S5200

[Frankf300]

Right now I have a little Nikon L4 P&S and all of a sudden I got the bug to get a better camera. Especially after my dad whipped out his old 35mm Chinon SLR last night and was showing me all the stuff he's got for it. Plus, my birthday is coming up...always a good way to get some cash . I've been looking into the Fuji Finepix S5200, seems like an awesome camera for an even better price. Has that SLR look and feel with almost all the manual setting from what I've read. Only thing I was confused about was its compatability with Mac. I read that it will work with USB 1.1, but that it will only work on OS X up to 10.3.7. I have an iBook G3 with 10.3.9. So, is that only for the software that comes included with the camera? I assumed so, but I don't want to buy a camera that isn't compatible with my Mac. Anybody own that camera here? What do you think of it? I want to be able to mess around with shutter speeds, time exposures...stuff like that, get a taste of some decent photography skills.

 

[Over Achiever]

Hey, just wondering if you've looked at the S6000 as it has a newer, cleaner sensor and a manual zoom ring, giving it even more of an SLR-like feel?

 

[Frankf300]

I was looking at that camera also. As much as I would love to have a manual zoom ring and all I'm not sure that I'm ready to drop that much just yet. As much as I enjoy photography I'm still experimenting I guess you could say. Still trying to decide if it's really for me, the S5200 seemed like a nice camera to experiment with some features that I would never be able to get out of my P&S. From what I've read the S5200 produces some awesome pictures for a 5.1. I'm really into landscapes, stuff like that. Up by our cabin there are some gourgeous landscapes especially when the snow falls. Some awesome farm lands and stuff. I could drive around all day snapping pictures. I used to think my Nikon took decent pictures until I saw some of the stuff posted here. It just doesn't give that sharp, crisp picture. So, I wanted to get something with more manual options to play around with when I really want to get some awesome shots. So, I can still keep my Nikon for quick shots like family parties and stuff.

Plus after seeing some of the things you can do when adjusting shutter speeds, time exposures, etc. I really want to be able to try some of that stuff. The closest thing to that is Fireworks mode on my Nikon with a 5 second shutter speed lol.

 

[cube]

Yeah. For the price of the S6000fd you could almost get a K110D with kit lens
($423 after rebate).

 

[Over Achiever]

Yeah. For the price of the S6000fd you could almost get a K110D with kit lens
($423 after rebate).

Wow, I didn't realize the Pentax dSLR was that cheap, I picked up the S6000 for $350 and I thought that was a decent price. I was wrong!

 

[Frankf300]

Soooo, what do ya think? S5200 any good? Somebody here has got to have one lol. Unless you guys know of something around that price range that you can reccomend. Figure, I can walk out of my local store with the S5200 for $250, any other reccomendations in that range, but with that SLR feel? For some reason the S5200 has really caught my eye though. Seems like a real nice camera for a begginer like me, but also something that can grow with me as I learn some more skills.

 

[arrash]

I purchased a Canon Digital Rebel XT SLR a little while back and found that, for a beginner like me, the true SLR was a bit much. I decided to sell the Canon and look for a similar form factor with some advanced features while moving down a bit at the same time.

That is where the S5200 came in to play. I found this camera on craigslist.com and fell in love. It has the form factor, style and some advance features of an SLR in a much more simply package and incredibly aggressive pricing. I purchased mine from someone on Craigslist, brand new and sealed for $150 so I can't complain.

Regardless of price, I have been extremely happy with the performance of this camera. For a beginner like myself, this camera is the right balance of features and simplicity! Buy it!

 

[arrash]

Regarding Mac compatability, I don't use any of the Fuji Software. When plugging it in to my computer, iPhoto recognizes it and imports all the images. I can, them, manipulate them in Aperture, Photoshop, iPhoto or any other app. There is no need to use the Fuji software.

 

[CrackedButter]

Regarding Mac compatability, I don't use any of the Fuji Software. When plugging it in to my computer, iPhoto recognizes it and imports all the images. I can, them, manipulate them in Aperture, Photoshop, iPhoto or any other app. There is no need to use the Fuji software.

Yeah I agree, I have the Fuji S7000 and the Fuji F10 compact. Never used any Fuji Software.

 

[cube]

It seems the S7000 and S9000 have some reliability problems.

 

[CrackedButter]

It seems the S7000 and S9000 have some reliability problems.

My S7000 is solid, never given me a problem, had it nearly 3 years now.

 

[Butters]

Soooo, what do ya think? S5200 any good? Somebody here has got to have one lol. Unless you guys know of something around that price range that you can reccomend. Figure, I can walk out of my local store with the S5200 for $250, any other reccomendations in that range, but with that SLR feel? For some reason the S5200 has really caught my eye though. Seems like a real nice camera for a begginer like me, but also something that can grow with me as I learn some more skills.

I have one, except where I'm from it's called a S5600

It's a good camera, I'm sure you've looked into it enough to know it's specs by now so the only other things I can comment on are,
the ease of use: it's very easy to get the hang of, especially with auto mode.

the quality of the pictures: on close inspection images quite often have some noise and never look quite as clean and spot-on as dSLR photos do.

the mac compatability: Great, except for when it comes to shooting in RAW. the only applications that I could find for mac that recognizes the fuji raw format are lightroom and the crappy software that comes with the cam. so that excludes Preview, Aperture and iPhoto which are the apps I would most like it to work with. In the end though it really doesnt bother me because the quality difference isn't all that vast between JPG and RAW and with RAW it takes the camera about 10 seconds to recover after ever shot which gets annoying in itself..

to sum up: good camera, great price, doesn't handle raw well

Hope that helped