Its a great noobie camera - Ive got one and I know nothing about cameras but can take some cool shots.

Auto is ok for pointing and shooting like at parties and stuff but the photos youve mentioned with blurred backgrounds need to be manually focused. You can get some ace results with this camera. Dooms got pretty good with his too I seem to remember.

The Big T will know best though - he produced some incredible shots with this camera. Actually I could use the help too!!


* Oh btw the Raynox macro lens that you can get to clip on this via an adapter works superbly well.

I have little direct experiance of the S5600, my sister has one but I have not used it much. These are pretty standard settings for bridge and SLR cameras though


Settings:
Auto - Idiot mode, for when you want the camera to take care of everything and just be a big point and shoot. Handy if you want to hand the camera to a friend to take your picture, otherwise only use when you want snapshots.

P - Program, Camera selects aperture and shutter speed based on light level and an "optimum" program line. All other options are user selected (white ballance, ISO, etc) - Used when you want to be a bit creative but not very, on my SLR I very rarely use this.

S - Shutter Priority - You select shutter speed, camera matches it with an aperture value based on light level. Used for effects where you need close control of the shutter time. For example, you may have seen shots of waterfalls where the water looks misty and flowing. This can be done by selecting Shutter priority mode and selecting ~1/10th second shutter time. There is always a limit to what the camera can accomodate however, if you choose too fast a shutter speed the aperture wont be able to keep up and the shot will be underexposed, choose too slow a speed and the opposite will happen.

A - Aperture Priority - You select aperture, camera matches it with a shutter speed value based on light level. My favourite mode. You have total control of depth of field from shallow (as the shots you mentioned wanting to emulate, subject is in focus but everything else isnt) to massive.

M - Manual - You select everything, the camera will give some sort of readout telling you if you are under/over exposing and by how much. Used mainly for set up shots where you want maximum control and the time it takes doesnt matter. Some photography courses demand a camera which only has M mode, like the Pentax K1000 (vintage 1975), since using it forces you to understand what you are doing.

(a camera) - Video

(a moon) - Night Portrait mode - varies but generally will fire the flash to expose close subjects like people, then hold the shutter open long enough to expose darker background items. You need a tripod.

(Mountain) - Landscape mode - biases towards small apertures for large depth of field (everything is in focus from close up to far away) which is usually desirable when shooting landscapes. Often locks focus on or close to infinity, deppending on camera model.

(Persons Head) - Portrait mode - biases towards large apertures for shallow depth of field to isolate subject from background. Often used in portraits to make the background look out of focus and dreamy while keeping the person pin sharp.

These last 3 are called "scene modes" and once you get to know a bit about photography they become wasted dial space. They do nothing which you cant do with Aperture or Shutter priority. IMO their only real use is for you to watch what they do and compare it to the results to see how generic "sensible" settings effect the outcome.

(an eye shape, with a N in the middle) - Not sure, going to guess red eye reduction?

(a persons body with shaking round it) - Anti-Shake. Unfortunately the S5600 doesnt have proper anti-shake like Serious old Lumix or my K10D. Instead it boosts the ISO rating way up to allow faster shutter speeds and keep down camera shake. This results in nasty noise, I wouldnt use it unless theres no other way to get the shot.

Its also got a AF/MF button which gives: Focus mode switch

MF = Manual focus
C-AF = Continuous Auto Focus - Camera focuses continuously trying to track a moving subject. In theory good for flying birds, moving cars etc. In practice most low end cameras just dont have a fast enough AF system to make this useful. Play with it, see if it works on your subjects, but dont expect miracles.

S-AF = Single shot Auto Focus - Camera focuses on subject and locks so you can re frame and then shoot. Good for off centre subjects and generally the default mode.

Also, you can view the shot via the LCD screen, or through the view finder....which looking through the view finder, its a LCD screen anyway, so is there any point to this?

Very little, but the EVF (little LCD pretend viewfinder) is less influenced by prevailing lighting conditions so you can still see it in noon day sun, unlike the big LCD. It may (and I stress may, never played with this) also improve your battery life because youre running a smaller screen.

Can this camera do black and white, or grey images? I think they look good when people do them. Also, other photos ive seen which I like, is ones Eagle use to take (I know there will be more people whos ive seen, but his comes to mind), where he takes a picture of a phone for example, and the phone is really in focus and the background isnt really in focus etc. Or isnt anything remotely like that available with this cam?

I would always shoot in colour and convert to B&W in software on the computer later. This way you have far more control over the way in which the image is converted to black and white, and you can convert it 100 different ways and pick the one you like best if the mood so takes you. If you let the camera do it, you only get one result.


hope this helps,

Its easy enough to take the colour out using a software package, there were several alternatives for doing it in photoshop in a thread somewhere here for a start, but most packages have an option. It also allows you the option to put in filter effects and others like sepia, but you decide how much rather than getting a single forced result that might not be what you wanted. Its usually worth sharpening images a bit in software too.

RAW is a lossless image format, but its also usually a lot less processed by the cameras electronics than jpegs are, that means you choose what stays and what gets altered rather than the electronics doing it for you. Main other advantage is they are better if you want to do your own processing in that it doesnt keep losing detail every time you save. I would still convert them to tiff for ease of access though. A lot of cameras dont have a RAW option though an some others dont do it properly.

I tend to use program rather more than Mongoosem but its entirely because I dont want to bother with the settings when my camera can do it for me quite adequately most of the time. I do use the other functions as soon as I think its needed though.

Bit more on shutter priority, use this for speed things, like aircraft, cars and sports when you need to freeze the action. Perversely in the dim areas you might use this to keep the speed up a bit when not using flash, anything below 1/25th of a second is highly likely to suffer blur from movement.

If the camera is like an old film movie camera, then it is indeed video, if its got a flash on or star where the flash is then its more likely to be a flash setting.

if the cam supports it I use RAW+JPG, with cam in B&W mode and use the jpg as a guide to the exposure as I tend to expose the shot slightly differently if I am going to shoot B&W, it also helps work flow/cataloguing them once back on a computer as I dont have to open the raw to see what the shot is

I used to own the same one (well not the same one :-), before I got my D40.  Terrific entry level bridge camera.  There have been some instances where I recall it being better than the D40 (sunsets being one of them, much, much easier with the Fuji).   If you have a look on my Flickr site you can see some earlier examples www.flickr.com/photos/martinturner (in a non trying to plug my photos kind of way ;-)  

Manual focus - seriously; its just not in your interests to do this on this camera.  For me it was the trigger for wanting to go and get a DSLR.  You have to press one button down (cannot remember off top of head) and then hold down either the + or - button, and it takes absolutely ages!!!!!  Although, you also have to ask yourself whether you need to or not, you may feel you would not really use it?  

My only real tips for this camera, would be that if you want a photo where the subject is in focus and the background is blurry, is to stand far away from the subject and then zoom in and take the shot.  Doing it manually does not quite give as good a result for some reason regardless of settings.  

Other tip would be to buy a Raynox 250 which can be had from ebay for about £25.  Its a clip on macro lens which gives amazing results given what it is (think this was mentioned earlier).  

Well amazingly I never shot in RAW format on it.  Not sure how fast it would be if I had.   I swear by it on my DSLR, but then my D40 may be a bit faster.  If RAW works fast enough when taking your photos, I would wholly recommend it.  Although I am not 100% sure if it had RAW?  

Lastly, buy a circular polariser filter (screws on the end); this will allow you to darken your skies.  It never darkens them that much, but it does mean they darken and become gradianted, so when you do come to process them you can push the saturation or burn them a little.

Processing - well I am sure if you posted an image here, someone would help you with the processing (well I would always help).

 8-)

Thanks a lot for the help guys It doesnt seem to have a RAW mode unfortunately! I will stay away from manual focus then I think if it isnt too good.

What does a macro lens do? I can change the ISO setting...what is this? When taking a photo, on the left hand side, there are two sets of numbers...one seems to be the amount of light, as if you put your hand in front of the lens, it goes real low, and pointing it at the sun raises this number a lot. Next to that is a F and numbers which you can manually change, like 3.2, 3.6, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.4, 7.1, 8 etc......what is this?

So to start, am I right in thinking I should use:
C-AF = Continuous Auto Focus, Landscape Mode for sunsets, sea pics etc, and Portrait Mode for taking a picture of a stationary car/animal/person/can of lager/shoe etc?

Also, egg....I found that link, but it doesnt work for me

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Any more are welcome

Thanks a lot for the help guys It doesnt seem to have a RAW mode unfortunately!

Look again, this one says the S5600/S5200 (same camera) has got a raw mode! several others do too, although it may not be available in every setting. On the Canon D40 you have two sets of exposure options, you cant do raw in the basic ones but you can in the creative.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0507/05072802fuji_s5200zs5600z.asp

Next to that is a F and numbers which you can manually change, like 3.2, 3.6, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.4, 7.1, 8 etc......what is this?

F numbers relate to the iris of the camera, bigger hole in the middle = more light. Basics is the larger the number the less light that is actually getting in. At the same time the range that the camera is focussed over increases with larger numbers. In this case they are in 1/3rd stops (iirc) f2.8, f4, f5.6, f8, are full stops which denote half of the light reaching the sensor. If you didnt adjust this, or let the camera do it for you, then the pictures would either be too dark or light.



The pictures involve simply getting into the right place at the right time and pressing the button. The only way to learn is experience, go out and take lots of pictures. Most you wont be happy with, but thats part of learning. Even the duds are useful though, before you bin them ask yourself why you think its a dud, and learn from it.