First photos with Fuji Finepix S100

[JennyS]

These are a few of the first photos with my just-bought-on-Monday Finepix S100:







Its obviously going to be a steep learning curve after my Finepix F31, which gave good quality images (on a Manual + macro + exposure adjustment) for a point-and-shoot.
First impression though is that I'm less impressed than I'd hoped to be - more reading of the manual will help, but pulling images up to actual pixel size in Photoshop they seem very grainy, and not as sharp on the macro as the F31 was giving.........help, advice, suggestions and criticism welcomed!

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi JennyS,

Could you post any exif details for images so that I could check what shutter speed / f-number etc. have been used?

I am assuming that you will have set the camera's quality to 11m "F" to give you the full eleven megapixel fine setting? (Am assuming you are shooting JPEG rather than RAW).

The exposures seem to be pretty much spot on - no sign of burned out highlights or blackouts in the shadow areas.

All the images look slightly "soft" as though they would benefit from post camera sharpening, but that is probably due to resizing for WAB upoload. (I've never had to sharpen images from my S9600)

Could you possibly post one image at a larger size?

My usual routine for uploading to WAB with an image from the S9600 (original filesize usually around 4Mb) would be: -

Open the image in Paintshop Pro - select image resize - Then, in the image resize pop-up window - change the resolution to 300 - change pixel number to 1250 (for a landscape format pic) then save the image under a "save as" name. This usually results in an image of about 250Kb, which I would then upload to WAB.

Note, if you do this for a portrait format pic, you would need to set the horizontal pixels to something like 930-ish to get 1250 on the vertical. (I assume that the process would be similar if using Photoshop / Elements etc).

Hopefully we can get you on track to satisfaction, before you get disillusioned with the camera.

Regards
Mike

[JennyS]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the reply - unfortunately the softness isn't due to upload processing, the images are soft....I've given them a bit of Unsharp Mask in Photoshop, but it seems to be deteriorating the image quality even further ( background noise?)

Camera quality set to fine as soon as I got it, Manual for better colour quality, focus on S-AF, Spot metering, macro. Only info I can find is 1/125 F2.8 - where do I go to find more Exif data?

[Lancashire Lad]

Hi JennyS,

(Almost switched off for the night there but just logged in one last time).

To get the exif details right click on the original image and click properties - that should bring up the embedded exif details. You should get a full breakdown of exact focal length, shutter speed , f number etc. etc.

Have you tried super macro rather than macro at these sort of camera to image distances? From what I've heard reading about other fuji cameras, some seem to give the best results when super macro is selected (even though the distance is within the normal macro range). I did'nt do this with my 9600, but the S100 might possibly give best results by that method.

Also, are you certain that the lens zoom was fully rotated to the wide angle position when shooting in macro/super macro mode as per user manual instructions? - On my 9600 if the lens is even slightly zoomed, the autofocus struggles on occasion.

The only other thing that I can immediately suggest is that if the exposure was 125th at f2.8 it must have been quite overcast. I always try to shhot macro at f8 (the highest it will go on the 9600) but that would have related to 1/15th sec for your exposures.

It would be worth trying at f8 or whatever the largest f number is on the S100, and using a suitable tripod or support just to get some comparison shots.
(Obviously using a subject that won't be influenced by wind etc.).

Regards
Mike.

EDIT - I've just downloaded and saved your image to see if I could read the exif details, but these are all missing, presumably due to your method of resizing & software used etc.

[JennyS]

Hi Mike - downloaded Irfanview and got this lot for the image above:

[JennyS]

I tried super-macro too, but no improvement, and I made sure lens was fully wide-angle today after getting a lot of warnings yesterday with the slightest bit of zoom when macro was on.

Had a quick check of today's other 100+ images and its pretty much F2.8 for all with macro, and F5.6 for all taken without - will have to read (and then remember) more of the manual!

[Lancashire Lad]

Just had a look at the exif info and can't immediately see anything untoward.

I still suggest trying the super macro option, and highest available f number to see if that makes any noticable difference.

Must admit though, the larger image does look somewhat sharper that the smaller upload, but obviously only you can see the original & compare with what your other camera produced.

I am as certain as I can be though, that the S100 should be producing better quality images than the F31.

I'll have a good think about things, and see if I can come up with any useful suggestions.

Regards
Mike.

[Lancashire Lad]

My last post obviously crossed with yours.

Try aperture priority to force th f number to f8 (with suitable support) and see if the greater depth of field makes any noticable difference.

Regards
Mike.

[JennyS]

I am as certain as I can be though, that the S100 should be producing better quality images than the F31.

The F31 is reckoned as a Fuji classic with excellent image quality for a p-and-s (just before Fuji joined the mega-pixel race) - thats why I got it 6 months ago instead of the S5800 when I was having the will I / won't I get a bigger camera debate then......

Full pixel size the images from the S100 are disappointing too.
One thing that got me wondering from the Exif data is the compression rate - its given there as 6(JPG) - I'd never use anything other than 12 when saving a JPG as that wallops the quality down, or is in-camera compression different?

[JennyS]

Thanks - you've just answered the question I meant to ask about how to change the F number!