Hi all

I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(130 approx) or the S5500 (200
approx)
I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?

Neil
http://neils-photos.fotopic.net

> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(130 approx) or the S5500 (200
> approx)
> I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
> anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?



Neil

Digitals at the bottom end of the market are renowned for 'shutter 
delay' but one of my digital cameras is a Fuji E550 [pocket sized so I 
can carry it at work] and seems to cope quite well with low light and 
moving targets for it's price.....and it's on offer in your price range 
at Amazon at the moment.

Can PM some samples if you wish. The better images are way too big to 
post on ABPR without getting a bashing over file size. :-)

Mark F

neil dimmer wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(130 approx) or the S5500 (200
> approx)
> I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
> anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?
> 
> Neil
> http://neils-photos.fotopic.net
> 
> 

I don't know the particular cameras but I did buy a Fuji Finepix 6900Z - 
at the time (a few years back) it was arguably the best of its type.

I've used that at a Grad Prix and managed to take only one properly 
framed photograph, which was one stationary one on the Jorden stand. 
Mine has an LCD viewfinder, with no optical one, which is a total 
disaster for action shots.

I recently bought another camera (a Nikon F6 35mm). This is pretty 
quick, and can do 6-8 frames/second. That said, it is quite an expensive 
SLR.

You obviously consider digital an "upgrade" - I am not so sure I agree 
with you, but this is not the place to argue digital vs 35mm. Needless 
to say I have both, and would choose the film SLR any day. When I bougth 
the Nikon F6, I did consider buying a digital SLR, but decided to buy 
the film one instead. I don't regret that.

Dave

"neil dimmer"  wrote in message 
news:u3%Xe.8462$1A.1192@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net...

>
> Hi all
>
> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(130 approx) or the S5500 (200
> approx)
> I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
> anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?
>
> Neil
> http://neils-photos.fotopic.net
>
>


Best thing you can do Neil is have a look at a review site. I use 
http://www.dcviews.com it gives specifications/features/capabilities of just 
about every digi camera in production at this time. You can click on links 
contained within to find best prices.

Regards,

keith.

neil dimmer wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(£130 approx) or the S5500 (£200
> approx)
> I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
> anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?
>
> Neil
> http://neils-photos.fotopic.net


I replaced my film SLR with a Fuji S7000 and haven't regretted it. This
model of digital has recently been replaced with an improved model
S9000(?) The 7000 can be purchased from sites like 7 Day Shop much
cheaper as a result. The quality has been excellent and I know two
professional photographers using the 7000, one of whom is a frquently
published railway photographer. He uses this camera as a first choice
over the Nikon Digital SLR. The reason he gives is that with digital
cameras the image is sensitive to the tiniest specks on the lens or
mirror and when changes lenses the mirror is vulnerable. The 7000 was
used by me for the first time as a try out at a vintage vehicle show. I
took a picture of a Routemaster bus driving along a runway at 40mph on
a zoom setting. Blowing the picture up on the pc showed that the
numbeplate was held on by phillips headed screws. Bye Bye Film.

jon.porter1@lycosmax.co.uk wrote:


> I replaced my film SLR with a Fuji S7000 and haven't regretted it. This
> model of digital has recently been replaced with an improved model
> S9000(?) The 7000 can be purchased from sites like 7 Day Shop much
> cheaper as a result. The quality has been excellent and I know two
> professional photographers using the 7000, one of whom is a frquently
> published railway photographer. He uses this camera as a first choice
> over the Nikon Digital SLR. The reason he gives is that with digital
> cameras the image is sensitive to the tiniest specks on the lens or
> mirror and when changes lenses the mirror is vulnerable. The 7000 was


You mean dust on the sensor? Dust on the mirror's not too much of a 
problem - you'll only see that in the viewfinder. When it's on the 
sensor it gets into your pictures: http://www.jstott.me.uk/temp/DSC_4821.JPG

The dust only shows up as clearly as that when you use small apertures 
(f/22, etc.) and small dust particles do not show up when using wide 
aperture (say f/5 or wider). You can buy products that allow you to 
clean the sensor which I have used successfully.

However, if you are careful when changing your lens, there isn't a 
problem, so long as you make sure that the rear element of the new lens 
is clean and that you leave the insides of the camera exposed for as 
short a time as possible.

I'd like a digital compact camera for occasional use - carrying all my 
SLR kit (6 lenses, etc.) everywhere is a bit of a pain. I'd never 
consider using film though. The SLR gives ultimate flexibility and I 
like playing around with filters and experimenting with different lenses.

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

mark wrote:


> Digitals at the bottom end of the market are renowned for 'shutter 
> delay' but one of my digital cameras is a Fuji E550 [pocket sized so I 
> can carry it at work] and seems to cope quite well with low light and 
> moving targets for it's price.....and it's on offer in your price range 
> at Amazon at the moment.


You might also want to worry about the time it takes between switching 
the camera on and being able to take the first photograph. With my Nikon 
D70, that time is so short (0.2s I think) as to be negligible. Before I 
had the D70 I had a digital compact camera and missed several shots 
while waiting for the camera to switch on.

If you are concerned with low-light performance, be sure to check out 
example photos taken at high ISOs - the higher the ISO the more 
sensitive the sensor is (much the same as with film). But with digital 
cameras, higher ISOs tend to mean a more noisy photograph as the sensor 
is less able to cope with electrical interference.

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

Jon Porter wrote:


> I replaced my film SLR with a Fuji S7000 and haven't regretted it.
> This model of digital has recently been replaced with an improved
> model S9000(?)

-------------------------------

I have a similar digital camera to Jon's Fuji S7000. Mine is one
of its predecessors, the Fuji Finepix S602Z, now 3 years old.

You can see what I did  last Saturday with it by clicking on:

http://eddie-bellass.fotopic.net/c693547.html

(Please read first the vertical column down the left-hand side)

If you then delete the 'c693547.html' bit you can take a look
at several other (mostly rail) subjects I've covered with it,
though I've also put some of my earlier, non-digital pix in there
as well for easy Internet access & reference purposes.

This camera has never been able to realise its potential in
my hands. After 50 years in the game, with 3000+ published rail
photos to my credit, I began to suffer from two different health
problems in 2002 which severely restricted my fitness to travel
much beyond 20 or 30 miles.

Most of my use of it has been fairly close to home, but thanks
to good friends and now an improvement in health, I've travelled
further with the Fuji S602Z this year.

Its current equivalent is the brand new Fuji S9500Z (UK) or
S9000Z (rest of world) which has appeared on sale here in NW
England only last week.


Regards,

DigitisED  (Eddie Bellass)

Mythical Merseyside, in the Occupied Territories
of Old Lancashire, United Kingdom.

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free and checked
by a leading anti-virus system - updated continuously.

neil dimmer wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(£130 approx) or the S5500 (£200
> approx)
> I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
> anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?
>
> Neil
> http://neils-photos.fotopic.net


It might be worth considering one which has an optical viewfinder as
well as the digital screen at the back. Sunlight can make the screen
image almost invisble. But check that the optical viewfinder gives a
useful view. I have a Canon PowerShot S-70 which is by-and-large
excellent, but the optical viewfinder only shows 80% of the picture
area, which makes me uncomfortable about  relying on it.

There are several sites that review digital cameras such as
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/.

Andy Kirkham

Jonathan Stott wrote:

> mark wrote:
>
> > Digitals at the bottom end of the market are renowned for 'shutter
> > delay' but one of my digital cameras is a Fuji E550 [pocket sized so I
> > can carry it at work] and seems to cope quite well with low light and
> > moving targets for it's price.....and it's on offer in your price range
> > at Amazon at the moment.
>
> You might also want to worry about the time it takes between switching
> the camera on and being able to take the first photograph. With my Nikon
> D70, that time is so short (0.2s I think) as to be negligible. Before I
> had the D70 I had a digital compact camera and missed several shots
> while waiting for the camera to switch on.
>
> If you are concerned with low-light performance, be sure to check out
> example photos taken at high ISOs - the higher the ISO the more
> sensitive the sensor is (much the same as with film). But with digital
> cameras, higher ISOs tend to mean a more noisy photograph as the sensor
> is less able to cope with electrical interference.



I've got a Fuji Finepix point-and-click which, for railway photography,
still has the useful feature of continuous shooting so that you can
choose the right moment out of a few saved shots, but an incredibly
infuriating feature of switching itself off after a minute or two (and
you can't switch that feature off).

The number of times I've waited for the right moment, only for the
camera to switch itself off as I go to take the picture ...  I can't
believe that pulling the lens in etc can possibly use less battery than
just staying switched on.

> It might be worth considering one which has an optical viewfinder as
> well as the digital screen at the back. Sunlight can make the screen
> image almost invisble. But check that the optical viewfinder gives a
> useful view. I have a Canon PowerShot S-70 which is by-and-large
> excellent, but the optical viewfinder only shows 80% of the picture
> area, which makes me uncomfortable about  relying on it.


Ive got a Fujifilm Finepix A330 which is great for speed as well as 
stationary, putting it in Sport mode takes very good photos of speeding 
objects. It has an optical zoom as well as digital, and the viewfinder 
zooms with the lens.
-- 
Joe Patrick
Railways Online - for GB railway news, information & photos
http://www.railwaysonline.co.uk

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 21:21:30 GMT, neil dimmer wrote in
<u3%Xe.8462$1A.1192@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>, seen in uk.railway:


> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(130 approx) or the S5500 (200
> approx)


I generally use the S5000, which was replaced by the S5500 (and now I
think the S5600), which I bought on the strength of the good reviews.

Excellent camera from my POV, but then I'm nowhere near being anything
more than the most amateurish amateur photographer.

<http://ross.photobook.org.uk> (plug!); the collections dated after
about March 2004 are using the S5500 (except the most recent, which
are from my toy A345 I keep in my bag at work).
-- 
Ross, a.k.a.
Prof. E. Scrooge, CT, 153 & bar, Doctor of Cynicism (U. Life)
Hon. Pres., National Soc. for the Encouragement for Cruelty to Dogboxes
Proud to be the target of various trolls, sock puppets and other idiots

"MIG"  wrote in message 
news:1127301507.057532.264720@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> I've got a Fuji Finepix point-and-click which, for railway photography,
> still has the useful feature of continuous shooting so that you can
> choose the right moment out of a few saved shots, but an incredibly
> infuriating feature of switching itself off after a minute or two (and
> you can't switch that feature off).
>
> The number of times I've waited for the right moment, only for the
> camera to switch itself off as I go to take the picture ...  I can't
> believe that pulling the lens in etc can possibly use less battery than
> just staying switched on.


I would suggest avoiding Concord Eye cameras like the god awful plague they 
are - infuriatingly long start-up times, incredibly poor battery like, and 
you have the option of having it turn itself off after 2 or 3 minutes idle - 
but you can't turn that feature off. In sunlight they're great but useless 
in any other weather conditions, and utter crap for night photography (no 
option to change exposure times). Don't get one, no matter how cheap they 
seem to be going. Colour reproduction is bloody awful as well.

-- 
*** http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/ ***
Rich Mackin (rich-at-richmackin-co-uk)
MSN: richmackin-at-hotmail-dot-com

neil dimmer wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I am interested in upgrading from 35mm to a digital camera,i have a cheap
> Olympus one but it is no good for moving shots of trains, i have heard the
> Fuji finepix range is a good bet,the S3500(£130 approx) or the S5500 (£200
> approx)
> I usually use Shutter priority on my Pentax MZ50 for fast moving shots,
> anyone have any idea wich of the 2 Fuji cameras wouls suite?


This month's Aircraft Illustrated has a 'free' supplement on going
digital with advice on aviation photography which I guess would be of
some relevance to photography of trains.

There are digital camera reviews although mostly high end SLRs.

I personally would not consider switching from a film SLR to anything
but a digital SLR.

Railway Illustrated is now up to part 15 on its digital guide.