects. If Fuji were content on releasing their S6 with a 35mm sized sensor they would have done so with the D700? Also, as you mention, 12mp (albeit on a 35mm sensor) would be worth something. Olympus publicly announced that 12mp is more than enough given most applications. So if noise and dynamic range are substantially improved in a Four Thirds system with a Fuji sensor would you then not consider using it?
 
The S5 Pro was a great camera. I really enjoyed mine , great dynamic range but very slow and produces massive RAW files. Needs top quality glass because of the strong low pass filter to avoid soft looking images.

Flash has mentioned this to me.

Can I ask what you mean by "top quality" I have what I conciser Medium quality glass. Does this mean I should go and find another camera to fantasize about?

Cheers Stuart
 
Flash has mentioned this to me.

Can I ask what you mean by "top quality" I have what I conciser Medium quality glass. Does this mean I should go and find another camera to fantasize about?

Cheers Stuart

Well my Tamron 17-50 always looked soft on the S5 whereas it was tack sharp on my D300. Primes were fine. The Nikon 17-55 is supposed to work very nicely on the S5.
 
i wonder if fuji will create an ILC which is compatible with nikon lenses, that would be awesome and perfectly pheasable as fuji are the kings of the bridge camera market so i think they stand a good chance if they did ILC's.
 
I know the EXR. I would like to see it in 35mm or APS format.
AFAIK Fuji are out of the SLR market. There's rumour 4/3 might be on the way, but I won't believe a word of it.

10 days to go before the next big Oly announcement, we'll find out soon enough.
 
GAH!
The internet consumed my 1st attempt at a reply, this one will be abridged as I'm short on time.

The Interface -> I prefer it to Nikon's weird-ass-backward menus and adore it compared to Canon's interesting take on user friendliness. The people who complain about the Fuji menu's are people who are complaining about it being different to the Nikon setup. There is nothing wrong with the Fuji menus, in fact they're better than Nikon for a couple of functions, just different.

The Speed -> most people can count on one hand the times they have needed a motor drive. 99% of shots, it's your timing that counts and a motordrive at 5-8 fps is going to be either side of the critical moment anyway. It's not a sport camera, but I don't shoot sports :) Some people really do need speed, some people merely THINK they do. Most people fall in the latter category. FPS will never ever be a factor for me in cameras, afterall I'm happiest when shooting film.

Those two classic complaints out of the way, I bought mine as an upgrade from my S2 because of excellent colour, best-in-class DR and RAW files so flexible that when forced to work with nikon and canon files it feels having your hands tied.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/denyerec/3294453393/

That shot was white on the LCD, recovered with -4EV in lightroom. The colours were fine, but I preferred the B&W. not an incredible image, but shows how badly you can screw up and how well the Fuji will save you. Also the extended DR manifests itself in different ways than just "Oh look what a blown photo I can recover". For example, large dynamic shifts in colour channels that blow out on inferior cameras hold their ground on the Fuji, allowing you to get away with murder in Lightroom.

The camera will NOT unplug shadows. You MUST expose to the right if you want maximum detail, but then with a 4-stop overhead, there's practically no risk in leaving the camera set to +1 EV and pulling everything 1 stop in Lightroom on import. Providing you can live with the LCD never really showing you your exposure (And, irritatingly, the histogram shows you only the 8-bit space and not the full overhead, making it impossible to judge when you really have blown it) this is a straightforward way to work. Clients don't much like looking at the LCD though...

Would I upgrade to a D700 ? No.
A D3x? Maybe.
Mamiya DM33 ? Yes.

Hopefully Nikon's next "D800" will have a colour range and malleability on a par with the venerable S5. If it doesn't, I'll just sit tight for another 18 months. My web/A3 output is just fine so until I get asked to do something that needs either more MP or a motor drive, I'm not feeling the need to "upgrade".

Am I a fanboy? Unreservedly. Beyond the subject in the frame, photographs are about light and colour. The Fuji nails both.

Thanks for that, Denyer :)! A really interesting insight into what the S5 can do and (partially) how it does it.

Being able to salvage 4EV sounds wonderful, although I'm not really sure how this compares to Nikon RAW files and Capture NX2 software :thinking: (better, I expect, but not sure how much better)!?

Will dig out some before/after shots of landscapes later if anyone's interested.

Yes, I am (y).

Dont own a fuji but did get to use one for a weekend and im a nikon only man really but the tones for portraits and landscapes are cracking and you really can drag tons from a raw file.. however if you shoot nikon and use the nx2 software id say its near as dam it the same in terms of tonal range and ability to pull back blown shots.

not a perfect shot by any stretch but the only tweak on this was convert to black and white.

4073719888_bc9cc8bb72.jpg


heres a landscape from the same body and same very very wet weekend!

4074040757_23c206c382.jpg

The landscape shot is the kind of thing I was interested in seeing. Thanks for posting it :). I must admit though, that's starting to get to the point where the DR looks 'unrealistic' :shrug: (like very well applied HDR, almost)!? Obviously I say that because I'm now conditioned to looking at 'normal' digital dynamic range in pictures.

Still, the fact that the camera is capable of that kind of rendition means that it can produce shots with the kind of DR that I would like my D700 to produce. Interesting :thinking: ....
 
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