Well, I’ve had my ‘new’ Fuji Finepix S5800 camera for a little while now and played with it a bit. I’ve come to the conclusion that it serves a completely different purpose to my trusty little Finepix F700. I’m also very glad that I didn’t put the F700 on Ebay and sell it because I’m still carrying it in my handbag … something that I definitely can’t do with the S5800!

On the other hand, the S5800 has the 10x optical zoom and the macro/super macro features that I particularly wanted. I take quite a lot of close-up photos of my plants and this is where the bigger camera really comes into its own. The wider range of pre-sets for things like landscape, fireworks, snow etc are pretty useful too but I really need to explore the manual settings on the camera. For some reason, it seems to struggle with high contrast – a bright background and a darker subject. Things end up looking washed out or poorly contrasted. This is something I need to work on.

I’m also having real difficulty adjusting to the size and bulk of the S5800 over the slim oblong shape of the F700. While it does feel solid and comfortable in my small hands (I was very wary of large cameras for that reason), I’m always having to be extra careful in case I drop it. It’s not as easy to grab in a hurry if there’s a good shot. It’s much better when there’s time to compose and set up the shot properly.

I got a proper bag for it but the camera, spare batteries, battery charger, cables and manual makes it rather a bulky and heavy addition to carry around if you’ve already got a handbag in tow.

I need to spend more time with this camera and learn how to use it properly.

Oh Fuji, what have you done???

Thrown a spanner in my works, that’s for sure *sigh*

I was almost settled on the S5600 over the S5700 when I found that there was a brand new S5XXX camera just released – the Fujifilm Finepix S5800 which is SOOOO tempting! It’s supposed to be available from October 2007 but the first ones are now appearing on Ebay and a seller has it for sale on Amazon as well.

It’s around the £150 mark at the moment but I’m waiting to see what price it will be from Amazon itself a/. because it will be post free and b/. I do value Amazon’s customer service. I bought an Archos Gmini MP3 player last year and it went wrong within a week – I was able to print out a personalised returns label from the Amazon site, send the faulty player back and subsequently received a brand new one in less than ten days.

So, not surprisingly, I’ve put my new camera plans on hold for a little while so I can save up the extra cash to get the S5800

My disappointment at my T189 marks is now mellowing and it’s certainly NOT going to stop me taking photographs! *lol*

Having a Fuji camera, I signed up with the MyFuji website and registered my camera. They send monthly emails and stuff, run competitions and forums, have useful Photography tips etc. Recently I received an email offering a 15% discount on Fuji refurbished cameras It’s valid to the end of the month and I have some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket so what to buy? I think a bridge camera would be the best option and, hopefully, nothing too bulky or heavy that would make it difficult to carry around. So …

Fuji Finepix S5600 Zoom

OR

Fuji Finepix S5700 Zoom

(Sorry Georgy, I really can’t afford a proper DSLR – in fact, I think it would be wasted on me to be honest!)

Decisions …. decisions …. decisions ….

Well, it’s just over 24 hours since I last posted on this blog about the new board:

T189 Digital Photography Unofficial Forum

and the stats show that the board is definitely growing

Community Time: 17/07/07 16:46

Founded: 14/07/07

* 55 Avg visits per day
* 27 Posts per day
* 56 Posts in last 24 hours

* 217 Total visits
* 106 Total posts
* 28 Total topics
* 16 Total members

which is very gratifying

It’s probably the wrong time of year to launch a new board – summer is notoriously slow in messageboardland – and it may gain new members when the official T189 First Class forums close in about six to eight weeks time. Nevertheless, it’s there for any T189-ers who would like to keep in touch and anyone who is thinking of studying T189 in the future.

It’s also worth popping in to the Flickr group and checking out the discussions:

T189 OpenUni 2007

where students are posting links to their final ECA images. Those I’ve looked at have been fabulous

Now, if I can persuade my daughter that a walk would be a good idea, I hope to be going out in the slightly cooler late afternoon soon with my camera to hand. There’s no guarantee I’ll come back with any shots – she likes to keep moving – but you never know!

We don’t normally open our Gallery on a Sunday because it’s supposed to be our ‘Day Off’ but, of course, when it’s your own business, the rules fly out of the window on occasions. So this morning was mostly sunny and The Artist went out to complete a watercolour painting he’d been working on. Apart from a brief shower of heavy rainspots, he was OK and returned at lunchtime feeling reasonably satisfied with the result. Anyone who knows an Artist will be aware that they are never fully satisfied … they always feel that they could have done this better or tackled that differently … you get the picture? (sorry, awful pun!)

After lunch it was heavily overcast but not raining so we decided to open the Gallery as there were quite a few people walking past along the beach path. The Artist was doing some framing and I was studying in the office. We were pleasantly surprised by a visit from a lady and gentleman who stayed with us in the final year of running the guest house (we’ve now got self-catering). In the meantime the rain set in, the walkers all hurried home to get dry and I made a big pot of tea so we could chat.

During the course of the chat, we got talking about photos and cameras because he said he’d forgotten to recharge the battery of his videocam so it had gone into a sulk half way through a boat trip to the Bishop Rock Lighthouse this morning. He then opened the rather nondescript carrier bag he’d put on the counter and produced a large, black, heavy ….. FILM camera! Not only was it a film camera but he was shooting using a BLACK AND WHITE film – sixteen shots to a film, he told me – and every one had to count. I was amazed! He had to buy his films from a specialist supplier and send them away to a specialist developer for processing.

He mentioned that he’d been a member of his local camera club since the late sixties and had thousands upon thousands of photographs and slides. He didn’t mind being called a ‘Dinosaur’ by other (presumably younger) members of the club as digital cameras became more popular and he still stuck to film. But, sadly, the atmosphere in the club soured towards the older members who still preferred film and he said he’d left, hinting at some quite unpleasant and hurtful exchanges.

I found that extremely sad because I’m sure almost everyone involved in T189 would be fascinated to browse his collection – a rare treasure in these days of instant digicam results. He bemoaned the fact that he’d gone into Jessops and asked the young male sales assistant for empty cases to transfer some of his slide transparencies into (I can’t remember the exact term he used) but he drew a complete blank – the assistant had no idea what he was talking about. So he just shook his head and left the shop.

I felt privileged to have been able to talk to him and wished they could have spent longer with us, but they had to walk back to their hotel when there was a lull in the rain. However they said they planned to visit again in a couple of years time and I hope to be able to chat to him for longer then.

* * * * * * * * * *

You know, I still have the old Agfamatic 126 cartridge film camera that I took to Canada in 1973 when I was only a teenager …

AgfaPhoto – Wikipedia

Mine is the middle one in the panel of three images on the right – the Agfa Agfamatic 300 Sensor. I have about 500 photos taken with that over the nine weeks that I was in Canada. Unfortunately they’ve changed colour and faded quite significantly over the past thirty four years despite being kept in photo albums in a dark cupboard.

Kodak’s 126 film cartridge

Although the photos have faded, I still have all the original film negatives. Maybe one day I’ll choose the best and get them printed properly … if that is still an option.