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Fuji 6 MP FinePix E550 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter boudster
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K
Kabuto
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E550/E55A.HTM
Looks pretty good. Some features wanted for reef shooting are:
Macro capability - some cameras can take adaptors to get even closer.
Manual white balance settings
RAW file format
Looks pretty good. Some features wanted for reef shooting are:
Macro capability - some cameras can take adaptors to get even closer.
Manual white balance settings
RAW file format
incysor
Guest
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilme550/
After reading the review it looks like a pretty decent camera. I don't know what they're going for though. I saw two drawbacks to it. First was that it only takes XD cards, they tend to be more expensive than SD, or compact flash cards. Second was the fact that the lowest ISO rating is 80. The lower the ISO the less grainy your pics appear. However the lower ISO settings require a tripod or a ver steady hand to keep from blurring the image by moving the camera. The lowest setting on mine is 64, there are lots of point and shoot cameras out there that can do 50.
The three things that I think you have to have to get consistently decent pics of aquariums are the ability to set a custom white balance, and change your shutter speed, and your aperture range manually. This camera will do all three.
Not bad at all, but if you can find another camera that uses SD cards, or CF cards, takes regular batteries, has the three features listed above, AND has a lower ISO rating, I think you'll be happier for tank photography.
Of course, I'm still very much an amature...I thought we had a couple pros on here....Care to weigh in guys? I just wanna make sure I'm not giving bad advice here.
B
After reading the review it looks like a pretty decent camera. I don't know what they're going for though. I saw two drawbacks to it. First was that it only takes XD cards, they tend to be more expensive than SD, or compact flash cards. Second was the fact that the lowest ISO rating is 80. The lower the ISO the less grainy your pics appear. However the lower ISO settings require a tripod or a ver steady hand to keep from blurring the image by moving the camera. The lowest setting on mine is 64, there are lots of point and shoot cameras out there that can do 50.
The three things that I think you have to have to get consistently decent pics of aquariums are the ability to set a custom white balance, and change your shutter speed, and your aperture range manually. This camera will do all three.
Not bad at all, but if you can find another camera that uses SD cards, or CF cards, takes regular batteries, has the three features listed above, AND has a lower ISO rating, I think you'll be happier for tank photography.
Of course, I'm still very much an amature...I thought we had a couple pros on here....Care to weigh in guys? I just wanna make sure I'm not giving bad advice here.
B
G
Guest
This is the one I just bought (last week):
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_a75.asp
I did a bit of research, but nothing too extensive. It's cheap by digital camera standards (under 200 dollars), easy to use, and has a decent battery life.
It's no professional model, but everyone I asked really likes it.
Incysor, have you had any experience or heard anything about the Canon Powershot Series of Cameras? Anyone else use or have used a Canon?
-ed
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_a75.asp
I did a bit of research, but nothing too extensive. It's cheap by digital camera standards (under 200 dollars), easy to use, and has a decent battery life.
It's no professional model, but everyone I asked really likes it.
Incysor, have you had any experience or heard anything about the Canon Powershot Series of Cameras? Anyone else use or have used a Canon?
-ed
incysor
Guest
In general they're great cameras. I shot a few pics this weekend with a friends actually. I have no idea what they're like for aquarium shots. I haven't played with anyone's enough to figure out the settings, but I'm sure that if I could figure out how to set the white balance, and change my aperture, and shutter speeds I'd get the same type of shots I get with mine now. Those are really the main settings that I end up changing. Usually I only need to set the white balance once per tank, but then end up changing the aperture or the shutter speed quite a bit.
Even without doing any of that, you can still get good shots, I just found that once I started messing with those settings my number of sucessful shots went way up.
B
Even without doing any of that, you can still get good shots, I just found that once I started messing with those settings my number of sucessful shots went way up.
B
Incysor
Incysor,
As far as I'm concerned you're a pro. Your pics are some of the best I've seen. Do you have any personal recommendations keeping in mind that I want to spend less than $300.
Also, I don't know anything about all these lenses and filters....could someone explain?
Incysor,
As far as I'm concerned you're a pro. Your pics are some of the best I've seen. Do you have any personal recommendations keeping in mind that I want to spend less than $300.
Also, I don't know anything about all these lenses and filters....could someone explain?
G
Guest
I don't know much about cameras, but I'd like to point out Kodak's Easyshare software is a joke. I'll never buy a Kodak camera again.
Also, mucho props to incysor for bringing all of the breathtaking photos to MARSH!
Also, mucho props to incysor for bringing all of the breathtaking photos to MARSH!
SeanB
Guest
The Canon digital rebel comes free with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 - very versatile.
B
BrianPlankis
I really like my Canon Powershot S500, except for two things. It does not have a manual focus setting and the macro is not the best. I can't tell you how many times I could have gotten a very good picture if I could have just focused it manually.
I would NOT recommend the S500, I feel the macro is just not good enough for corals, especially zoas. It is adequate, but when I see other camera shots of zoas, they are just way better at macro.
As far as our local pro Incysor's comments, I would have to agree with him. My camera can change white balance, iso and apeture, and those really do make a big difference in the number of successful pictures. I would recommend getting a camera that you can change the lenses on and get a macro lense if you plan on taking lots of aquarium pics.
I would NOT recommend the S500, I feel the macro is just not good enough for corals, especially zoas. It is adequate, but when I see other camera shots of zoas, they are just way better at macro.
As far as our local pro Incysor's comments, I would have to agree with him. My camera can change white balance, iso and apeture, and those really do make a big difference in the number of successful pictures. I would recommend getting a camera that you can change the lenses on and get a macro lense if you plan on taking lots of aquarium pics.
incysor
Guest
Thanks for the compliments guys...But I am no pro. I still have a hard time with the terms, much less the application of those terms....I've got a few friends with photography degrees, so I really do know just how little I really understand it.
Boudster,
For less than $300 you're unlikely to find a digital camera that you can change lenses on. So you don't really need to pay too much attention to that kind of thing. If you're willing to look at used cameras, you can probably find a few in your price range that are the dSLR-like cameras. You can't really change lenses, but there are a few lenses that you can screw into the front of the existing lense. You don't get nearly as good a quality as you would with true swappable lenses, but you do get some improvement. This is the type of camera I have and there are two lenses that I'd like for it, one is a macro lens and the other is a telephoto. The two together would set me back about $450....That's a good sized piece of cash towards a true dSLR, and I haven't made up my mind which way I want to go yet. There are lots of cheap screw on filters for cameras that help to combat glare, blue-tint, etc... Some people use them to help combat the glare from the glass on the aquariums. I haven't ever used mine, which is something I should probably play with some.
I agree with Kabuto, that the macro setting is important. I generally shoot everything except the full-tank shots in macro mode. Without true macro lenses, (dSLR), you're just not going to get the extreme macro shots you see on reef central. Even putting my camera in the underwater housing and sticking my camera in the tank to get closer I can't match those kinds of shots. Raw format is nice if you're a pro or semi-pro, but for most people it's unnecessary. You have to find software, or plugins for your existing software that will support it, but if you do, then the raw format gives you a bit more power to fix shots in post-production than if you're shooting jpg images.
Anyone looking at buying a camera should totally disregard digital-zoom specs. This is a totally useless feature that's only use appears to be to sell cameras. You can NOT take pictures that come out using the digital zoom function on any camera. This was a feature on my camera that I was excited by when I started playing with it. I spent one evening filling up my cards shooting really close macro shots using the digital zoom. They looked great on the display of the camera. However when I looked at the images on the computer they all were super grainy. I got online and hit one forum after another trying to find out what I did wrong. Across the board everyone said that digital zoom can't be used to get a decent shot.
Photoshop elements is a good piece of software from everything I've read/seen. It's also a fraction of the cost of the regular photoshop. I haven't used it yet. I generally use a combination of several different free-ware image processing programs. I should spend some time in photography forums and see what cheap/free software folks are liking for processing their images.
Boudster,
For less than $300 you're unlikely to find a digital camera that you can change lenses on. So you don't really need to pay too much attention to that kind of thing. If you're willing to look at used cameras, you can probably find a few in your price range that are the dSLR-like cameras. You can't really change lenses, but there are a few lenses that you can screw into the front of the existing lense. You don't get nearly as good a quality as you would with true swappable lenses, but you do get some improvement. This is the type of camera I have and there are two lenses that I'd like for it, one is a macro lens and the other is a telephoto. The two together would set me back about $450....That's a good sized piece of cash towards a true dSLR, and I haven't made up my mind which way I want to go yet. There are lots of cheap screw on filters for cameras that help to combat glare, blue-tint, etc... Some people use them to help combat the glare from the glass on the aquariums. I haven't ever used mine, which is something I should probably play with some.
I agree with Kabuto, that the macro setting is important. I generally shoot everything except the full-tank shots in macro mode. Without true macro lenses, (dSLR), you're just not going to get the extreme macro shots you see on reef central. Even putting my camera in the underwater housing and sticking my camera in the tank to get closer I can't match those kinds of shots. Raw format is nice if you're a pro or semi-pro, but for most people it's unnecessary. You have to find software, or plugins for your existing software that will support it, but if you do, then the raw format gives you a bit more power to fix shots in post-production than if you're shooting jpg images.
Anyone looking at buying a camera should totally disregard digital-zoom specs. This is a totally useless feature that's only use appears to be to sell cameras. You can NOT take pictures that come out using the digital zoom function on any camera. This was a feature on my camera that I was excited by when I started playing with it. I spent one evening filling up my cards shooting really close macro shots using the digital zoom. They looked great on the display of the camera. However when I looked at the images on the computer they all were super grainy. I got online and hit one forum after another trying to find out what I did wrong. Across the board everyone said that digital zoom can't be used to get a decent shot.
Photoshop elements is a good piece of software from everything I've read/seen. It's also a fraction of the cost of the regular photoshop. I haven't used it yet. I generally use a combination of several different free-ware image processing programs. I should spend some time in photography forums and see what cheap/free software folks are liking for processing their images.
G
Guest
I took this with my Canon S500 and it came out pretty good.
yellowbelley
Guest
this is taken with my canon S45
tvu
Guest
The Canon A60, A75, A85,A95, A410 & A520 series cameras(and even older models A60-A90) can use lens attachments. All those are under $300 dollars. The attachment adapter typically cost around $20.
The attachment can house any 52mm lens.
Typically Canon does not have as great macro abilities as Nikon but as a good digital camera overall I think Canons are ahead of Nikon. The Fuji's are good deals but they do lack somethings that Canon and Nikon have. I also like Olympus cameras which are also good deals.
Take into account that I am generalizing and not all the models from all the makes apply.
these pictures were taken with A75.
http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7020
The attachment can house any 52mm lens.
Typically Canon does not have as great macro abilities as Nikon but as a good digital camera overall I think Canons are ahead of Nikon. The Fuji's are good deals but they do lack somethings that Canon and Nikon have. I also like Olympus cameras which are also good deals.
Take into account that I am generalizing and not all the models from all the makes apply.
these pictures were taken with A75.
http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7020
incysor
Guest
Right...but these are just like mine...You're just adding another lense to your existing lens. It's not really the same as a dSLR, where your actually changing lenses. Depending on the lens you add you might get some improvement you might not. From what I've read on the different photography forums there are a lot of these lenses that are really crappy and a waste of money. There seem to be a handful that are good for each camera, but each camera seems to like different ones. Research, research, research. For my camera there are only a couple that really do a good job, and a bunch that do a so-so job.
I do think that Canon makes great cameras. I also am a big fan of nikon and olympus. I've got an older fuji 2mp camera that I was never impressed with, but some of their models are very nice.
There are lots of cameras in your price range that would meet my minimum requirements of manual white balance, aperture, shutter speed.
If it were me I'd hit dpreview do side by side comparisons until I had a 3-4 camera list, then I'd go to best buy and circuit city and see them in person. I'd play with them a bit and see if I liked the interface on one of them better, or just like the 'feel' of one of them more than the others.
Camera Co-op is another great place to check out different cameras in Houston. Ritz is great if there's one near you, but they don't carry as many brands of camers.
B
I do think that Canon makes great cameras. I also am a big fan of nikon and olympus. I've got an older fuji 2mp camera that I was never impressed with, but some of their models are very nice.
There are lots of cameras in your price range that would meet my minimum requirements of manual white balance, aperture, shutter speed.
If it were me I'd hit dpreview do side by side comparisons until I had a 3-4 camera list, then I'd go to best buy and circuit city and see them in person. I'd play with them a bit and see if I liked the interface on one of them better, or just like the 'feel' of one of them more than the others.
Camera Co-op is another great place to check out different cameras in Houston. Ritz is great if there's one near you, but they don't carry as many brands of camers.
B
