Well I've got myself a new S5600 that was a true bargain. I played 2 shops against each other who had a price match promise. First I got them to give me a free 1GB XD card, then started the price battle. Ended up paying £113.26 including the extra memory card :D .
Camera specs : http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/digital/cameras/s5600/index.php?&flash=9
I must say that so far I am very impressed with the camera, and spent most of yesterday working out all the manual settings. Then I made sure al my home made lenses from my S3000 fitted it OK.
Here are a few testing shots with and without my modified macro lens. Plus my first attempt at a night shot :D .

Macro is of a UK 5p coin in normal camera macro mode, then with my lens added.
Night shot surprised me, as I couldn't see that many stars with the naked eye (shutter was open for 15 seconds to get this). I will have to link to it as the image is a little too big.
http://www.chrishoggy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/night.jpg

Night shot surprised me, as I couldn't see that many stars with the naked eye

Most people are surprised if they look at the night sky just with a pair of binoculars, there really are far more stars out there than are visible just to the naked eye.

Nice Macro Chris, look forward to seeing what you do with the new camera.

I'm hoping to get a nice moon shot, so can't wait for some clear night sky.

Made my first boo boo with the camera yesterday, as the ISO was set to auto by default, so some images came out a little noisy. I've now set it to default to 64 to get the best image I can out of it. I found I can nearly double the image size when set at ISO 64, and have virtually no image quality loss. Anything above ISO 150 and things become a little grainy/noisy. Today is going to be a reading day, as I'm searching through sites for tips n tricks to get the best out of the camera and it's settings.

For the price, I can't fault this camera at all :D

Sounds and looks like a pretty good camera Chris. Nice Buy.

Chris, I bought the same camera last summer (was a great buy even then), and I am really happy with it. I've found that shooting raw format helps reduce some of the overly ambitious noise reduction algorithms embedded in the camera when you shoot jpeg, but keeping the ISO low like you're doing works in most situations also.

I had an Oly 2100 2megapixel 10x zoom camera (actually still have it -- great for IR shots) which did well in many ways, but this Fuji has much less camera lag when shooting, as well as increased resolution, etc. I have been able to capture some situations which would have been lost with my UZI (frame moving subject, press shutter, UZI shutter "thinks" about closing, subject moves past point of focus, shutter finally closes, subject is long gone... :( )

I know you'll find more and more to enjoy, and no buyer's remorse because we didn't spend much! ;)

Thanks CJ, I did notice that using RAW format was giving slightly better results. Now I have my 55mm-49mm step down ring, I can use all my 49mm filters and lenses on it.
I'm hoping to get in to the Yorkshire Moors this weekend, and try to create some "Silky water" Images. Not sure if this is the correct name for it, but I'm trying for the same effect as Richard Lindley gets in some of his shots http://www.richardlindley.co.uk/galleries/holidays/lakes_2006/scenes/index.html I'm assuming this is done with a slow shutter speed and tripod for stability.
I've also been trying for the water droplet shot too, and got quite a good one after only a few shots. Using the manual focus helps a great deal :D

http://www.richardlindley.co.uk/galleries/holidays/lakes_2006/scenes/index.html I'm assuming this is done with a slow shutter speed and tripod for stability.
:D

Silky water shots like those on his site occur when there is no wind. It helps when the water is not moving. It also adds when the sun is just right so that reflections are crystal clear.

Now, if you are talking about silky water shots of moving water, then a an f-stop of 22 and a very slow shutter speed will do the trick. A neutral density filter also helps cut the light and allow for longer exposures in brighter light.

Enjoy the water pictures in the galleries of these two photographers: http://www.cloudland.net/tim_ernst_photos.html and http://www.glennwheeler.com I know both of these men. They are wonderful nature photographers--water especially!

I hope this helps.

Janet

Thanks Janet. The moving water is the one I'm wanting to get. You also answered my next question before I asked it, about what filter to use to alow longer exposure in daylight :D

...Enjoy the water pictures in the galleries of these two photographers: http://www.cloudland.net/tim_ernst_photos.html and http://www.glennwheeler.com I know both of these men. They are wonderful nature photographers--water especially!...Janet

Janet, you know Tim Ernst!!!! Love his work! When I first went online in the '90's on AOL, Tim was so helpful in the Nature Photography forum. I have one of his gorgeous books and agree with you about the wonder of his photography.

Enjoyed the link to Richard Lindley's site Chris, I used to have it Bookmarked but somehow it got removed in one of my purges.

Is there anyone who's visited the Lakes who doesn't have a picture of Ashness Bridge?

Richard takes some stunning photos IMHO, and I've seen quite a bit of his work over the years. He ran a forum for quite some time, but work committments gave him less time to run it, so I now run one to keep the members in touch. I would love to be at the same level as he is, but thats going to take years of trying and learning.
I used to go on holiday near Ashness Bridge as a kid, but haven't been there for the best part of 20 years. I was out n about last weekend (before I got the camera) and went through Holmfirth and up on to the moor. I was quite shocked by how close we are to the Derbyshire boarder and moor (25-30 miles), as I've never really gone in that direction before. We tend to head towards Whitby (North) and up on to the moors there for days out. So I'm hoping to get back to the Derbyshire boarder this weekend and do some exploring and shooting (with the camera).

Done a fair bit of walking in N Derbyshire in the Dark Peak area, lots of Peat Hag so be careful when you go off road and wear gaiters always (not that they're always sufficient).

Best after lo........ng dry spells (not that you get many of those) else it's a quagmire. My wife has some amusing shots of me waist deep in a bog hole that looked just like all the surrounding peat prior to me standing on it.

She was helpless with laughter for about 15 mins (snapping away for all she was worth) before she eventually condescended to help me out.

My Mrs would have done exactly the same. But if I was to laugh at her in a similar predicament, it would be a different story :lmao:
Not sure if I'm going to get out tomorrow, but fingers crossed I will have my last 2 jobs done for tonight, so I get a full day off tomorrow :eek:

My Mrs would have done exactly the same. But if I was to laugh at her in a similar predicament, it would be a different story :lmao:


Got it in one :D , had the situation been reversed, any delay of help more than 10μsec would have resulted in ceaseless grief for yours truly for the rest of the day.

That's life Gary. Must be a woman thing :eek: (only joking ladies :o: )

Been having a play with how far I can push the limits of this camera.
This is a shot of a chimney pot about 80 yards from my house. No extra lenses, just the 10X optical zoom on the camera (shot in RAW mode). Then a mixture of neat image and resizing in photoshop to give what IMHO is an amazing sized image for this camera type.
Dialup warning, this image is just over 5MB
http://www.chrishoggy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/main.jpg

It looks even clearer in the 67MB .tiff format :eek:

Thanks for the 5M warning Chris. Had time to make a cup of tea, drink it, and still get back with time to spare. :D

Impressive performance, was it hand held or tripod mounted?

I think you need to discover vertical. :D :D :D

Just stuck my head out of the back door and took the pick, no tripod :cool:

We have a sparrow hawk that uses the neighbours shed as an eating post for it's catches, so I'm hoping to get a nice clear shot of it at some point and enlarge it. Problem is it shoots off the second it sees any movement, so it's going to be a waiting game. I've just ordered a Tele lens for it too, so this should give it a bit more of a boost.
I just need to get used to setting the camera up quickly for shots, and getting used to what settings work and what doesn't. I don't like using "auto" modes, as it seems to make too many wrong decisions IMHO. The same image taken in auto mode was not worth bothering with, as it set ISO too high and made the image as noisy/grainy as hell :dead: .

Chris, the "Program" mode allows you to use the camera to make decisions about shutter speed and aperature when you need a quick shot but it also lets you make a "program shift" in aperature (when the light makes it possible) if you want to make a change. Shutter priority might be a good bet also for your speedy hawk so you can set it high enough to catch him even if he bolts.

Hi Chris,

I've got a SpuggyHawk visits my garden from time to time too, usually trying to "beat" the small birds out of the hedges.

They come to feed on my bird feeders, but hide in the hedges when it appears.

It's only occasionally and I've never yet had chance to get a shot. Best chance I had was when it made a kill one time, then sat on the top of the swing in next door's garden to eat it, but by the time I'd got my camera from upstairs it was long gone.

Hope you get a shot, they're really a beautiful bird, and damned manoeuvrable in flight considering their size.

Would be nice to get a shot of it in flight, but thats got to be 1000's - 1 chance.
We usually see the feathers floating down before we see the hawk, as it seems to catch them as they fly out of our gardens.

Thanks for the tip CJ. I've just been using Manual Mode to date, so will look in to that.

Yes, they surely are fast moving, and getting a shot of one in the air will be a combination of luck, patience and skill.

Like I say the one that visits my garden beats the hedges. By which I mean it flies hitting one side of the hedge, then whips over the top to catch the sparrows or other small birds as they break from the other side, the speed and reaction to do this are amazing. It's always over in an instant, usually with the small birds escaping as there are a whole bunch of other bushes close by for them to escape to, but occasionally not.

As you say, the chances of being able to capture that are 1000s to 1, and I wish you the best of luck, I've given in. I had my camera to hand for ages, hoping for a visit, no show, but of course once I'd put it back upstairs I got a visit (as described earlier). Now I just enjoy the brief aerial display whenever it visits.