Digital Camera - Fuji s9600 any good?

lawrie28

I have been asked to take the photos for my sister in law's wedding, on the back of the photos i have taken at other peoples. I was given a Konica Minolta Dimage Z10 (3.2 MP with 8x zoom) which has taken lots of great photos- awesome when you can buy for one for next to nothing second hand. However, rather than buying my daughters dresses, which the SIL will pay for, I will get a better camera to take the photos on.

I have £220. I need to buy a camera, memory card, rechargeable batteries, tripod and if the budget can be stretched a case.

I like the look of the Fuji S9600 - manual zoom ring for quick (battery saving) photos, RAW images for better quality, a beasty 10x zoom, 9.6 MP etc.

All the reviews I have seen seem to be good, but I don;t know if the software is Vista compatible??

Anyway, what would you do in my shoes?? Would you go for the S9600, which I can get for £180 (fuji do a refurb for £160- worth it??)pretty much everywhere, a cheap tripod (asda, tescos) 2gb mem card (should take 800 pics on this cam- maybe not enough?) - id XD or COMpact flash better? some rechargeables from somewhere and see if there is enough left for a bag? Or is my money better spent elsewhere?

I tend to only shoot family stuff - weddings, theme park and zoo days, general stuff you di when you have 2 young kids, and would like the camera to last a few years.

I don't mind getting technical, but I end to take most of the photos on the Z10 on AUto setting and continous shooting mode and I do tend to use the zoom alot - I like to take unposed close ups.

I've also never used a tripod, so have no idea what I am looking for. I like the S9600 as the viewfinder tilts, so I can look down into it from above when on a tripod.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

bookduck

I've seen some people on here that say they are good.

I think you should not worry about the software, because usually it is a cut down version of one of the more popular brands, and many people do not use the cut down version anyway.

Think about getting a card reader.

I had a look at this model. My gripe with it was that it would never fit into my pocket, so did not do much further investigation.

Do not know what size card it takes, but my 8gb sd cost around £15. yes that is a lot of photos, but I do like taking videos as well, as so much of the atmosphere is captured and vids are usually huge.

bcl999

There is a 20% discount code for Fuji Shop over at www.hotukdeals.com at the mo' , so your S9600 will be £128 + delivery.

welshnige

I had the Konica and it was a superb little camera. I have since bought the S8000fd which is 8 megapixels and a 18x optical zoom. I have no complaints with the Fuji at all, I stick it on sportsmode with continious shooting and the results are astounding. My only advice would be to buy a memory card that is quick for downloading the photo from when you click the button to it being stored on the card, this does make a huge difference.

alanwjones

I'm on my 3rd Fuji and have had no problems whatsoever, and some great shots with auto mode,

moneysaver

Great camera go for it. The only thing is the manual focus is a bit fiddly. If you want a proper manual focus camera you would need to move up to a full DSLR. Other than that it is a great camera.


Moneysaver

lawrie28

Thanks for the advice. The 20% off sounds good, but expires today, and I'm waiting for some cash to come in before spending, so will have to keep checking for future discounts. Also can't decide whether I want a refurb or not, but then getting the camera for £128 instead of 180 is £52, over 25% discount.....Hmmmmmmmm. But then, 20% off the 180 (do fuji sell new??) would be 144......

Any ideas on whether XD or Compact flash is faster??

and what about bags/ tripods. Can anyone help me out as have no idea.

Thanks everyone

unrich

Compact flash is faster than XD(waits for contras). There are some deals on the Sandisk Extreme III cards. 7dayshop.com and play.com for example. 4GB = £17 which seems like good value. (amazon also )

Tripods, ebay will bring you a nice manfrotto with a 3 way head. Ignore ball heads (to start with). A heavy one is good to keep stability for the camera. If at all possible try not to get a lightweight one from the highstreet. They wobble about all over the place.

If you can't afford a manfrotto get a Slik 88 from ebay. Old but competent. It uses a quick release post rather than a plate but works well. Make sure the QR post comes included. £30-40 should suffice. It goes up nearly to 6'.

[If you can afford it spend £250+ on a pair of carbon fiber legs and a hydrostatic ball head. ho ho ho]

Batteries and charger, 7dayshop will have lots of high capacity batteries and fast chargers at a reasonable cost. 30min fast charger and 4*2500mAh = £15. 4*AA 2500mAh £2.79.

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If you can get an assistant to help and you have a few CF cards you could load the pics directly onto a laptop there and then to make a back up and ensure you have all the shots on your check list (of the right quality). A CF reader will help with this. If your lappy has a CD/DVD writer then you could backup again on the spot. Your assistant could also ensure that any batteries are recharged in your 15 minute charger as soon as you want. The assistant can usher the right people into shot too and tick the lists.

Hope you have a good one.

unrich

Here's an interesting review of the S9600 vs 6 mega pixel Pentax K100D. Look at the crop shots of the images and you'll see the noise creeping in.

For an all in one camera (bridge/prosumer) I'm sure its very good. But still I think I'd think I'd prefer the Pentax. 6Mpixels is fine for A4 (we didn't go bigger than A4 with our wedding photos). 10M pixels will go bigger but would you want to show off that noise?

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You can rent pro camera kit although getting comfortable using it would be the issue for the big day.

Can you borrow rather than buy?

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I'm looking all over the place for the perfect camera (limited budget) and I'm trying to find something to allow me to leave the DSLR at home but I'm coming to the conclusion that I have to find a way to keep the DSLR next to me, but leave all the associated kit at home. So instead of investing in a 2nd camera I will find a 18-200mm digital lens and a small padded case. I've been looking all over from compact cameras through to 4/3 sensor DSLRs like the Olympus ones and I keep coming back to DSLRs for image quality.

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Anyway sorry to post this but I'm on a quest for the perfect solution for me and I have spent ages looking.

welshnige

I dont know about the noise, if you go into settings you can switch the sound off and you get no sound at all from the shutter :rotfl:

peter_the_piper

If you do go for the Fuji, their refurbished site has them. https://secure.fujifilm.co.uk/shop/consumer/digital/digital-cameras/d-slr-long-zoom/finepix-s9600
I have the 8000 and it is great, couldn't tell the difference between it and new,