Fuji Finepix S7000 vs S5000

peckerhead

Evening all,

I'm tracking a few "semi-pro" digital SLR cameras on eBay at the moment, and I reckon I'm looking at a choice between the Finepix S7000, for about Stg£300 + p&p ("buy it now"), and the older, slightly-less-fabulous S5000 for Stg£188 (also "buy it now" — but needless to say, whichever I go for I'll try and grab it for a bit less in an auction...!)

I'm not a "must-have-the-very-latest" freak, just an old hammer-chewer photographer, recently gawn digitul, and looking to get back to taking "real" photos, as opposed to just snaps of my kids. I already have a dinky little Fuji (digital) compact camera and therefore a few spare xD cards — which is why I'm thinking Fuji rather than the (much dearer) Nikon/Canon/Olympus offerings in that bracket. Budget is definitely limited...

Have compared specs, and tbh the S7000 doesn't seem to offer that much more, for the extra price tag. Anyone care to offer an opinion? (including rival offerings!)

Cheers for any advice you can offer...!

peckerhead

Burago

Nice comparison chart

Burago

Heh, I just read your last line and noticed how you've already compared specs...

If you can afford it for the S7000, extra MP will always be useful.

peckerhead

Yeah, thanks Burago, I'd seen that already — very handy!

I noticed one little stupid design fault with the S7000 that kept coming back up in other user reviews — if you stick on a teleconverter or wideconverter (or any other fancy filter assembly), it gets in the way of the external autofocus sensor — means you can only use the TTL AF, which I suspect is a bit slower...(?) If you were doubling a 210mm zoom to effectively 420mm, that's the last thing you'd want!

I know more MP is great, but for nearly double the price? It's a bit like my (1.9 TDi) car — when the feck do I ever actually get to do "0-60 in under bla, bla, bla..."

Cheers m8.

Burago

I mainly shoot with slide film but also have a 3.2mp digital for certain occasions when I don't want to lug a SLR and lenses around. I recently had some 8x10 prints made from the digital camera files and the quality was very good. If you don't plan on making huge prints you should be fine, the general consensus is that A4 is about as big as you can go with 3.2mp. If it was up to me I'd spend the extra money so I could make bigger prints and use a flash gun, the proper focus ring would also be nice. These factors might not concern you though. Best of luck which everone you go for, you won't be getting a bad camera.

WezzyB

I guess the biggest differences between these two cameras, besides the price are:

1. Zoom: S5000 has 10x Optical whereas the S7000 has 6x
2. Memory Cards: Both take XD cards which are pretty fast but only the S7000 takes CF+/Microdrives which are great for hi-capacity but pretty slow on the high-res/TIFF shots

I have the S602Z and would really like to shoot with the highest resolution but the Microdrive is too slow on this setting so I usually opt for 6MP/Fine/Jpeg option.

I got my camera from buydig.com through someone who lives in the states but was coming back to Ireland for a holiday, its a great way to get the camera, huge difference in price.

peckerhead

Thanks, WezzyB.

That S602Z looks pretty good, too!

I think I'm going to come down on the side of the S5000, over the S7000, simply because it looks like it'll do everything I want, 99% of the time. I know the extra MP are "nice to have there", but I'm not often going to be printing bigger than about 10" x 8", and with a 370mm top end on the zoom, I can't see too many scenarios where I'd need to crop in closer (unlike the 210mm max of the S7000). After years of toting around an old SLR with its standard lens, plus a 28mm, plus a 70-210, etc. etc. I really like the idea of a 10x zoom — even if I did occasionally want/need wider or longer than 37-370mm, there are always converters... ('though I know about their drawbacks!) Would be nice to have the super-EBC coating, but I reckon a good quality UV/skylight and the built-in hood should take care of most flare...

xD cards would suit me right down to the ground, 'cos I have a few of them (64Mb + 128Mb) for my point-and-shoot (Finepix 2650) — and I'm never going to be away from my computer that long that I need a 1Gb microdrive to store all the images. Also, that microdrive seems to be a bit on the delicate side, and a lot of people complain that it eats battery power and slows things down quite a bit on the storage side... (?) The xD cards are super-fast, compared to SmartMedia, and four of the newer 256Mb ones would be a lot more compact and lightweight to carry around than the equivalent in SmartMedia cards — or a microdrive.

One little gripe I have about the S5000— it seems a bit silly not to have included a hotshoe, particularly when the built-in flash is not quite as punchy as the S7000... But I usually try to avoid flash anyway, and I suppose if I were trying to light something big that the built-in flash couldn't handle, I'd use a separate flashgun off-camera anyway... or

So it looks like the S5000 for me. Small, light, stylish and cheap — just like meself!

Thanks again for the tips, guys...

peckerhead

MadDogGreener

I've got the s5000 myself and am well impressed it with. The big zoom lens is a fantastic feature. However theres obviously going to be a comprise with have such a big zoom in a relatively small package - the image sensor on the s5000 is smaller than the s7000 so the quality will be less in comparison.

Have a look at s5000.net for lots of useful info on both the s5000 and s7000.

peckerhead

Thanks, MadDogGreener — that's a great link!

Can I ask you one question? How do you find the shutter lag, in average daylight?
Could I take a few shots of the young fella playing football without having to "lead" him by a 1/2-second or so?

ph

MadDogGreener

There is shutter lag alright but I havent really noticed it to be honest - Although I've only taken a handfull of "action" shots so far. Its probably about the same as my previous cameras (fuji 2600, Olmypus 960). The continuous shooting modes(first 5, final 5) are handy in this respect. Also pre-focusing the shot eliminates most of the delay.

I think shutter lag is going to be a problem with most digicams compared with an SLR.

peckerhead

That's true. Coincidentally, I've a Finepix 2600 myself (or 2650, I think?) — dandy little "point'n'shoot", even the kids can use it, and I'm working on the wife BOOM! BOOM! (thankfully she doesn't read boards.ie...!)

Coming from years of 35mm SLRs, I did find that shutter lag a bit off-putting when I first "went digital". Over the years, I'd got fairly handy at pre-focussing, panning carefully and squeezing off the shutter just at the right split-second — to now find the kid had travelled another 10' or 20' before the Fuji would fire...! But between the manual focus option — and particularly that continuous shooting mode — I suppose I'll be able to adapt to the S5000.

Cheers again, mate.

ph

Sparks

Have an S5000. Looked at the S7000. Figured if I was going to spend that much, I might as well spend another two or three hundred and get a proper digital SLR camera. Decided that it wasn't worth it.

The S5000 is in the "better-than-point-n-click-but-not-as-good-as-dSLR" range. The S7000 tries to get between that range and the dSLR range, and it's just too small a space, really.

Scruff

My flatmate bought himself a Minolta Dimage z1, slr type 3.2Mp digital camera and after playing around with it for a bit myself and after him showing me some of its more advanced features i have to say i'm well impressed with it.
You can find a review of it here

I have to put my hands up and say that i really dont know much about digital photography but it really impressed me. Might be an interesting alternative to the s5000. (it actually scored higher on that website)

Its not that expensive compared to the s5000, has great image quality and its really sexy looking!

Scruff.

glimmerman

I've been looking at upgrading my pentax ei200 (its about 4 years old now!!).

Zoom is important for me as well as the quality of lens.

As such, out of the superzooms (s5k, s7k, c750 and so on) I've decided to go for the panasonic fz10. Its got a leica lens, 12x optical zoom, and f2.8 throughout the range, and as an extra bonus the lens is stabilised

It also has been receiving rave reviews, I'm too lazy to post a link, but google for the usual suspects (dpreview and whatnot).

Looks like agoody. Available soon apparently, not sure where in dublin, but probably around €500 on ebay from hongkong.