Decent Colour on Finepix S5600??

eamon234

Hi Folks
Moved from my trusty SLR to Digital for obvious reasons - couldn't afford a decent Digital SLR so opted for a Fuji Finepix S5600 for budget reasons it seemed to be the best for the money (€200)

I'm by no means a photography expert but I can't seem to get good colour in my photos and end up having to Photoshop practically every photo I take am I doing something wrong or am I going to have to bite the budgetary bullet and upgrade to Digital SLR to get some decent colour?

311

It's the same for a lot of people using Canon/Nikon/Sony DSLR cameras.
You have to buy a camera like a 5D to get near the quality of film.

My 350D is as flat as a pancake:D

TJM

In their default settings, digital SLRs and prosumer fixed lens cameras don't sharpen / enhance colour as much as point and shoots do. This degrades the image less and leaves you free to do your own enhancements in Photoshop. You could always up the sharpness / colour in your in-camera settings (assuming the 5600 allows this) if you want punchier pictures right out of the camera - but there is generally a trade off in loss of quality for some shots.

Stephen

The fuji should have some kind of "chrome" option to up the colour saturation.

eamon234

Feck never spotted that chrome option - manual was in French nice one thanks a lot.

bp_me

A levels or curves layer in photoshop sorts it out quite nicely. I never had a great issue with flat images from my 9500.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Have same camera and similar problem.... what's the chrome option... ?

CLADA

Turn on camera, press F button, scroll down to STD and highlight C then press MENU/OK button.

Didn't know about it either but it makes a difference, thanks Stephen.

Beelzebub

eamon234 wrote:

Feck never spotted that chrome option - manual was in French nice one thanks a lot.

I'm thinking of picking up one of these myself. If you can post up some pics it would be cool, not sure how good the macro is though!

P.S. you can get the manual from here: http://www.fujifilm.ie/digital/digital/cameras/s5600/brochures.html

It should have english instructions?

G'luck.

Stephen

He probably got it from Pixmania, they often ship stuff with French manuals as they are based in France.
You can download the manual for any Fuji camera from their website, which i find nice to look at when considering what camera to buy.

FakePlasticMan

Hi Beelzebub..:D

I have been using the S5600 for about 6 months now after upgrading from an Olympus Point and shoot and have found it pretty good. I'm saving at the moment for a Nikon D80 kit but I reckon I'll keep the S5600 as well. I also use an Olympus T-Con 17 which extends the already impressive 10x telephoto lens to 17x. with pretty decent results.

Most of the shots on my Flikr site were taken with it..and there is a Flikr Group for users of it too here..so lots of shots to check out before you buy it. In my opinion it's a great little camera for the money. I paid €250 for it but I believe the price has dropped again since that.

Hope this helps..


Cheers

Robbie

peckerhead

I'm another fan, except I've the original S5000 — bought in the States a couple of years ago for $250/€200 (when, believe it or not, it was priced at €549 here! :mad: ).

I've often thought about upgrading to a DSLR, but I have to say I've got some great results with the Finepix — especially when using a tripod, shooting in RAW and putting a little thought into exposure/framing, etc. Plenty of creative control there, too. The burst mode usually overcomes the problem of shutter lag when shooting the kid playing footie, etc. About the only 'silly' limitation I've noticed is the absence of any kind of connection for a separate flashgun — and that only because I have an old Vivitar T-bone affair still lying idle in my film SLR bag. That and the max ISO setting of 800 (but I believe it's higher in the S5600?)

I reckon I'll wait for the likes of the D80 to come down a little further before I make the leap.

Beelzebub

Thanks for the info guys, and great links FakePlasticMan!
Great shots there! I didn't realise that the camera was so versatile!

Think I will go for it!

mathias

It's the same for a lot of people using Canon/Nikon/Sony DSLR cameras.
You have to buy a camera like a 5D to get near the quality of film.

Would that that were so Brian , I have both and can tell you that colourwise the 20D and the 5D have the same default settings , they can be played around with in the camera settings , but in general they are both relatively flat , but this is not necessarily a bad thing , as was posted , it allows for more flexibility in post processing ,
Dont forget , the sensor is the " film " equivalent , and as you are stuck with it , the more flexibility the better , its not like you can swap out for Kodachrome or anything !!

Beelzebub

Beelzebub wrote:

I'm thinking of picking up one of these myself. If you can post up some pics it would be cool, not sure how good the macro is though!

P.S. you can get the manual from here: http://www.fujifilm.ie/digital/digital/cameras/s5600/brochures.html

It should have english instructions?

G'luck.

Update.
Manuals for most if not all Fuji digicams are available from here without registration requirement:

http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/technical/type.pl?id=3&folder=1

311

mathias wrote:

Would that that were so Brian , I have both and can tell you that colourwise the 20D and the 5D have the same default settings , they can be played around with in the camera settings , but in general they are both relatively flat , but this is not necessarily a bad thing , as was posted , it allows for more flexibility in post processing ,
Dont forget , the sensor is the " film " equivalent , and as you are stuck with it , the more flexibility the better , its not like you can swap out for Kodachrome or anything !!

Any of the shots I've seen from the 5D seem to have far more definition and seem to capture light brilliantly.
The photos from a 5D look more three dimensional to me ,I thought this was down to the way the 5D has a higher range and can actually capture the gradiant of light better .
My 350D is flat in comparison ,there doesn't seem to be as much contrast and definetly not near as much definition.

All in my head I suppose ,but where else would it be.

mathias

Any of the shots I've seen from the 5D seem to have far more definition and seem to capture light brilliantly.

Id hazard a guess that this was probably down to lens difference more than anything else , the 5D loves L lenses , whereas my 28-135 definitely gives better results on the 20D , the big frame on the 5D shows up all the faults , but colour wise , theres not much in it.