Fuji S5500/5200/5600 + 3x telephoto (rubbish???)

[boycee]

As these cameras are all basically the same apart from a couple of cheeky upgrades I thought i'd bracket them together.

I was asking a lot of questions in someone elses thread but thought I might as well start a new one to reduce the chance of taking over his.

So I'm looking at these cameras mainly due to the large amount of zoom they offer. I'm interested on taking photos of water sports mainly surfers/kite surfers etc.. This can only be done from the beach (well in my case anyhow).

So this supports up to 380mm zoom, now what would happen if say i added a "Professional 3.0X Telephoto lens ~ Fuji FinePix S5200" available from a well know auction site?

Surely that couldn't give me 3 x 380mm? if it did isn't it likely to look rubbish? or something, there has to be a catch? doesn't there?

Cheers

 

[ethan]

I've got a 2x and a 3x converter for my s9500. The 3x gives 2 much camera shake because it is made from tubular steel @ normal program settings without a tripod. In other words it seems 2 double the weight of the camera. I have yet 2 try it @ faster shutter speeds though (referring 2 its anti-shake capabilities)

 

[boycee]

how about focusing? you got any examples using it?

Cheers mate

 

[SDK^]

A couple of points

If the lens adaptor does increase focal lenth by 3x then you'll have a 1140mm lens. At that focal length you'll need to be a using a fast shutter speed to reduce blur from camera shake, therefore you will more than likely have to increase ISO to 400+ which will mean very noisey images on the Fuji camera.

Add this to the degraded image quality from the adapter and your images will start to suffer.

 

[danza]

Yeah, it's hard enough trying to get decent results with a big zoom compact out at 300-380mm without obvious blurring from shake. The telephoto lens will only make things worse unless you use a tripod, which might be a bit impractical given the subject you want to photograph.

 

[boycee]

Oh i'll defo be using a tripod, I'm not exactly "mr steady hands".

Was more worried about the ability to focus using the auto-focus, and just generally if the images would suffer that much.

 

[KIMMETT]

ethan - Have you got any examples from the 2x and 3x teleconverters? I would have thought that the quality isn't the best, but that could just be my perception...

Cheers

Kimmett

 

[Jotun]

A couple of points

If the lens adaptor does increase focal lenth by 3x then you'll have a 1140mm lens. At that focal length you'll need to be a using a fast shutter speed to reduce blur from camera shake, therefore you will more than likely have to increase ISO to 400+ which will mean very noisey images on the Fuji camera.

Add this to the degraded image quality from the adapter and your images will start to suffer.

Probabaly wouldn't be as much use with the s5500, as it has a maximum ISO setting of 400... IIRC the s5600 gose up to 1600, although I've no idea what it'd be like in terms on noise, as I thought the 400 was too noisy on my s5500

 

[boycee]

OK here's a question then.

is there some formula for calculating what zoom gives what distance? IE.. If i wanted a person to fill the frame, and was using a lens of say 300mm at full zoom, how far back would I be?

Sounds like some dodgy GCSE question don't it lol.

Maybe I don't need all this zoom? All I do know is that my fuji e550 with 2x teleconverter isn't quite enough. also doesn't seam to be able to focus to well either with it??

 

[ethan]

I'll try 2 provide some examples as soon as I can. The beauty of the fuji or rather the s9500 is there is hardly any noise @ all. That was one of the major buying points about this camera from its reviews. Also, many of the 2 or 3x converters used on the s7000 can be used on the 9500 with its 58mm thread.
The one I was used is a Tokina and maybe the quality will vary according 2 manufacturer?

Does the fuji 5000 series use an image stabiliser? This might help.

 

[SDK^]

Oh i'll defo be using a tripod, I'm not exactly "mr steady hands".

A tripod is only to get in your way and limit your photography options.
Kite Jumpers/surfers move fast and a tripod will be totally useless.

If you really need support then check out a monopod

 

[Mattius]

i had a s5000 with a 1.7 tele converter, and that was about the max i would put on one without image stabalisation.
Its also not so much to do with the amount of zoom but the quality of the attachment you are using. The fuji ones didn't quite hack it for me, they had a lot of problems at either end of the zoom. I settled for the Olympus TCon-17 which is the dogs dangles optics are awesome and build was amazing, although they are very rare and they are huge.

you can see mine here:


if its fuji your after this site is the best for looking up the attachments, the guys post reviews of just about every accesorry going for the s5000 onwards. www.s5000.net look in the forums.

but if i was you i would be going for one of the panasonic lumix cameras with awesome zoom and image stabalisers they are great cameras.

 

[boycee]

Something like the DMC-FZ7?

Reading up about them now.. Does appear to have a shed more manual controls. Does anyone know what the lens' are like??

 

[boycee]

Ok now looking at the FZ7 and FZ30, anyone got one? or a previous model?