I hate to ask, but ... some advice please?

[ChristianG]

Originally Posted by David P

Never worry too much (in this context) about "yesterday's technology". Reviews of Fuji's later models suggest that they've not made their current models any better than the F30/F31 - they've just crammed in more pixels. Given that most pictures seem to get seen on screen anyway, and the F30/F31's 6MP is ample for good, sharp A4 prints, then I can't see the benefit! You're arguably better of putting a few bob towards a decent wideangle lens rather than buying the "latest and best" (when arguably it's not "better").

Amen to that:

Pixels

If I were in that market I would quite literally prefer the F30/31 to either the F40 or 50 for precisely that reason.

[Prometheus]

I took the wisdom of YD which seemed to approve of the fuji30/31 package, took it out and snapped,personally I was more than impressed with the cameras ability to ignore me and get on with what it's supposed to do.

[buddha]

i agree with the previous guys, youdo not need THE ULTIMATE.. i started with a fuji F11 and got some decent shots.

reading up on different techniques is also a help, and playing with your shots through photoshop.

i recently got a canon g9 powershot and am trying now to start again.

each camera has pros and cons, start with what you can afford easily, then if you don't like it or you take photos as well as a monkey does origami, you will not have wasted too much.

above all enjoy and don't be worried about asking friends or others at dive sites for their opinions.

[Bantam]

I remember Mr John Bantin , renowned diving kit reviewer, wetsuit analyst, world traveller, magazine peddler and underwater picture taker extraordinaire, ahem, making a very good point a while back;

" So, my advice is - do not take anything underwater in a housing you cannot afford to lose."

[David P]

Originally Posted by Bantam

I remember Mr John Bantin , renowned diving kit reviewer, wetsuit analyst, world traveller and underwater picture taker extraordinaire, ahem, making a very good point a while back;

" So, my advice is - do not take anything underwater in a housing you cannot afford to lose."

... and I seem to recall that he speaks from long experience of flooding cameras! (Another argument in favour of little simple ones - tends to be less to go wrong.)

[devilgas]

for creative stuff or where i need full manual control, i'll use my oly 5060, otherwsie it's the f30. initially bought the f30 for its video capabilities, then discovered it's a very good stills camera.
in comparison, the 5060 is slow to focus and painfully slow to record raw images. it does however have dual card formats so running out of memory is never an issue. its video mode is only 15 fps so is jerky on playback, however the control you have over it is complete so is very easy to get creative. there are some very useful myModes which allow you to quickly change the camera between a raft of user defined settings.

the f30/31 has restricted manual control, (but has more manual control than the f40!) and produces very good images at low iso settings (you need to use the manual modes to force the camera to use your chosen iso setting, otherwise it'll chop and change to suit). macro mode is superb and will allow the cam to focus to 4cm at the wide angle setting, 30cm at full zoom.
as with most cams, it'll work best with external flash. i use mine with a ys60 coupled to a digitial adaptor. focus on the f30 is relatively quick and accurate and it's rare that it fails to get a lock. shutter lag is also pleasingly low.
the fuji is now my weapon of choice unless i know i'll need the extra features afforded by the 5060

as for the f50....i steered away from that as my take on fuji cramming double the number of pixies into a sensor that is slightly smaller than that on the f30 will introduce more noise at all iso levels - light bleed between physical photosites. more pixies ain't necessarily best!

as for editting, consider lightroom. it's dead easy to adjust white balance, exposure etc and generally alleviates the need for photoshop. ime, lightroom is better suited to fixing photos than photoshop!

[David P]

I've just started a new thread with links to a bundle of F30 samples, both UK (almost all with natural light) and in Barbados - if anyone's interested :-)

See F30 samples