Shootin' For the Moon

Ya so I am tired of changing lenses in the field with my DSLR so I have begun a search for the best point and shoot I can find. To that end I wanderred down to London Drugs and picked up a camera I have been waiting to arive, the new Fugi S100sf.
Its considerred a bridge camera -something that bridges the gap between DSLR's and point and shoots. It has a 28-400mm zoom lense on it which actuates exactly like a real DSLR lenses would. I liked the feel of this camera, its big and strongly built - something needed for me !! Its menu system is dead easy to work with, and the EVF and the LCD at the back are both excellent. Shot times are fine as well.

There is much to like about this camera, but the proof of the pudding is in the image quality. I was hoping it would be very good. Turns out after taking a couple hundred shots, the image quality goes from good to almost great to nearly horrible.

The lens works well when at its telephoto maximum, but seems to fall apart trying to capture wide angle scenery shots. Macro is good but not great. Color is good to very very good, but again, if you go wide angle and try forest shots ..the camera looses its mind and coughs up off shots which even with the dynamic range bumped up 400%, seem to be limited in tone. Like all digi cams it loves to blow highlights and this it does very well.
Note the blown highlights,wierd coloring plus garish purple fringing in this shot in sections (this was not even a full wide angle shot for the camera)






Wide angle shots of anything in the sun can produce lots of purple and green fringing. All shots shot at the 11 meg setting show up as rather sketchy on magnification. This really is a 6 meg cam bumped up.

The 6 meg setting and lower provides a better image, but nothing saves the lens at the wide angle end of things. It barrel distorts all over the place and detail gets lost . Click on the shot below to see what I mean.





Here's and example of the cam at its better telephoto end, pulling in this swan at the 400mm.







Not bad but the camera consistently got the surrounding pond enviroment color all wrong and the resolution was not great. The white blow outs everywhere bugged me.

The color in this shot below is not bad but not right either. I messed with the color and contrast but it still is off. The darker areas turn up black more often than not. Perhaps I can change this but so far have not been able to.




Well I think I will have to work a bit longer with the cam and see where I might be limiting it but I think the purple fringing and barrel distortion are deal breakers and the cam will in the end be going back.

My problem is I see too much in each photo and have way high expectations.This Fugi is actually a great camera for the average person as it will capture shots from close to far at a level most would be very happy with. Since the average shooter has little need to blow up their shots past a 5X7, or at best 8X10, 99% of what I have just complained about will never be seen, and I think the Fuji guys know that well.

I guess I am shooting for the moon hoping a point and shoot will do everything super well. I had a C8080 Olympus bridge digi cam that did deliver the moon (I broke it !) Speaking to professional photogrphers I am told that there are digi cams that are excellent shooters, so I shall keep looking for that all in one solution .

I really do not want to lug lenses everywhere. Changing lenses makes field shooting so cumbersome. You can't just swing around and zoom in on that thing way off or drop down and take a macro shot. You have to change lenses if you want anything of quality in your pictures. The average DSLR all in one zooms, and consumer grade primes, are often not all that great image quality wise.

Hummm I have work to do ..but this stuff is fun to research out !! I still hope to get the moon with ice cream on top for cheeeeeeeeeeeeep!!! This Fuji does come oh so tantalizingly close !!!
I have a few more days to play with it. Maybe I will find a way to make it work for me !!