# Help Needed With A New Camera



## Flashharry (Feb 20, 2007)

Was think on getting a digital SLR like a Nikon D40 or the Canon 400 or what ever it is called.

I will only be using it for family photos and macro shots of watches, that's what made me think to I want to spend a fortune on lots of lenses I will hardly use?

I went to a specialist camera shop, few and far between nowdays and told the owner what I wanted the camera for, especially the macro function and he recommended the Fuji S100FS,

11 million pixcels, 14.3X 200m (28~400mm).

Anybody heard of this camera and is it worh getting?


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## langtoftlad (Mar 31, 2007)

Not got that particular model - but have now had both a Fuji F31FD compact and a S6500FD Bridge for several months, and am very happy with both, Fuji is an excellent value brand.


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

It's a fine camera, but for what you want to do, it may be excessive. Also it's not an SLR. The Nikon D40 can be had for Â£250, a hundred pounds less, and will do anything that you're likely to want to do!

The Nikon has 'only' 6 million pixels, but unless you want to make prints larger than A4 this is unlikely to be a limiting factor.

My partner started with the D40 and now has a ?D200? as well; I am very impressed with the D40.


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## andythebrave (Sep 6, 2005)

I have an Olympus E500 and am very impressed. It's now superceded by the E-510 which added more pixels and built in image stabilisation (and shortly the E-520) plus the E-410 and E-420 are no slouches either.

Any of these with the 'kit' 14-42 lens (giving a 35mm equivalent focal length range of 28-84mm) would suit family and macro photography perfectly (close foxus distance is 25cm). Generally, Olympus kit lens are, at worst, a match for those sold with the other major manufacturers' bodies.

They are all easy to use and (the 500/510/520 particularly) are customisable from within the menus as you progress.

I am constantly amazed at the image quality from my E-500 which I teamed with the 18-180 zoom lens (no macro capability on that one but I don't really need it for family and landscapes) and can only think that this is partly because the entire system has been designed from the ground up to work specifically with digital sensors. The 400 range is very small (well, for DSLRs that is!) and I prefer the slightly chunkier feel of the 500 range.

A compact is all very well and I would advise one of those for backpacking around Africa for instance but it gives you no options at all for future expansion on the lens front and options for creativity are significantly more limited.

Whatever you go for keep in mind the number one rule for successful images - patience and more patience, let the image come to you rather than the other way round.

At least get a hold of one or two of these before committing, they're very well made and feel, to me at least, just right.

Good luck.


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## PaulBoy (Dec 2, 2007)

My previous "fixation" was with Digital Cameras and I bought a Nikon D50 then a D200 and loads of lenses blah blah blah - Now I have a D80 & 2 lenses and that covers everything from close ups of watches to long range shots of animals at the zoo or whatever - A compact digital camera should do most of that apart from the longer range stuff like the zoo so if that's important then the bridge camera with the zoom range up to 400mm will handle that too (I presume it can do fairly close stuff for watches?) - Its really a case of what you plan to use it for and as for makes imho stick with the top brands Fujis Nikons Canons Olympus and you wont go wrong - Like watches there's a huge used market where serious bargains can be had! If you want to check reviews of your options have a look here: www.steves-digicams.com

HTH ... Paul


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