S6500fd owners - share your pixs here

[Clockunder]

Hi,

I'm a newbie so pardon me if i sound silly. I had my heart on the S6500fd after reading all the reviews and the comments on this post. I trooped down to the camera shop today armed with my credit card and tried it out for myself.

I'm trying to get a good prosumer that will give a good protrait shoot with blurred background (or bokeh as some say it). In the shop, I've tried to capture a few protrait shots of my son with S6500fd on manual mode and set the apeture to as low as possible to get the blur background (around F2.9) but still don't find the effect as good as my friend's canon 350d. Did i do anything wrong?

Seeing what a friendly batch this post had, can anyone share their S6500fd pic on what i was hoping to achieve? I was hoping that someone out there recommend me a prosumer camera that will be able to take protrait with the sharp focus on the child and out of focus for the background? So far I've tried the Fuji S6500, S8000, Canon S5 but the blurred effect on these models is not enough for me. I really liked the effect on my friend's canon 350d

Thanks folks if you can give any pointers!

Prosumer cameras can't achieve the nice bokeh effect attainable on DSLR (.e.g. Canon 350D) because prosumer cameras have much small image sensor and thus use a much shorter focal length for the same field of view.

For e.g. the actual focal length for a DSLR is 50mm-85mm for a portrait or half body shot from about 2.5m away while it's only about 15mm for a prosumer for the same shot at the same distance away.

At 15mm actual focal length, the background is usually quite well defined for most lenses.

The only way you may have a better bokeh effect for portrait shots on a prosumer camera is to use a longer focal length such as above 40mm (which is 180-240mm equivalent field of view on the 35mm format), depending on the image sensor size on the prosumer camera) then shoot from much further away (such as 10m-15m).

In addition, use the biggest aperture available and make sure the background is very much further back.

Nevertheless, can't expect much of the bokeh for a picture taken by a prosumer camera.

 

[Clockunder]

hi guys,

a pic from my trip to beijing zoo last week....a picture of a turtle snacking.....

C&C(good and bad) are greatly appreciated....thanks!

Looks soft.

Was it taken at max. zoom?

I know that the picture usually turn out slightly on the soft side for the S6500fd if it's at max zoom and the subject is small and picture is taken from far away.

The whites of the plate in front and bright sun reflected off the top of the turtle's shell are distracting. However, I don't know whether you had any better angle to shoot from.

BTW, I'm interested to look at some pictures of Beijing.

 

[Clockunder]

Here are some pictures taken last weekend at the SCC Rugby Sevens International competition at the Padang.

This is the first time I'm using this camera to shoot Rugby. In previous years, I used the Nikon 5700.

I found that the picture is usually a bit soft when it's at max. zoom and the subects are far away and not very big in the frame. This is due to a few main factors :

1) focus lag
By the time focus is locked, the players are already at a different position and distance away.

2) focus accuracy
It's sometimes off when the subject is not very big in the frame. This is even when the subject didn't move much from its original position and distance away.

3) lens is usually not as sharp when fully zoomed and aperture widest opened

I had to do a fair bit of cropping and sharpening due to the above. Also, although I know that colours will help to differentiate the teams, I converted the pictures to grayscale because I didn't like the original colours and the artifacts and loss of resolution from cropping are less obvious in grayscale.

When the subject is near and here is not much cropping, the noise level and compression artifacts at ISO 200 isn't very significantly different from ISO 100. However, the difference is quite noticeable when otherwise.

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=322552

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

 

[Clockunder]

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

 

[eesiang]

Hi all. My 1st post here. C&C welcomed

#1

#2

 

[cichlid]

Some fashion show pictures taken on 13 Oct at Vivocity. Still have many pictures taken of other fashion shows on the same day at Vivocity but no time to post-process them yet. Shot a total of about 350 pictures for 3pm, 5pm and 8pm shows.

Here are the ones for 3pm : (Fresh! The Graduate Showcase)

Exif are in the pictures.

Manual exposure (to have full control over aperture (Depth of Field) and shutter speed (avoid motion blur)
All at ISO 400.
Shutter speeds 1/250-1/320.
Aperture : usually largest at the focal length used....between F/4-F/5 so that the background is not too much in focus.

Post-processing done in Photoshop CS2 for the pictures except Pic#1 : Crop + adjusted any slant, WB adjustments through channel mixer (by keeping a watch over the R/B/G channel histograms), slight exposure adjustment (since the pictures were purposely marginally under-exposed to reduce the risk of blowing out the highlights), Slight Noise reduction with Noise Ninja (to make the pictures look cleaner without losing much details), resized down, used lasso tool to select the main subject and sharpened with Unsharp Mask, inverse the selection and adjusted the selection and then applied some blur to background.

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=318811

For ease and for the benefits of S6500fd users, I will just append the pictures to this thread.
#1

#2

#3 and #4

Hi, nice pics you've taken. Just to check, was flash used?

 

[vincecarlo]

#10

:thumbsup:Nice series, good shot of how to keep your pants on

 

[sall_lukas]

Hi,

I owned the F31 and now I am looking to get the S6500fd. Any idea where can I still buy this camera? I checked with MS Color last weekend and they said they have no more stock and the distributor is not bring in any more.

Thanks very much!

 

[felixcat8888]

Hi,

I owned the F31 and now I am looking to get the S6500fd. Any idea where can I still buy this camera? I checked with MS Color last weekend and they said they have no more stock and the distributor is not bring in any more.

Thanks very much!

Alan Photo?
Fujifilm HQ?

 

[jiaklormee]

Looks soft.

Was it taken at max. zoom?

I know that the picture usually turn out slightly on the soft side for the S6500fd if it's at max zoom and the subject is small and picture is taken from far away.

The whites of the plate in front and bright sun reflected off the top of the turtle's shell are distracting. However, I don't know whether you had any better angle to shoot from.

BTW, I'm interested to look at some pictures of Beijing.

nope, its at the minimum zoom, but i believe it's because of the dirty glass panel between me and the turtle....plus the crowd was jostling me.....

will post up some other pics of beijing soon....busy now....

 

[Clockunder]

Hi all. My 1st post here. C&C welcomed

#1

#2

The first one looks fine.

The 2nd one looks a bit flat in terms of lighting. Probably it would be better if you shoot on a better weather with clear blue sky and use a bit of fill-in flash to light up the flowers against a bright sky or do a silhouette of the flowers against the sky. The stalk on the left side without its flower seen and the small blurry longish dark patch at the top right corner do not add to the composition.

From your gallery, it seems that you like to take pictures of flowers. I think there are a no. of pictures better than the 2nd one above although the 2nd one above is more unusual because it's taken against the sky.

Here's a link to a flower gallery in which you can get some inspiration in flower photography. I got mine there.

http://www.caedes.net/Zephir.cgi?lib=Caedes::Gallery&gallery=photography->flowers

 

[Clockunder]

Hi, nice pics you've taken. Just to check, was flash used?

No flash.

Built-in flash is too weak to reach. So never used.

No external flash used.

The light is from the spot lights around the stage.

 

[Clockunder]

:thumbsup:Nice series, good shot of how to keep your pants on

Thanks. A few fellows provided us some hilarious good entertainment during the 1 hour which we waited for the heavy rain to stop.

 

[Clockunder]

Hi,

I owned the F31 and now I am looking to get the S6500fd. Any idea where can I still buy this camera? I checked with MS Color last weekend and they said they have no more stock and the distributor is not bring in any more.

Thanks very much!

I suspect a new model is due soon.

You may want to try calling these :
AP - Alan Photo, #01-38 Sim Lim Square, Tel: 6336 0922, e-mail: alanfoto@singnet.com.sg
AP-F - Alan Photo, #05-20 Funan Digitalife Mall, Tel: 6883 0922, e-mail: alanfoto@singnet.com.sg
CP - Cathay Photo, #01-11/14 Peninsula Plaza, Tel: 6337 4274, e-mail: email@cathayphoto.com.sg
CP-M - Cathay Photo, #02-215/216 Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard, Tel: 6339 6188, e-mail: email@cathayphoto.com.sg
John - John 3:16, #05-46 Funan Digitalife Mall, Tel: 6337 2877 / 6337 1897, e-mail: richardgan@pacific.net.sg
Lord's - Lord's Camera, 304 Orchard Road #01-79 Lucky Plaza, Tel: 6235 4605, e-mail: lordscom@singnet.com.sg
MS - MS Colour, Block 711 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, #01-3501C, Tel: 6457 6380, e-mail: sales@mscolor.com.sg, web e-quote
MS - MS Colour Outlet - 53 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3, AMK Hub #02-24, Tel: 6452 2828
OP - Orient Photo, #06-53/31 Sim Lim Square, Tel: 6339 1035, e-mail: sales@orientfoto.com.sg
TCW - The Camera Workshop, 3 Coleman Street, #01-31, Tel: 6336 1956 / 6336 7808, e-mail: tcwkshop@singnet.com.sg
TK - T K Foto Technic, 100 Beach Rd, #02-45 Shaw Towers, Tel: 6292 4533, e-mail: sales@tkfoto.com.sg

 

[Clockunder]

nope, its at the minimum zoom, but i believe it's because of the dirty glass panel between me and the turtle....plus the crowd was jostling me.....

will post up some other pics of beijing soon....busy now....

Yes, sure looks like a dirty glass panel.

Ok thanks.

 

[shakewellbeforeuse]

comments please! i'm still learning too. Thanks!

 

[sall_lukas]

I suspect a new model is due soon.

You may want to try calling these :
AP - Alan Photo, #01-38 Sim Lim Square, Tel: 6336 0922, e-mail: alanfoto@singnet.com.sg
AP-F - Alan Photo, #05-20 Funan Digitalife Mall, Tel: 6883 0922, e-mail: alanfoto@singnet.com.sg
CP - Cathay Photo, #01-11/14 Peninsula Plaza, Tel: 6337 4274, e-mail: email@cathayphoto.com.sg
CP-M - Cathay Photo, #02-215/216 Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard, Tel: 6339 6188, e-mail: email@cathayphoto.com.sg
John - John 3:16, #05-46 Funan Digitalife Mall, Tel: 6337 2877 / 6337 1897, e-mail: richardgan@pacific.net.sg
Lord's - Lord's Camera, 304 Orchard Road #01-79 Lucky Plaza, Tel: 6235 4605, e-mail: lordscom@singnet.com.sg
MS - MS Colour, Block 711 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, #01-3501C, Tel: 6457 6380, e-mail: sales@mscolor.com.sg, web e-quote
MS - MS Colour Outlet - 53 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3, AMK Hub #02-24, Tel: 6452 2828
OP - Orient Photo, #06-53/31 Sim Lim Square, Tel: 6339 1035, e-mail: sales@orientfoto.com.sg
TCW - The Camera Workshop, 3 Coleman Street, #01-31, Tel: 6336 1956 / 6336 7808, e-mail: tcwkshop@singnet.com.sg
TK - T K Foto Technic, 100 Beach Rd, #02-45 Shaw Towers, Tel: 6292 4533, e-mail: sales@tkfoto.com.sg

Thanks buddy! Will give these places a try.
I have compared the various cameras currently available in the market and S6500 meets my needs best. I hope I can still get it.

The latest range are rather disappointing - although Fujifilm added the much needed optical image stabilizer but they stop using the superCCD found in F30/F31/S6500, which is really Fujifilm's main competitive edge in this overcrowded market.

 

[eesiang]

The first one looks fine.

Here's a link to a flower gallery in which you can get some inspiration in flower photography. I got mine there.

http://www.caedes.net/Zephir.cgi?lib=Caedes::Gallery&gallery=photography->flowers

Thanks on the pointers. The gallery is great too..

 

[RyanRemus]

Hi Clockunder,

Thanks so much for the explaintion on the 6500fd limitation on the bokeh. I'm now looking at 2nd hand canon 350d.

Hi Sall,

You can check with Standard photo and it's branch. I know Sengkang's branch (Compasspoint) is still selling it at $599 (with freebies thrown in like 2GB card and a standard size tripod). I almost bought it Good luck!

 

[jiaklormee]

some other pics up for my beijing trip......

Chairman mao museum

qianmen 前门 at tiananmen

金丝猴 at beijing zoo again.....sweet talking?

lazy panda....wasted my 5rmb to view a bunch of sleeping pandas......

c&c are greatly appreciated....thanks!
will post more photos soon......going to great wall and forbidden city next week....