Fuji S5 pro...

EdinburghGary

EdinburghGary

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Ever since seeing the Fuji S5 pro's recovery of Raw Files which have been poorly exposed, I have been drawn to them. Now I have my D200 gathering dust, and I have the Canon G9 which I have used maybe twice since buying it in April. I don't want to end up with a 3rd unused body.

So, I have the first wedding on the 12th September, and I plan on getting some new glass for the D3 first. But as its my first wedding, and I am likely to make loads of mistakes, surely every little helps? I want a second body to stop me having to change lenses at the wrong moments, however, the D200 I am guessing has nothing over the S5 pro, and therefore, if I were able to sell it, and then get an S5, surely a clever thing to do?

The long and short of it is this, I want to make a serious go of weddings. I read all the horror stories, and I understand the pressure of screwing things up and ruining someones big day. I realise the hours required afterwards with the PP and printing etc. However, you don't get anywhere in life if you simply give up before trying - there are guys charging £3K per wedding, and whilst they are top of their game I guess, surely it's not impossible to eventually be able to get to that level of skill and then reap the rewards?

So I feel any money I pour into this hobby, is eventually going to be an investment of sorts.

Anyway, sorry for the erm rant. Quite simply, is it worth spending say £300 to replace a D3 and D200 combo with a D3 and Fuji S5 Pro combo?

Gary.
 
I await with bated breath on this one gary :)
 
I replaced my D200 with S5 Pro's - the S5 Pro is better in every way apart from speed.

The highlight recovery and DR is just awesome, if you search under this user name on DPReview I've given a few demos on this, you can expose at +2 EV and never ever lose a highlight.

JPEGs are great, skintones awesome.

The D200 has no advantages over the D3. The S5 Pro has superior DR, and out-of-the-box skintones.

I'd say it was worth a go - you'll need good glass on the S5 Pro, it has a fierce AA filter and thing will look soft, especally if you use the hokey "12 megapixel" mode.
 
puddleduck said:
I replaced my D200 with S5 Pro's - the S5 Pro is better in every way apart from speed.

The highlight recovery and DR is just awesome, if you search under this user name on DPReview I've given a few demos on this, you can expose at +2 EV and never ever lose a highlight.

JPEGs are great, skintones awesome.

The D200 has no advantages over the D3. The S5 Pro has superior DR, and out-of-the-box skintones.

I'd say it was worth a go - you'll need good glass on the S5 Pro, it has a fierce AA filter and thing will look soft, especally if you use the hokey "12 megapixel" mode.
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Thanks, can you explain this Hotkey mode? Is this something to do with its dual 6mp sensors?

G.
 
Right blame me for you buying a new camera meh lol boys with toys is all im gonna say :P
 
hokey as in "fake" - the sensor is natively 6 megapixel, the "12 megapixel" output is interpolated. Don't worry too much about this.

Drop by the Fuji Forum on DPReview, its full of folks who've gone from D200, D80's etc and going "OMG.. NOW I get it"
 
The style and quality of the shots you have set your sights on Gary aren't born out of dynamic range so much as they are your own style and vision.

If you feel happier with a fuji over a nikon and you can change it, go ahead. It might make you feel better and let you get on with being creative. Chances are it's just gear lust and should be indulged or dismissed as such. ;)
 
dazzajl said:
The style and quality of the shots you have set your sights on Gary aren't born out of dynamic range so much as they are your own style and vision.

If you feel happier with a fuji over a nikon and you can change it, go ahead. It might make you feel better and let you get on with being creative. Chances are it's just gear lust and should be indulged or dismissed as such. ;)
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You are of course correct, the best gear in the world will be crap in the wrong hands. Just with weddings, if I screw the dress / whites, which I am totally paranoid about, at least with the S5 pro, I could recover easier.

Gary.
 
You'll be fine! :lol:

You'll have a histogram, highlight alert and a billion gig of memory. It's almost impossible to screw it up with that much backup in your corner.

Unless you're starting to thrive on the nervous energy and adrenaline, then perhaps you should think about a bit of gaffer tape over the screen. :D
 
dazzajl said:
You'll be fine! :lol:

... It's almost impossible to screw it up ...
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... unless you leave getting the Fuji too late, and you aren't 100% familiar with it when the big day comes.
 
My understanding is that it's more to do with the photographer's personality and work ethic rather than his gear. Good gear will only get you so far if you don't know how to manage large numbers of people or run a business.

I would suggest that you concentrate on popping your cherry first with the not unsubstantial gear you have already before you 'invest' any more time & money. You may absolutely hate the experience and never want to do another.
 
puddleduck said:
I replaced my D200 with S5 Pro's - the S5 Pro is better in every way apart from speed.

The highlight recovery and DR is just awesome, if you search under this user name on DPReview I've given a few demos on this, you can expose at +2 EV and never ever lose a highlight.

JPEGs are great, skintones awesome.

The D200 has no advantages over the D3. The S5 Pro has superior DR, and out-of-the-box skintones.

I'd say it was worth a go - you'll need good glass on the S5 Pro, it has a fierce AA filter and thing will look soft, especally if you use the hokey "12 megapixel" mode.
Click to expand...

If he's right, I wouldn't hesitate too much if I had the money.
It does seem to be a very good landscape camera as well.
 
Listen up there molly menopause. Theres two types of photographers. The ones who worry about gear and the ones who worry about light. I've seen great wedding photos on this forum by people with D80's and 30D's. I've done a few weddings with my 30D, without any flash, and I've got the results I wanted from it. Could I have done better with a S5 or a D3? Honestly, no. I could have got sharper crisper shots yeah but they would still be in b&w, still composed in the same way with the same use of depth of field. You've got a D3 which is more than enough so learn everything about it, know it off by heart and then simply worry about light on the day. If you don't do this now you will forever be wanting that next lens or body simply because you have no clue as to what you can do with the gear in your hands. As for glass you can do it all with 1 lens. 24-70.
 
Oooooh, it's always a bit scary when me and Pete completely agree. :lol::lol:
 
And you can give me the G9 so it does not complicate things :)
 
petemc, dazzajl, I think EdinburghGary is thinking about the S5 because he could have more room in post processing afterwards and more dynamic range to work with, not because the D200 would be bad for the job (I guess it wouldn't).
He also says he wants to take two DSLR bodies there. The S5 could give him a bit of advantage with whites, for example. Maybe other things as well.
 
Yes its true that the S5 does have a higher dynamic range but specs on a sheet tbh. I know some amazing wedding photographers, some of the top ones in the US, who simply use a 5D. They're brilliant at what they do because they worry about light not about camera features and technical data. Say what you want but if you don't think a D3 can do a good job at a wedding then you may as well just bin it and take up knitting.
 
for what it's worth.. " not that much" my thoughts are this mate.

if you can afford it and want it .. get it.

its not going to make you a beter photographer. only you can do that.

but if it makes you feel happier about what your doing then it can only be good..


just my thought...


md:thumbs:
 
The S5 Pro is aimed at studio work, especially professional portrait and wedding photographers, the smaller Super ccd has a wider dynamic range than the D200, enabling it to capture a wider range of shadow and highlight detail, perfect for wedding dresses standing next to dark suits! It has low noise at high iso too.

The wider dynamic range slows the camera down though, it can only manage about 1.5 fps.

I would say if you wanted to replace the D200 with the Fuji S5 pro just to use at weddings, then go for it.

I have a friend who bought the Fuji as a backup for weddings, but he says it cant compete with his D200 at anything else where you need fine detail. 6mp, even interpolated to 12mp cant compete with a 10mp ccd in this respect.

Allan
 
Judging from your photos I reckon you'll be fine with the D3 and the D200 as a backup. Hasn't the D3 got quite a good dynamic range anyway with the Nikon highlight feature?
 
Wow! Loads of replies :)

Agree the D3 is more than enough camera, but any help for me is better. The D200 is getting wasted to be fair, and if I can punt it and get an S5 without spending much, would be good to have that dynamic range as a backup to actual talent :)

Thanks for all the replies guys :D

Gary.
 
gman said:
Judging from your photos I reckon you'll be fine with the D3 and the D200 as a backup. Hasn't the D3 got quite a good dynamic range anyway with the Nikon highlight feature?
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There is no "highlight feature" - active d-lighting underexposes to preserve highlights, and it boosts shadows. There is no special headroom there.

The S5 Pro has the D3 and a D700 beaten very easily for highlight retention.

Actually when I got my D700 2 weeks ago, my first thought having shot with the S5 Pro since early 2007 was "where the hell has my DR gone".

You can underexpose on the D3 and D700 and bring them up later in Pp as shadows are quite clean.
 
puddleduck said:
There is no "highlight feature" - active d-lighting underexposes to preserve highlights, and it boosts shadows. There is no special headroom there.

The S5 Pro has the D3 and a D700 beaten very easily for highlight retention.

Actually when I got my D700 2 weeks ago, my first thought having shot with the S5 Pro since early 2007 was "where the hell has my DR gone".

You can underexpose on the D3 and D700 and bring them up later in Pp as shadows are quite clean.
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Good info, it seems that in terms of DR, it trully is unbeaten. Looks like a worthwhile toy to have :)

Gary.
 
You get very used to the DR, and when you don't have it you miss it.

When I compared the S5 Pro to the D300 throughout Nov 07 the S5 Pro absolutely obliterated the D300 for DR, and while the D700 is a bit better than the D300, there is still a gap. The recovery you can do in RAW is insane:

Being able to over-expose by +2, then recover it ALL later, means you get incredibly clean shadows.

The S5 Pro is sadly mis-understood, once you understand it, you can do things no other camera can do.

This is a example, of how nice highlights are handled (Nikon NEF vs Fuji RAF)

D200-S5Pro-tonality.jpg


Here is a S5 Pro shot with +2 EV and an D300 shot with +2 EV:

S5-D300DR-Test.jpg


Now look at what happens when we try to recover with -2 EV:

s5-d300-DR-test2.jpg


The S5 Pro is unmatched for highlight retention and recovery - NOTHING comes close. Nothing.
 
Just a thought, not sure if it would work but with the fast fps of the D3 couldn't you bracket slightly and fire off several shots at a time and then you could either choose the best exposure or do a very subtle merge? Hopefully the fps would be quick enough to avoid any ghosting if you were to merge.
 
gman said:
Just a thought, not sure if it would work but with the fast fps of the D3 couldn't you bracket slightly and fire off several shots at a time and then you could either choose the best exposure or do a very subtle merge? Hopefully the fps would be quick enough to avoid any ghosting if you were to merge.
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Thought about it, might be worth doing a few tests. I think it can do 14FPS, so might bracket for 3 at a time just in case.

G.
 
I understand where you're coming from, totally. But, don't fret over a tiny portion of a histogram, or blowing a fraction of whites in a wedding dress, for bejus's sake! Just take good shots, which you can do, and make the bride look prettier than she actually is (golden rule).

You have a D3 man, that's more than enough to do any wedding a justice.

That said, I'm a gear whore too - if you can sell the d200 and get the fuji for not much difference, go for it by all means. A lot about doing a wedding, or any public job is having confidence in yourself, and having the utmost confidence in your gear goes a long way to achieving that :)
 
EdinburghGary said:
Are you talking virtual teeth whitening, spot removal and hair tidying? What about Skin Smoothing etc? Any tips appreciated!

Gary.
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Well, definitely a touch of pp work (have you tried the new skin smoothing in Lightroom 2 - very nice, and doesn't look too fake at all).

I'm actually talking more about the basic stuff, like the angles you shoot from to make the best of someone's face. Some people, women especially look better from a certain angle. I found recently (you might have seen my Asian Wedding thread) that the bride in this case looked gold from 3/4 above, and from 3/4 or a side angle, as opposed to straight on shots. Obviously this varies from person to person, and only when you meet them and shoot them will you come to see it.

Course, if you're landed with a total munter, there's not too much you can do is there really :D
 
I mean, this guy used a D3 + a 14-24/70-200 and he shot a great album for my aunt's wedding. Just look for other great photogs and learn from them - a lack of dynamic range never hindered them.

Though swapping a D200 for the S5 isn't a bad idea. Hah.
 
EdinburghGary said:
Never used Lightroom, must give it a spin.
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I'm a huge fan of lightroom now, especially since version 2.

Photoshop hardly gets a look in now for me. For pure photo editing and nothing else, Lightroom 2 pretty much does all I want, and the whole organisation of your photos aspect is pure gold. Capture NX2 is also very nice for Nikon NEFS.
 
I really like Lightroom 2, especially with the new camera profiles.

The database is god send.
 
Gary, with all due respect, and i`m in the same boat, why not learn to use your existing kit to its potential before getting anymore stuff?

:shrug:
 
fracster said:
Gary, with all due respect, and i`m in the same boat, why not learn to use your existing kit to its potential before getting anymore stuff?

:shrug:
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I plan to, I am just struggling to find a reason for owning a D200 when I can probably swap it for a better camera more suited to my plans.

Gary.
 
And I thought I was bad :lol:

Actually you should be able to swap from the D200 to the Fuji for at most £100, maybe even nothing if you sell and buy carefully ;).


I nearly bought an S5 from Calumet a few months back, it was the store demo with a couple of hundred actuations on it, complete with a warranty and some extras for £400, I'm sure you must be able to get a new one for not much more now....
 
Flash In The Pan said:
And I thought I was bad :lol:

Actually you should be able to swap from the D200 to the Fuji for at most £100, maybe even nothing if you sell and buy carefully ;).


I nearly bought an S5 from Calumet a few months back, it was the store demo with a couple of hundred actuations on it, complete with a warranty and some extras for £400, I'm sure you must be able to get a new one for not much more now....
Click to expand...

£500 in Jessops...brand spanking.

Gary.
 
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